Future working skills in Finland
Ahtiainen, Karen (2020)
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005046931
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005046931
Tiivistelmä
In a digital economy, more job roles are being automated and as a result, human job roles are changing in the future working environment. Having the right core job skills itself is insufficient to do the job efficiently and individuals need to have the right soft skills to complement the core job skills. The higher education institutions, such as TAMK, play an important role in preparing the students with the proper skills for future work life.
This research aims to find out the type of core job skills and soft skills needed in the future working environment in Finland. Literature reviews and empirical studies were conducted using the e-Delphi method. Data were collected from 46 companies in the first-round and 12 companies in the second-round inquiry. Inductive approach was used with the mixed method of quantitative and qualitative to analyse the results. The findings were then divided into common themes based on Accenture’s four defining job categories for the core job skills and ‘New Skills Now’ taxonomy for the soft skills as the conceptual framework.
The data revealed that core job skills in the ‘Knowledge and Task-Based’ job category were the most needed for the future with ‘Apply We’Q’ soft skills cat-egory as the most important type of soft skills needed to do these kind of jobs efficiently. In terms of skills for the general working environment, skills in the ‘Apply We’Q’ skills category are the most important irregardless of job roles. This skill category consists of skills which an individual will need to work effec-tively with others, face-to-face or virtually, by interacting and building a working relationship with the other person. The data also revealed that soft skills such as negotiation, emotional intelligence and problem-solving are currently insuffi-cient in the work life environment in Finland.
While the results did not reach a consensus agreement on the level of needs, it still provided compelling results which identified the type of core job skills and soft skills that are relevant for the future working life environment in Finland.
This research aims to find out the type of core job skills and soft skills needed in the future working environment in Finland. Literature reviews and empirical studies were conducted using the e-Delphi method. Data were collected from 46 companies in the first-round and 12 companies in the second-round inquiry. Inductive approach was used with the mixed method of quantitative and qualitative to analyse the results. The findings were then divided into common themes based on Accenture’s four defining job categories for the core job skills and ‘New Skills Now’ taxonomy for the soft skills as the conceptual framework.
The data revealed that core job skills in the ‘Knowledge and Task-Based’ job category were the most needed for the future with ‘Apply We’Q’ soft skills cat-egory as the most important type of soft skills needed to do these kind of jobs efficiently. In terms of skills for the general working environment, skills in the ‘Apply We’Q’ skills category are the most important irregardless of job roles. This skill category consists of skills which an individual will need to work effec-tively with others, face-to-face or virtually, by interacting and building a working relationship with the other person. The data also revealed that soft skills such as negotiation, emotional intelligence and problem-solving are currently insuffi-cient in the work life environment in Finland.
While the results did not reach a consensus agreement on the level of needs, it still provided compelling results which identified the type of core job skills and soft skills that are relevant for the future working life environment in Finland.