Research says 370mn people should change present skills by 2030 to stay relevant

By Harshana Sellahewa

The findings of a recent research carried out by a global professional body anticipate that 65 percent of today’s primary school children will engage in jobs that do not exist today and, 370 million people will need to change their present skills by 2030.

Over the past few decades, digitalisation and innovation have dramatically transformed the way we live and work and has paved the way for business to be carried out anywhere at any time.
As revealed by the Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AAT) President M. Jazri Magdon Ismail, the exponential pace of businesses today with factors such as changing customer expectations, speed of innovation, channel disruption and legal and regulatory landscape changing rapidly, demand professionals to transform into in-house thought leaders and only become advocates for change.

“Just to touch on the world economic outlook, see how quickly things have changed. Turbulence, volatility and crisis have dominated the economic landscape. The fall from Brexit 
is uncertain. 

Trade war between China and US has escalated and geopolitical tension remains high,” Ismail said at a recent seminar titled ‘Disruptive Technologies at the Heart of Business Process Elimination’.

These changes have been so disruptive and simply cannot be ignored. Hence, professionals must embrace these changing business dynamics in order to remain competitive and thrive in today’s competitive business landscape.

“Real leaders initiate and guide change. This requires mobilising their teams to make the business ready for change and then implement action,” he said.

“You need to be relevant, you need to accept change, and change will be constant. The key to any successful business in the future is being able to overcome with new ideas to keep operations, products and services fresh,” Ismail stressed.