Page 13 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

2.4 Technological Changes
Technological advances have had the greatest impact upon economies and employment with the development of the digital age. The continued advancements in both fixed and mobile communications has facilitated a significant increase in global trade.
‘Companies, entrepreneurs and individuals have more opportunities to participate. Governments and multinational companies were once the only actors involved in cross-border exchanges, but today digital technologies enable even the smallest company or individual entrepreneur to be a “micronational” that sells and sources products, services and ideas across borders.’11
The UK Government Office for Science predicts that ‘the Internet is set to enter a second transformative phase, with a web of data adding structure, meaning and re-usability to online data and documents.’12 This also supports the trends towards the usage of ‘Big Data’ for analytics as well as cloud computing on a commercial scale.
The potential for 3D printing and other advanced manufacturing technologies could significantly alter the way that products are manufactured globally. This could cause a shift from a ‘just in time’ logistics approach to a location based ‘just in time’ manufacturing approach.
As with the majority of the priority sectors in the region, research and development within Higher Education is driving the development of technology that has the potential to capture investment from across the globe.
‘Although workers in some industries may be displaced by technology, this does not mean that businesses will be at risk of failing. Indeed, for many businesses the increased opportunity to automate their processes and functions will lead to improved productivity, profitability and competitiveness.13
‘The UK’s continued economic and technological success will rest on the ability of political, business, education and public sector leaders to anticipate correctly the future skills requirements and to provide the right education and training for developing them.’14
‘While technology is on the whole likely to create more (and generally) better paid jobs than it destroys, some industries are likely to lose more jobs to machines than the new technologies will create.’15
Further technological advancements including the availability of superfast fibre connections and cloud based computing will facilitate a greater level of remote working. This will be beneficial for employees as they will be able to have greater control of their work life balance, however, it poses significant challenges for businesses to adapt systems and processes to facilitate remote working and to move away from location based approaches.’
11 http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/global-flows-in-a-digital-age 12 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technology-and-innovation-futures-uk-growth-opportunities-for-the-2020s 13 http://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/transformers.html
14 http://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/transformers.html
15 http://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/technology-media-and telecommunications/articles/transformers.html
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Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Policy Context