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Upskilling is the
future—but it must work for everyone
Automation and job replacement will be one
of the most significant challenges for the global economy of the coming
decades. A 2017 Mckinsey report established that 375 million workers will need
to switch occupational categories by 2030. The World Economic Forum suggests
that by 2022, automation will replace 75 million jobs globally—but create 133
million new ones.
Research into the likelihood that a job
will be impacted by digitization has largely focused on the "automatability"
of the role and the following economic regional and political effects of this.
What this research doesn't take into account is something more important for
the millions of taxi drivers and retail (零售)
workers across the globe: their likelihood of being able to change to another
job that isn't automatable. Recent research suggests that the answer to this
may be that the skills that enable workers to move up the ladder to more
complex roles within their current areas might be less important than broader
skills that will enable workers to change across divisions.
In July, Amazon announced that it would
spend $700 million retraining around 30% of its 300,000 US workforce. While
praiseworthy, it will be interesting to see the outcome. In the UK, the National
Retraining Scheme (方案) has largely been led
by employers, meaning that those on zero-hours contracts and part-time
workers—often low-skilled—will miss out. Governance will be a crucial element
of ensuring that such schemes focus on individuals and life-long learning,
rather than upskilling workers into roles that will soon also face automation.
According to the Mckinsey report, "growing
awareness of the scale of the task ahead has yet to translate into action.
Public spending on labour-force training and support has fallen for years in
most member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and
Development," which impacts more than just the low-skilled and poorly
compensated.
The global impact of automation is also put
into relief by research demonstrating that, between 1988 and 2015, income
inequality increased throughout the world. Billions of people do not have the
essentials of life as defined by the UN Sustainable Development goals.
Alongside climate change, automation is
arguably tech's biggest challenge. As with globalization, governments and
employers—and us workers—ignore its potential consequences at risk to
ourselves.
(1)
It can be known from Paragraph 2 that .
A . recent research has found ways to face automation
B . broad skills are of great significance in changing jobs
C . regional economy can affect the automatability of a job
D . it is even harder for workers to move up the social ladder
(2)
What is the author's attitude towards retraining programs?
A . Supportive.
B . Critical.
C . Skeptical.
D . Sympathetic.
(3)
According to the author, what is one consequence of automation?
A . Less spending on training.
B . A slowdown of globalization.
C . Social unrest and instability.
D . An increase in income inequality.
(4)
The passage is written to .
A . argue the urgency of creating new jobs
B . compare globalization with automation
C . analyze the automatability of certain jobs
D . stress the importance of upskilling workers
答案: B
C
D
D