UNDERSTANDING THE

UNIT 1 LESSON 1 INDUSTRY 4.0 LABOR MARKET

Lesson 1
Introduction to the New Metrics in the Industry 4.0 Labor Market
At the end of the lesson, you shall have:
• discussed the nature and processes of the Industry 4.0 labor market;
• identified and described new metrics or skills needed in the Industry 4.0 labor market; and
• demonstrated ability to assess yourself in tailoring these new metrics to finding job placements.

W ithhasthea rapid changes in contemporary society brought about by technology, the changing nature of work
‘disruptive impact on workers, labor markets and organizations’ (Ernst & Young, 2018). This
paradigm shift informs the necessity of workers and organizations to adapt. The future-ready workforce
needs to be exposed in reimagining and rethinking the importance of skills for jobs of the future with this
changing dynamics of the Industry 4.0 labor market.

New Metrics: Skills as the New Currency

As argued by Jagannathana, Rab & Macleanc (2019), future-ready workforce needs to secure the
following necessary and relevant skills, to wit: basic digital skills and literacy; learnability skills; skills
needed for greening economies; skills required for engaging in Industry 4.0 occupations; skills for next-
generation infrastructure and services; and skills for technology-infused manufacturing sectors. For our
purpose, their study stresses the market value of broad-based soft skills which helps improving workplace
effectiveness. These skills, which will be discussed in full-swing in the following lesson, include teamwork,
problem-solving, creativity, and design-thinking. The aforementioned skills are very important and argued
as having far-reaching impact on the future trajectories of work.

In light of the waves of change occurring in global labor markets being driven by the pervasive impact of
disruptive technologies on economies and societies, there is a need to reconsider unique challenges and
new opportunities that this change has come to offer. With the initial thought that new technologies will
somehow displace people in the workplace, there is a forward-thinking view that this will be accompanied
by gains in giving value and augmenting human capabilities and soft skills such as creativity, effort and
initiative, critical thinking and design thinking and negotiation skills which are all contributory to the diverse
contexts of problem-solving in the workplace.

Putting premium on productivity, creation of new jobs is an imperative highlighting ‘the importance of
investing in a skilled workforce and ensuring that workers are equipped with specialized skills required for
working with new technologies’ (p.2). The United Nations International Labor Organization’s Global
Commission on the Future of Work (as cited by Jagannathana, Rab & Macleanc; 2019) states that
‘Today’s skills will not match the jobs of tomorrow and newly acquired skills may quickly become obsolete.
The greening of our economies will create millions of jobs as we adopt sustainable practices and clean
technologies but other jobs will disappear as countries scale back their carbon- and resource-intensive
industries’ (p.2). This paves way to ILO’s following important recommendations: (1) increasing investment
in people’s capabilities; (2) increasing investment in the institutions of work; and (3) increasing investment
in decent and sustainable work. In short, there is a necessity to invest in human capital skills development.

The Relationship between English Language Proficiency and Employability

According to Cabigon (2015), the Philippines is regarded as one of the largest English-speaking states in
the world with majority of its population having fluency, to some extent, in the English language. This
English language proficiency has become one of the country’s drivers to become one of the emerging
economies in Southeast Asia.

English has become an important part in the Philippine higher education curriculum. Being one of the
official languages in the country, it becomes an important tool for social mobility, particularly in finding job
placements in the local and global labor market. English is taught as a means of communication in the
early part of tertiary studies in most of the state and private higher education institutions in the country.
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Behind from its Asian neighbors, the British Council reported that the Philippines needs to step up its
efforts in developing English language proficiency as a vital skill in the workforce through enhancing and
sharing best practices of teaching and learning the language. Being an English-speaking nation, the
Philippines sets its distinct advantage in the ASEAN economic integration. To strengthen its potential, the
country needs to further build on the English skills among its young workforce.

This trajectory is mainly informed by the dialectical relationship between English language proficiency and
employability, supported by contentions in various literatures that ‘communication skills are highly valued
as a graduate attribute for employability’ (Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of
Melbourne; 2014 (p.5). With focus on aspects of oral and written communication skills supported with
relevant tasks and activities anchored from CSU core values from entry to exit, students are expected to
enhance their English language skills needed for employability after graduation.

There are a number of skills relevant to graduate employability which will be discussed in details in the
following lesson, but this section focuses only on English language proficiency as a value-added skill. In
light of considering English language proficiency as a market value, there is a need to understand how
this relates or is linked, in part or in whole, to the concept of employability.

Employability, as defined and described by Knight & York (2004; cited in Centre for the Study of Higher
Education’s Report, 2014), is:
A set of achievements - skills, understandings and personal attributes - that
make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their
chosen occupations, which benefits themselves, the workforce, the community
and the economy (p. 4).

Using this broad definition of employability, Knight and York developed the ‘USEM Model’ of the
components comprising employability. The model emphasizes the interrelated nature of skills and
attributes that together constitute a graduate’s employability:
Understanding (of disciplinary subject matter and how organizations work);
Skillful practices (academic, employment, and life in general);
Efficacy beliefs (reflects the learner’s notion of self, their self-belief, and the
possibility for self-improvement and development);
Metacognition (complements efficacy, embraces self-awareness, how to learn and
reflection. It encompasses knowledge of strategies for learning, thinking and problem
solving, and supports and promotes continued learning/lifelong learning).
(Knight & Yorke, 2004, p 37).

Cole and Tibby (2013) assert that a successful definition of what employability is must also include what
it is not. They provide the following broad definition:

Employability - what it is
• It is a lifelong process.
• It applies to all students whatever their situation, course or mode of study.
• It is complex and involves a number of areas that interlink.
• It is about supporting students to develop a range of knowledge, skills, behaviors, attributes and
attitudes which will enable them to be successful not just in employment but in life.
• It is an institution-wide responsibility.
• It is about making the components of employability explicit to students to support their lifelong
learning.

Employability - what it is not

• It is not about replacing academic rigor and standards.
• It is not necessarily about adding additional modules into the curriculum.
• It is not just about preparing students for employment.
• It is not the sole responsibility of the careers department.
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• It is not something that can be quantified by any single measure (Cole and Tibby 2013: 5-6).

The attributes set out by Knight and York above are all attributes of the learner. However, as Pegg,
Waldock, Hendy-Isaac & Lawton (2012) point out, the ability of the learner to make use of these attributes
is mediated by their social circumstances. In particular, they refer to: the status of the institution from
which an individual has graduated, labor-market factors affecting the value of the subjects an individual
has studied; ethnicity, and socio-economic background (Pegg et al., citing: Brown and Hesketh 2004;
Panel on Fair Access to the Professions 2009; Purcell and Elias 2004; AGCAS/HECSU 2010; Blasko et
al. 2002; and Riddell et al. 2010). Pegg et al. conclude that:

The issue for higher education is what it should do to enhance the employment
potential for the full spectrum of its graduates, while acknowledging that economic
forces, of various kinds, will influence the graduates’ success. However, continuing
to make assumptions that students can all be treated in the same way, and have equal
confidence in dealing with the labor market, runs the risk of perpetuating
disadvantage as the relatively advantaged are able to maintain their position.
(Pegg et al. 2012: 8).

Adaptability and Flexibility in the VUCA Labor Market Landscape

What is VUCA? It was first coined at the graduate school for future generals in Army War College
(Johansen and Euchner, 2013; as cited by Nandram and Bindlish, 2017). Introduced thereafter in the
entrepreneurship context by the New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, since then, it has become
one of the buzzwords in social sciences.

Volatility : Changes happen in an exponential speed;

Uncertainty : Giving solutions to any problem has become ambivalent—i.e. once appropriate
solution before might not anymore applicable today;
Complexity : As Marshall McLuhan points out ‘The world has become a global village’ influenced
by these technological advances, yet exploring its granularity has become very
complex;
Ambiguity : Giving way to pluralistic views of every social reality, where people from different
social positioning bring their own analyses to the table. There is hardly one way for
explaining any social phenomenon.

Along the backdrop of some philosophies relatively saying that ‘life is both a journey and a struggle’
(Nandram and Bindlish, 2017;p.vii), the VUCA world is not a threat but an opportunity for self-
development. Going with a more optimistic and forward-thinking view, living mindfully in this VUCA world
is a necessity. With these rapid changes in our social realities caused by this interdiscursive dynamics of,
as mentioned by Lawrence (2013; cited by Nandram and Bindlish, 2017), digitization, connectivity, trade
liberalization, global competition, innovation, technological breakthroughs, mobility of people,
globalization, and so forth, our role as job seekers, then, who possessed this workforce readiness is ‘to
be fluid, flexible and adaptive’ with these changing dynamics.

This is the very reason that adaptability or flexibility is a very important skill in this VUCA labor market
landscape. Hence, the rhetorical question of ‘How to cope with Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and
Ambiguity in any organization or workplace?’ makes sense by approaching and managing it through
integrative self-management. After all, improving one’s human capabilities to achieve such decent and
sustainable work is a personal promise, responsibility, and journey (or struggle). The role of other
stakeholders such as government agencies, job providers, academe, family, and other social institutions
is to provide us multi-layered opportunities enabling us to improve ourselves, particularly in the world of
work. An important contention to consider here is that this journey is not easy, linear nor achievable
overnight, but a lifelong process. That is, self-assessment of our individual strengths and weaknesses
towards becoming competent, service-oriented, morally-upright, and socially-responsible human capital
informs how we design and create our own personal brand for career readiness and success. As a starting
point since skills are the new metrics of Industry 4.0 labor market, we need to optimize our prominent
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skillset and enhance further our least prominent skillset through immersing ourselves in social practices
where we could optimally improve our human capabilities.

On that note, being ‘workforce-ready and job enabling English proficient’ along with the skills of
adaptability and flexibility in the micro helps addressing macro-concerns of unemployment,
underemployment, and unequal opportunities in the Industry 4.0 world of work.

REFERENCES

Arkoudis et al. (2014). English language proficiency and employability framework: For Australian higher
education institutions. Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne

Cabigon, M. (2015). State of English in the Philippines: Should we be concerned? Retrieved from
https://www.britishcouncil.ph/teach/state-english-philippines-should-we-be-concerned-2
on January 21, 2019

Ernst & Young, Australia (2018). Will you wait for the future to happen? Or take a hand in shaping it?
The future of work. Ernst & Young Global Limited.

Global Business Coalition for Education (n.d.). Preparing tomorrow's workforce for the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. For business: A framework for action.

Jagannathan, Rab & Maclean (2019). Dominant recent trends impacting on jobs and labor markets –
An Overview, International Journal of Training Research, 17:sup1, 1-11,
DOI:10.1080/14480220.2019.1641292 Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1080/14480220.2019.1641292 on January 19, 2020

Nandram, S. & Bindlish, P. (2017). Managing VUCA through integrative self-management: How to cope
with volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in organizational behavior. Springer
International Publishing AG 2017

Wijewardene, Yong & Chinna (2014). English for Employability – the need of the hour for Sri Lankan
graduates. British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences ISSN: 2046-9578, Vol.17 No.I (2014).
BritishJournal Publishing, Inc. 2014 http://www.bjournal.co.uk/BJASS.aspx

©2020 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities

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