Emerging Talent: Rethinking Higher Education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cryptocurrency and 5G/6G will reshape our education system by 2030. It is essential that governments and the private sector collaborate to make sure that the economic transition to these technologies doesn’t exacerbate existing socioeconomic divides in the United States. In order to prevent a widening class divide, the education sector will need to evolve to match the skills required for newly emerging jobs – including digital literacy and soft skills – and must ensure that students across the socioeconomic spectrum receive a competitive education in these high-demand skills. Specifically, individuals will need software development and data science skills to compete for the best jobs in the United States, according to Glassdoor.

The outflow of faculty from universities with top-tier computer science programs to high-paying tech giants has ironically constricted the very talent pipelines that those same companies rely on. Furthermore, even after recruiting from top-tier private universities, companies working in emerging technologies industries still struggle to fill positions for experts in artificial intelligence (statistics and machine learning). A 2017 report from Tencent, the Chinese artificial intelligence giant, found that there were only about 300,000 AI professionals worldwide, but millions of jobs remained unfilled.

These issues certainly apply to Pittsburgh, a burgeoning hub of artificial intelligence startups and tech giants. Many of Pittsburgh’s homegrown AI startups such as Duolingo, Astrobotic, and Aurora Innovation are experiencing the same talent shortages as the city’s resident tech giants of Uber, Google, and Facebook. This dynamic presents an unparalleled opportunity to shape Pittsburgh’s workforce of the future with socioeconomic equality in mind.

Read the full report here.