FUTURE SKILLS AND INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING
History
From the 1960s onwards, the nature and structure of employment has changed significantly in developed countries, with an overall decline in, first, the primary sector (agriculture etc), and, then, the secondary sector (manufacturing), and growth in the tertiary sector (services). The nature and structure of employment within these sectors has also changed - for example, following the postwar ‘second agricultural revoluti on’ and increased production of high-value manufactured goods. The number of managerial jobs has risen, while the number of medium and low skilled white collar jobs in the clerical and service occupations has remained more stable 1 .
Globalisation and scientific/ technological progress have been principal drivers of this accelerated change. We now live in a hyper-connected world - in trade, supply chains, finance, information, knowledge exchange, skills etc. While generating widespread benefits, this hyper-connectivity has also brought greater complexity across the economic system, sectors, business and employment, and, indeed, economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities, such as loss of competitiveness.
These fundamental changes have altered the demand for skills with “greater demand for non-routine cognitive and interpersonal skills and a decline in the demand for routine cognitive and craft skills, physical labour and repetitive physical tasks” 2 .
Economics
The global economy continues to be transformed. With hyper-connectivity inherent within the global economy and the pressures on natural resources forecast to peak over the next 20 years, the challenges for all will become ever-more complex.
Emerging markets are projected to continue to grow at 2 – 5 times the rate of the developed OECD economies. The combined GDP of the seven leading emerging economies (E7) is forecast to overtake that of the G7 in the next 5 years (2013
–
2018) and the gap is then projected to grow at an increasing rate to 2050 and beyond. By 2050 emerging economies will account for 80% of global economic activity. For developed economies, their businesses and people, this will open up some large economic opportunities, but also heightened risks of disruptive changes.
The changes in the nature and structure of employment are forecast to continue. In general, employment will shift towards the tertiary sector and employment among low-skilled workers will decline, while employment among highly-skilled workers will grow. The boundaries between manufacturing and services sectors will increasingly blur, for instance with a growing share of service occupations in the manufacturing sector. Greener technologies and work practices will probably diffuse across the economy. The impact of globalisation (e.g. outsourcing and offshoring) will not only affect manufacturing or unskilled employment, but also service sector and skilled employment. At the level of national economies, this will produce winners and losers.
1 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)
2 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)

The London School of Economics Growth Commission considered what institutions and policies are needed to sustain UK economic growth in the dynamic world economy of the 21 st century. It highlighted longstanding structural weaknesses in the economy due to years of inadequate investment in three areas: skills, infrastructure and innovation. If the UK could raise educational standards to those of leaders such as Finland, it could add a value of more than £8trn to GDP over the lifetime of a child born today, equivalent to one percentage point on annual growth 3 . Improving school quality is, therefore, a growth issue with the double dividend that many of the gains from improving human capital would accrue to the less well-off, reducing inequality 4 .
This is especially critical as “skills have become the global currency of the 21 st century” – the key to translating innovation into economic growth and employment and to maintaining and enhancing economic competitiveness in a knowledge-based
‘global race’. Emerging economies have substantial long-term investment plans for education and skills. For developed economies with ageing demographics, such as
Scotland, the need to ensure that their human capital can keep pace with what are likely to be rapidly evolving skills demands of the labour market is particularly acute 5 .
The National Strategic Skills Audit, which was published by the UK Commission for
Employment and Skills in 2010, identified seven key drivers of change 6 :
Regulation and multi level governance The changing balance of global power between nations, and across levels of government. Attempts to develop increasingly ‘co-operative’ international solutions to potential economic and political conflict as the interdependency of nations continues to increase in a
Demography global economy. [Their political acceptability is not discussed in depth]
The ageing population and workforce will impact on both the demand for, and supply of, skills. Increasing life expectancy and the increasing length of working lives will be important, as will the decline in the numbers of young adults. The continuing role of migration from within, and from without the EU, will also continue to be significant. Difficult labour market conditions, if they persist, may lead to pressure to preserve job opportunities for the domestic workforce. The high
‘replacement rates’ required for many jobs as the workforce retires are important, as is the potentially substantial growth in the
3 CBI, First steps: A new approach for our schools (2012)
4 LSE Growth Commission, Investing for Prosperity: Skills, Infrastructure and Innovation (2012)
5 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)
6 UKCES, National Strategic Skills Audit for England: Skills for Jobs: Today and Tomorrow (2010)

Environment
Economics and globalisation
Technology volume of care and leisure needs required/demanded by the elderly.
The impact of climate change may be felt in the short term though more unpredictable and extreme weather conditions, which may impact on food supply and water availability. Pressure on natural resources, including an increased demand for energy, and, in particular, an increase demand for sustainable sources, may become more important as may demands to tackle environmental degradation and pollution.
Securing a continuing edge in the pursuit of competitive advantage will be critical.
The search for differentiation, and for products and services which meet changing consumer needs will continue.
Value chains are likely to become increasingly global in nature and increasing national specialisation is likely in production and trade, with a continuing or increasing focus on skills in high wage
(and other) economies as a source of competitive advantage, as countries/ companies seek to move up the value chain into higher quality goods/ services.
The challenge of emerging economies and from major trading partners within and without the EU, will continue. A large proportion of jobs will, however, remain, particularly in the service sector, where goods/services are less tradeable.
Information and communication technologies are likely to continue to collapse space and time and to have an increasing impact on employer choices as to the location of work, which will enable further increases in the geographical specialisation of production, which will also be increasingly ‘skill biased.’ Technological changes in a range of other areas may have significant impacts. There may well also be increasing demand for creativity and entrepreneurship, and the need for a

range of generic skills linked to these.
Values and identities There is likely to be a continuing, and perhaps increasing, impact of globalisation. This may lead to greater cultural plurality and complexity. Shifting values on ‘environmental consciousness’ will shape product choices. Whether individual and personal, rather than collective values remain in the ascendency, will be an influence on attitudes to work and skill acquisition.
Consumer demand As consumers become more sophisticated and as their disposable incomes rise, they are moving towards more high value added, higher quality, more personalised goods/services. The income elasticity of demand, changing tastes and preferences, the shaping of consumer wants by large global players, all are likely to generate more
‘differentiated’ patterns of consumption with low income communities and consumers ‘relegated’ to more standard, low value added goods/services.
Fragmentation, segmentation and diversity may well become increasing features of markets, as individualisation of lifestyle demands increases choice and the development of ‘niche’ products/services. Moreover, an increasing number of services have a strong ‘relational’ content where customer care, personal attention and face-to-face interaction are important to success. As the global economy grows, integrates and specialises, opportunities will develop in other parts of the world.
For Scotland, long-term economic prosperity will increasingly depend on the critical importance of industrial strategy identifying and exploiting its comparative advantages in stable areas of global growth, improving knowledge exchange between academia and industry (including SMEs) and significantly strengthening its relatively poor success at the development end of research and development.
The need to respond to the skills demands of growth sectors in areas of comparative advantage can motivate countries to try to predict specific skills needs. However, the
OECD cautions that, while projections of the demand for skills provide important

insights, it is difficult to make detailed projections at the occupational/ industrial level.
The results of scenario-based assessments across sectors often prove quite similar 7 .
The OECD highlights Finland’s
Oivallus
(“Insight”) Project
on the future competence needs of businesses, with the underlying premise that working life in 2020 will be even more networked. Oivallus found that competence needs are changing because the ways of working are changing, as jobs are becoming less and less routine and fewer jobs can be done “by the book”. The future working life resembles filmmaking: work is increasingly done on a project basis in collaboration with various contributors. There is also a tendency for tasks to become more variable. The ability to apply network skills is the foundation of future work, and network skills find their application in the ability to find, use and disseminate knowledge. A learning network can identify new opportunities and find solutions to problems, where the key to success is the ability of people with different competencies to work together. Working as a network, learning from one another and building on existing ideas are skills that require practice and that should be developed from early on throughout education.
Businesses identified the following characteristics in response to the CBI 8 :
Characteristics, values and habits that last a lifetime
Pupils will, for example: The system should encourage young people to be
This means helping to instil the following attributes
Grit, resilience, tenacity
• Finish tasks started and understand the value of work
• Learn to take positives
Determined Self-control
Curiosity from failure experienced
• Work independently and be solutions focused
• Pay attention and resist distractions
• Remember and follow directions
• Get to work right away rather than procrastinating
• Remain calm even when criticised
• Allow others to speak without interruption
• Be eager to explore new things
• Ask and answer questions to deepen understanding
7 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)
8 CBI, First steps: A new approach for our schools (2012)

Optimistic
Emotionally intelligent
Enthusiasm and zest
Gratitude
• Actively participate
• Show enthusiasm
• Invigorate others
• Recognise and show appreciation for others
• Recognise and show appreciation for their own opportunities
Confidence and ambition • Be willing to try new
Creativity experiences and meet new people
• Pursue dreams and goals
• Identify and develop new
Humility
Respect manners
Sensitivity concerns and to good global ideas
• Find solutions during conflicts with others
• Demonstrate respect for feelings of others
• Know when and how to include others
• Be polite to adults and peers
• Be aware of pressing global issues, and contribute to leading society internationally
The OECD proposes the following 9 :
Knowledge - relevance, real-world experience, rethink the significance and applicability of what is taught and strike a far better balance between the conceptual and the practical e.g. should engineering become a standard part of the curriculum?
Skills - higher-order skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration are essential for absorbing knowledge as well as for work performance, need for expertise in combining knowledge and skills in a coherent ensemble.
“Character” (behaviours, attitudes, values) to face an increasingly complex world: it is important to teach character traits, such as performance-related traits (adaptability, persistence, resilience) and moral-related traits (integrity, justice, empathy, ethics).
Meta-Layer – Essential for activating transference, building expertise, fostering creativity via analogies, establishing lifelong learning habits, and so on.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
Demand for STEM skills is high. Two thirds of businesses which responded to the latest Skills Pulse Survey from SCDI and Skills Development Scotland felt the need to have a greater focus on STEM subjects across the education and training system.
9 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)

In relation to the development areas needed to make more staff more proficient, 45% emphasised leadership, 43% planning and organising, 42% team working and 37% strategic management. Development of technical and practical skills was needed according to 38% of employers with another 35% focussed on customer service development needs and 30% advanced IT and software skills. Improvement in written communication (23%) and oral communication (18%) were also reported 10 .
Just as job exist today which were unknown 10 years ago – offshore wind engineer, app designer, green deal assessor, social media manager, crowd funder, digital fabricator, data scientist
– new jobs will emerge which we cannot predict today.
Not all STEM jobs require a STEM degree and not everyone with a STEM degree works in STEM careers 11 . Ensuring that everyone has a solid grounding in STEMrelated skills would be beneficial for the economy generally, while ensuring that those who specialise in STEM have a good grounding in a range of subjects, think broadly and read and write clearly, would best meet the needs of STEM businesses.
The National Strategic Skills Audit found that high, intermediate and generic skills and jobs matter to future economic growth. Many growth sectors are STEM-based and projected a high demand for high-level STEM skills, but there will also be a highdemand for more generic skills within these sectors and for STEM-related skills within other growth sectors. For example, the low carbon energy sector will have a need for project management, management and leadership, and technology transfer skills. In advanced manufacturing, innovations in technology which characterise the sector are created from cross-disciplinary fertilisation. This gives rise to the need for individuals with an understanding of multiple scientific disciplines, and the different target markets and supply chains that the innovations can supply. Management and leadership, new product development and commercialisation skills are important and will become more so as the sector develops. The ability to identify and apply developments in technology is likely to be key in achieving business process improvement. In the life sciences and pharmaceuticals sector, STEM disciplines will continue to be vital, but there will be demand for skills at higher levels, and more interdisciplinary skills. Generic skills required include management and leadership, scientific and health regulation, negotiation, procurement and customer handling.
Both the technology and content components of the digital economy will need increasingly high levels of skills and greater technical capability, and both will require business, creative and interpersonal skills, with key gaps including the ability to produce multi-platform content and the monetisation of content. In the creative sector, there is at present a mismatch between the skills supply and those which the sector needs, with future demand forecast to include multi-skilling, multi-platform skills, management, leadership, business and entrepreneurial skills, intellectual property and the monetisation of content, archiving and sales and marketing.
10 http://www.scdi.org.uk/sr/Docs/Skills_Pulse_Survey(SCDI_TERU)Summer2013.pdf
11 http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf12328/content.cfm?pub_id=4169&id=2 and http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/stem-complete.pdf

In professional services, generic skills in management and leadership, industry and product knowledge, IT skills, literacy and numeracy skills and complex mathematic and statistical skills are expected to become increasingly important, with an increasing need for environmental related skills in sub-sectors. In the retail sector, the expansion of e-commerce will impact on logistics and distribution. There are also managerial and technical skill gaps including the need to improve product knowledge among frontline staff, and to understand customer trends on ethical sourcing.
Customer service skills will be increasingly important in the after-service and maintenance roles in manufacturing and the digital economy. In the care sector, as the population ages, there will be a need for greater understanding of ICT to support care users with assisted living technologies which could reduce demands for carers.
Similar conclusions can be drawn from sector skills investment plans/ strategies in
Scotland. Skills Development Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector Skills Investment
Plan 12 states that companies find it difficult to access people with the right mix of academic and commercial skills – new graduates may often have the technical skills for the job but not necessarily skills in the softer aspects of the jobs, such as customer service, creativity, project management and team working. Collaborative supply chains can raise the competitiveness of companies and enable them to respond more swiftly to market changes, and the industry is also likely to need people who understand the importance of sustainability and what it means for future performance of the industry. A lack of soft skills is, thus, a constraint for the sector.
The OECD notes that evidence and employer feedback “is increasingly emphasising the importance of ‘T-shaped’ skillsets where technical aspects to jobs, requiring detailed knowledge and skills, are supplemented with more generic skills, which enable individuals to work more effectively with their colleagues and/or customers and apply their technical expertise in practice, often in commercial settings
” 13 .
A number of these shortages are given a red rating in the National Skills Audit and it is evident that a new multi-disciplinary knowledge base will be essential at professional, associate professional and technical roles the higher value added product market strategies that will be required to compete and to adapt to the pace of technological change. The shift away from hiring narrowly focussed specialists to individuals with interdisciplinary academic training is already clear in sectors, for instance life sciences. As a result, the UKCES also flags that “Teaching and research professionals across the education sector will be essential to support the supply of new recruits to a number of priority sectors. As businesses develop their technology and production processes this will require close and on-going cooperation between education providers and employers to ensure that evolving curriculums effectively meet industry needs. This will be especially important in key areas such as STEM related subjects where there is a more general emerging skills need for multi-disciplinarity both within science, technical and business areas” 14 .
12 Skills Development Scotland/ Scotland Food & Drink, Skills Investment Plan for Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector (2012)
13 OECD, Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Lives – Skills Strategy (2012)
14 UKCES, National Strategic Skills Audit for England: Skills for Jobs: Today and Tomorrow (2010)

Teachers will need to be able to combine approaches to teaching, work collaboratively internally and externally and acquire strong technology skills.
This suggests the following in relation to interdisciplinary learning:

Businesses will require young people with flexible skills and the ability to innovate and cope with change and learn continuously throughout life – knowledge transfer is as much about communication as specialist skills
 Schools must stimulate a child’s ability to solve new, non-routine problems, combine different bodies of knowledge and interact productively with others - essential for individuals to become competitive in the globalised economy

Active learning, based on student participation, experiential learning models and learn-by-doing approaches, will matters more than passive approaches

Core skills can be delivered in a way which excites and engages learners

Skills development is more effective if the world of learning and the world of work are linked. Learning which incorporates business related case studies and simulations and learning in the workplace allows young people to develop
“hard” skills and “soft” skills, with real-world relevance and experience – it is apparent through SCDI’s network of Young Engineers and Science Clubs that industry-set school challenges from a range of sectors are usually designed to require teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach

In STEM, students should be encouraged to run their own experiments, involving more open-ended questions and more organised group activity
Feedback from SCDI members in STEM-related sectors supports interdisciplinary learning, but businesses would like more definition on what it means to make it meaningful. Bad interdisciplinary learning is seen as probably worse than no interdisciplinary learning. Good interdisciplinary learning needs to be respected by teachers, students, and employers. It should be exciting, but the teaching of core skills must not be lost. It should not involve random subject collaborations dictated by a pre-existing timetable, but rather good interdisciplinary learning requires faculty ownership, identifiable budget, timetable priority, preparation and assessment.
SCDI
October 2013