Inclusive and effective reskilling through private online technical certification programmes

随着我们走向自动化和人工智能的世界，在劳动力市场取得成功所需的技能正在发生变化。虽然低技能工作的风险最高，但经合组织中低技能成年人参加工作相关培训的平均比例比高技能成年人低40个百分点。支持低技能的成年人提高技能和重新掌握技能，对于提高工作效率和包容性的未来至关重要。与技术相关的工作正在经历特别高的增长，在过去的一年里，私人在线技术培训认证计划（POTCP）激增，这些计划声称为学习者提供许多需求工作所需的技能，而成本和时间只是传统大学学位的一小部分（Bariso，2020）。这些方案出现在大流行之前，例如，谷歌于2018年推出了IT支持专业证书，但疫情很可能推动了他们在过去一年的急剧扩张。我建议研究低技能，低工资工作的成年人是否参加POTCP，他们与POTCP的接触，以及POTCP是否能够有效地提高工人的技能/重新技能，使他们能够促进自己的职业生涯。如果POTCP具有包容性和有效性，那么它们可能是在技能要求迅速变化的时代为那些工作风险最大的人改善劳动力市场机会的一个潜在解决方案。

As we move towards a world of automation and AI, the skills needed to succeed in the labour market are changing. Although low-skill jobs are at the highest risk, low-skilled adults' participation in job-related training is 40 percentage points below that of high-skilled adults, on average in the OECD. Supporting adults with low skills to upskill and reskill is imperative for a future of work that is both more productive and inclusive. Tech-related jobs are experiencing particularly high growth, and, in the past year, there has been a proliferation of private online technical training certification programmes (POTCPs) which claim to give learners the skills needed for many in-demand jobs at a fraction of the cost and time of a traditional college degree (Bariso, 2020). These programmes emerged before the pandemic - e.g., Google launched the IT Support Professional Certificate in 2018 - but the pandemic is likely to have fuelled their dramatic expansion over the past year. I propose studying whether adults in low-skilled, low-wage jobs are participating in POTCPs, their engagement with POTCPs, and whether POTCPs are able to effectively upskill / reskill workers such that they can advance their careers. If POTCPs are inclusive and effective, then they may be one potential solution to improving labour market opportunities for those with jobs most at risk, in an era of rapidly changing-skill requirements.