On 24-25 August 2021, the Workforce Development Agency (WDA), Ministry of Labor, hosted "Post-Pandemic Workforce Digital Transformation International Forum" by inviting domestic and international experts to discuss the issues of 21st Century job skills, future of work and workforce digital transformation.
Representatives from domestic and foreign industry and academia sectors were invited to participate in this forum, including Dr. Sean Gallagher, Director of Centre for the New Workforce, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia; Ms. Renee Chou, Secretary General of Digital Economy Association Taiwan; Mr. Chester Hsieh, Lead of Strategic Programs, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Hong Kong and Taiwan; Dr. Lee Chun, Associate Research Fellow and Deputy Director of WTO and RTA Center, Chunghwa Institution for Economic Research; Mr. Wei-Ren Su, representative of Data Analytics Technology & Applications, Institute for Information Industry; Dr. Chih-Yu Cheng , Professor and Director of the Graduate Institute of Labor Research, National Chengchi University. The discussion was held in response to the dual impact of the pandemic and digital technology faced by Taiwan and the region to explore ways to implement workforce transformation, apply Taiwan's digital technology and ICT advantages to promote the development of skills and human resources in the 21st century.
WDA Director General Shih Chen-Yang attended the meeting online, and pointed out that due to the dual impact of the pandemic and digital development, the labor market is facing new challenges and traditional jobs are under pressure from transformation. However, many new types of employment opportunities have been created at the same time. At present, various countries have also invested cross-cutting resources to harness the key capabilities of future work for planning of feasible policies and programs. Today, through this international event, domestic and foreign experts were invited to discuss the digital transformation of the workforce in the post-pandemic era through industry-government-academic dialogue and discussion, and to propose relevant solutions, which will help the planning and implementation of related policies of the WDA to integrate with the development of the global industry. Ms. Shih also hoped that through the forum, a stronger foundation could be accumulated for the expansion of exchanges and global cooperation.
The WDA pointed out that many forum experts believed that industrial changes caused by the impact of the pandemic are coupled with digital technology. Introducing the old and bringing forth new factors will make the job skills and talent types required by the industry in the future very different from those in the current industry. Digital innovation and digital skills are reshaping the current industrial structure. Existing professional knowledge can no longer meet the employment skills required by future industries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve future skills through vocational training in order to respond to changes in the industry and future work styles and content.
According to WDA, the forum consolidated cross-cutting consensus through dialogue, which will link Taiwan’s vocational training industry, government, and academia, establish a job market and talent exchange platform, and promote the integration of Taiwan’s vocational training system with the international community. The WDA aims to share best practices with regional allies, promote the internationalization of the development of the workforce, and strengthen the exchange and cooperation between industrial talent and vocational training.