The new skills are required for the elderly also

You've probably heard that to survive in the new economy and the changing world of technology, people need to learn new skills. But the image that popped into your head must have been young people in college or graduates taking courses online. But Monica Flores, President of the ManpowerGroup for Latin America, argues that this vision has to change. And fast. "When you talk about skills, everyone thinks about young people, but it's not just for young people. Older people also need to learn new skills, need to get used to the digital world ", she said during the World Economic Forum for Latin America. "This is a problem that can affect Governments, companies and society. If we don't deal with it now, we will have problems ahead, "he says. In the same panel, Jennifer Artley, President of BT Group for the Americas, agreed. And recalled that the difficulties of relationships in the workplace today are higher than ever. "People are taking longer to retire and entering the job market each time more young people. We've never had such a variety of generations in the offices as today ". She said that we must ensure that we are taking people along with the advancement of technology. "We can't talk on technological development without talking about people working today, and about what they're going to do," he says. In this line, she argues that we need to encourage more people to join in the hard sciences, the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). And not stopped talking about the inequality between men and women in this area. "In the United Kingdom, we are investing to train teachers to encourage girls to work with technology," he says. Jennifer also stated that is already being discussed changing the acronym STEM for STREAMD – including robotics, art and design. "This could open more doors for women in the area of technology," he says. To Monica Flores, there is also a bias in the technological area that often limits their access to the labour market. "Companies say they want to find the best talent, no matter if you are male or female, but almost no company has a specific strategic to attract women," he says. "We need diversity within the organizations, and we still don't have it." Also in the discussion, Mauricio Cardenas, Colombia's Finance Minister, was asked about what the Government's role in the search for solution of this problem. "We need people to develop new skills. Improve basic education is not enough to do that, we need to improve access to college or technical training, "he says. According to Cardenas, just 52% of students who complete high school in Colombia entering higher education. When someone in the audience asked the panelists what the skills needed in today's world, the answers were different. For Monica Flowers, you need to teach soft skils, the ability to learn continually-things that should be taught in school. Jennifer argued that in today's world the skill most needed – and that can never be replaced by robot – is the ability to collaborate with others and work as a team. Ángel Melguizo, Chief Economist of the OECD Latin America unit, said that we should be teaching "tasks, and not jobs". "No one knows what are the jobs of the future, but we can adapt the tasks," he said.