Growing sectors need new skills, says KPMG futurist Mark Essex

On 13 July, The Business Magazine and KPMG are bringing together five, high-profile influencers and experts from the worlds of business, public policy and academia to share their views on the opportunities, challenges and future of work in the Solent.

We will be hearing from futurist and business expert Mark Essex, director of skills for KPMG, from professor Karen Stanton, vice-chancellor of Solent University, Southampton, Brooke Hoskins, product and training services director at BAE Systems, Shaping Portsmouth’s CEO Stef Nienaltowski and former minister of state for skills and apprenticeship Rt Hon Anne Milton, as they come together for a lively online discussion on the skills we’ll need to attract and develop in the Solent region to meet the challenges of the future.

"Lots of us are going to have to get new skills to keep doing our jobs in a hybrid world and to equip us for new jobs as the economy changes. Automation and augmentation will see bots doing or helping us with our work and that means some sectors will need fewer people. But growing sectors need new skills: in the green economy, digital economy and of course we face a global shortage of health and care workers as we recover from the pandemic," says Essex.

"Businesses, learners and education providers are all wrestling with similar questions: what skills should we invest in today when the future is so uncertain? What are the transferrable skills that will last a lifetime and which skills do I acquire as I go as lifelong learning moves from being something we just talk about to becoming a way of life?

"And then, how do we acquire those skills? Lots of us learned by observing colleagues in action. That’s harder to do now. We need new strategies for recruitment, onboarding, learning and developing our teams."

As director of skills with KPMG, and having spent five years as KPMG’s director of public policy, Essex assesses how policy and global megatrends will affect the demand and supply of skills. His work involves helping places, businesses and government to develop strategies to improve their future skills gap.

A disruptive thinker, he edited KPMG’s Reimagine public policy programme, contributing ideas on how to build more homes, make social care better and more productive, eliminating the need for food banks and boosting lifelong learning.

In Reimagine a digital society, Essex’s film presents a future in which AI makes many more of our buying decisions; and then explores the impact that will have on consumer facing businesses including the 'human' skills needed to educate the bots in how to meet our needs.

To see and hear Essex’s insight on the future of skills for businesses in the Solent, join him and his co-speakers on 13 July.

What skills will businesses need to ‘level up’ the Solent?

Join us for a Webinar on Tuesday 13^th July, 12:30 until 13:30 

Register now