Critical Thinking and Planning Outshine Digital Skills in Job Market Success- University of Zurich Study

Childcare workers, cooks and drivers of heavy vehicles may not appear to have a lot in common at first glance. However, there’s one thing that they all share: none of these three occupations have any special software or applications that are critical to their work. This was recently confirmed by an evaluation of data from the past 22 years from the Swiss Job Market Monitor at UZH. Of around 60 occupations that were analyzed, these were the only three where field-specific software skills were not required by any job ads. Even so, these three jobs don’t totally escape the need for digital skills. Job ads are increasingly requesting that applicants have the general ability to use IT or word processing programs, at least to a limited degree.

This demonstrates the speed at which digitalization has penetrated the world of work. The analysis of job market data also shows that in the last 12 years, digital skills have been in higher demand in almost all professional fields compared to the decade before. It is mainly standardized, repetitive activities that have been replaced by machines and programs – simple administrative tasks, for example. “The developments in generative AI constitute a quantum leap,” says Marlis Buchmann, professor of sociology at UZH and director of the Job Market Monitor. She says this marks the first time that machines can also carry out non-routine tasks.

“But complex skills are still the sole domain of humans,” she says. This includes skills like planning and organization, complex analysis, critical reviews and professional consulting as well as interactive skills and the ability to work in a team. Competencies of this kind have grown in importance in many occupations, says Buchmann – an assertion that is backed up by job advertisements. In recent years, cognitive skills have been in even higher demand for open positions than digital ones.

Buchmann believes that the development of AI will increase the importance of human expertise, which will be required to review AI generated texts, software code and data analysis to check for plausibility and correctness. “Expertise requires numerous different competencies, making it a highly complex cognitive skill,” says Buchmann. She believes humans will still have a monopoly here for a long time to come. “AI could also have the potential to reduce inequalities in the labor market,” she says. “AI tools could allow workers with mid-level qualifications to reach a higher level.” Experiments have shown that writers working with ChatGPT are not only more efficient, but also produce texts of better quality compared to those working without ChatGPT. Because the quality improvement with ChatGPT was particularly noticeable among lower-quality writers, this could lead to a reduction in skill disparities within the profession.

Katrin Kraus, professor of vocational and continuing education at the UZH Institute of Education, also says that digitalization and AI tools could indeed lead to less qualified individuals performing higher qualified activities in the future. “AI has an elevating effect,” she says. This means that the overall level rises; however, she believes that differences between qualifications will remain. “We need to make sure that highly qualified and less qualified workers don’t drift too far apart,” says Kraus.

The question is how we can integrate digital tools into meaningful work.

She sees access to education as a key to preventing this from happening – not only access to school and vocational education, but to continuing education in particular. “Education is cumulative throughout a person’s lifetime,” she says. “That means if someone is already well educated, they have a higher likelihood of pursuing continuing education.” And conversely, if a person has had little access to education, it becomes increasingly unlikely that they can take advantage of educational opportunities. With digitalization on the march, job-specific skills and expertise are changing more rapidly than ever before. The ability to cope with changes of this kind will be central to the working world of the future, says Kraus. In the face of constantly shifting requirements, people should not feel that they are at the mercy of change. “Rather, they should be able to make active decisions about their own careers and then be able to implement them,” she says.

For vocational education, this means that learners are not only taught professional skills during their training, but are also prepared to shape their own employment trajectories. According to Kraus, elementary knowledge such as reading, writing and arithmetic, which people need not only for the working world, will not disappear. Media literacy and a basic understanding of how data increasingly permeates all aspects of society will become new core skills that must be taught in schools and as part of vocational education.

Generally, Kraus and Buchmann agree that humans will continue being in the driver’s seat when it comes to where and how AI should be used. “The question is how we can integrate digital tools into meaningful work,” says Kraus. In order to achieve that, she explains, workers will need to have a basic understanding of how processes work and what digital tools can and cannot do. “These decisions will remain with humans,” she says. Ultimately, human intelligence will have to evaluate and assess what AI tools are capable of, says Buchmann. “Unless we want to live in a fully automated world,” she adds.