How Augmented Reality for Work Is Driving Efficiency

Most business leaders take the dynamism and disruption of work and skills as a given. Studies by the British Council show that more than half of today's students will do jobs that do not yet exist. Indeed, according to the World Economic Forum, employers estimate that 44 percent of workers' skills will be disrupted in the next five years. If Industry 4.0 is to deliver the anticipated benefits, it is vital that we bridge this skills gap.

According to Wiley's latest annual Closing the Skills Gap report, the skills gap is rapidly spreading to more organizations. Wiley's research suggests companies are increasingly having difficulty attracting and retaining workers with the skills needed to fill their open jobs. The demand for skills keeps evolving faster, and it is increasingly challenging for companies and higher education institutions to keep up, particularly when it comes to soft skills. Indeed, there is now a greater demand for soft skills over hard skills following the pandemic.

In the latest PTC Talk, guest speaker Greta Braun, Technical Licentiate at Chalmers University of Technology, discussed her work in defining, measuring, and bridging the skills gap in industry.

Why the skills gap is not a new problem

Skill gaps are not a new problem. We have faced skill gaps in all the industrial revolutions. They started from the first industrial revolution when the introduction of water and steam power allowed machines to undertake work traditionally conducted by hand. In the Second Industrial Revolution, the discovery of electricity helped us transport products on conveyor belts through the factory; we could also work at night because we could have light. In the Third Industrial Revolution, computers were introduced, along with robots and electronics, which was a significant shift allowing the automation of repetitive tasks. For the first time, workers were fearful that robots would take their jobs. We are in the fourth industrial revolution, with connectivity and cyber-physical systems. Around 2011, industry 4.0 was introduced; it is complex, involving numerous technologies that interact with each other. This requires highly skilled people to manage and program these systems and to do this ethically and sustainably. Today, we know that even though those industrial revolutions have eliminated many jobs, they have introduced new ones. The unemployment rates in Europe and the US have decreased.

What can be done to bridge the skills gap?

A World Economic Forum report launched this year says that 44 percent of employees' skills will have to change drastically. In another survey published in the Canva Workplace Report, 41 percent of professionals worry they will fall behind in their jobs if they do not know how to leverage AI. That is an entirely new report in the Canva Workplace Report.

Three research questions have guided Braun in her research. How can skill gaps be bridged? How to measure the skill gaps for individuals and companies. And to measure something, we need to see the skill gap in the industrial context.

A crucial part of the research was to conduct a literature review from a management perspective to find out the key aspects employers must work with to prepare their workforce for the future of work. One central aspect here was skills, but according to Braun, there are nine other aspects that managers must work with.

• Knowledge, skills, and competence
• Leadership
• Occupational health and wellbeing
• Corporate culture
• Collaboration and communication
• Work forms
• Technology, infrastructure, and strategy
• Workplace and work environment
• Digital organization and network

A key takeaway is that for managers, there are many skills needed to implement all these challenges, and also for the employees within these nine topics we identified. Skills are needed. These are not only technical skills to implement technology but also a lot of critical soft skills.

What is the skill gap?

The term has been widely used in many ways. But Brauns describes it as the transformations in industry that lead to changes for education providers, employees, and employers. These three stakeholders need to catch up on something, which leads to a skill gap. And the skill gap lies between the supply and the demand of skills. There is a changing industry, and then parallel to that, we also have changing demographics, which lead to three different gaps.

The skill gaps between the skills employers demand and their employees' skills. The skill shortage is the lack of available, suitably skilled people for open positions of jobs that employers want to fill. Then, there is the education gap between the skills that education providers offer and what employers require.

How can skill gaps be measured?

How can we measure skill gaps? How do you measure skills? But then also, how do you measure skill gaps? Researchers have been measuring skill gaps by asking different people about skill gaps - students, employees, employers, and education providers, or taking information from literature and databases.

Chalmers University has been conducting a skill gap analysis by asking various employees about their knowledge of 15 primary skills people can learn and let them assess themselves. How important is the skill for me? And how well do I perform on those skills? Ideally, input from an employer to determine their employee would be included. However, the Canva report says that people who self-assess their skills or knowledge sometimes exaggerate their skills.

Another study conducted within the program showed that adaptive learning to the individual is essential because it motivates people to feel that they are on the right learning journey. The interactions in how you learn must be adapted to your learning style. In the Canva Workplace Report, 65 percent of respondents feel that learning about a new generative AI tool is overwhelming. At the same time, 54 percent feel pressure to use generative AI to keep pace with the change. If employees are not to feel stressed, they must think they are supported.

What are the key takeaways to bridge the skills gap?

The skill gap in industry is between the skills that employers require and the skills that employees possess. We could use the skills framework set up about a particular job profile or industry to measure the skill gap and analyze performance importance. To bridge skill gaps, we need to overcome motivational challenges and fears for the employees and employers who must think about changing things regarding work and how they can support their employees. We also need to involve education providers who supply the learning and that they do that to keep the learner in the best way.

To learn more about the work at Chalmer University about the skills set and defining, measuring, and bridging the gap in industry, watch the full Talk here.

Interested in learning more about the future of augmented reality from industry experts?

Implementing augmented reality in the workplace today comes with many considerations, from investing in the technology to rolling out real-life use cases. Watch Lechleiter and Miller’s conversation in the latest episode of Analyst Insights and hear their perspectives on how leading manufacturers are getting the most out of their AR investments.