Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network 2023-2024

2406Upskilling tomorrow’s workforce As technology continues to advance, so does education and skill development in the workforce, with a growing need to close key gaps and prepare the workforce for cutting-edge research and technology. The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Serbia has developed a new master’s programme on biotechnology, with support from the Ministry of Education and the local biotech industry, to create bioinformatics expertise in the country (see case study 9), in response to the recent rise of biotechnology research and innovation ecosystems in Serbia. The Indian state of Telangana’s life sciences ecosystem is an emerging hub of innovation. With its exponential growth and global recognition, Telangana aims to create 400,000 new jobs by 2030. To meet industry demand and technological advancements in the life sciences sector, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Telangana launched the pilot phase of its upskilling and internship programme for final-year college students (see case study 10). The US Center for Advanced Manufacturing is addressing the skill gaps in the manufacturing sector and exploring how to attract skilled workers to the sector and upskill its current workforce. Drawing from more than 40 interviews with shop floor operators on successful practices of adoption and introduction of emerging technology in daily operations across five industry sectors in New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Texas, the centre has identified five key practices that are instrumental to ensure technology skilling is designed in a sustainable, human-centric and effective way.