Transformational Competences and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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Background

The move toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is rapidly progressing and organizations are changing faster than ever before. It has been predicted that the workforce of machines will complete more jobs than humans in 2025 and that the 4IR will be driven by Artificial Intelligence, System Dynamics, Human-Machine and Machine-Machine interaction. New AI applications (chatGBT, LaMDA, BARD, etc.) are leading to far-reaching changes in all learning and work contexts and require far-reaching realignments in terms of competences and skills. Often, it is implicitly assumed that the 4IR is a global phenomenon, however, some voices also discuss 4IR as a culture-specific phenomenon. Additionally, organizations and workspaces need to collaborate with the educational sector - and in particular higher education - to define skills and competences which individuals across cultures and in specific cultural contexts need to develop to thrive in the 4IR.

According to the OECD (2023), there is a need to develop the following three transformational skills in order to shape a desired future: Creating new values, balancing tensions and dilemmas, and taking responsibility.

To create new values, individuals need to ask questions, collaborate with others and try to think outside the box to find innovative solutions. This links a sense of purpose with critical thinking and creativity. In an interdependent world, individuals need to be able to balance conflicting or seemingly incompatible thinking and demands and become comfortable with complexity and ambiguity. This requires empathy and respect. Finally, learners who are able to take responsibility for their actions have a strong moral compass for critical reflection, cooperation with others, and respect for the planet.

The aim of this Research Topic is to bring researchers of different disciplines and cultures together to describe, explore and investigate the concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) with specific regard to the question of what transformational skills and competences are needed to thrive within the 4IR scenario. Further, the articles of this special issue do not only focus on the workspace and the needed skills and competences, but also on the educational sector. In this context, the question is posed how education can support the development of transformational skills and competences, and what skills and competences are actually needed in with organizational, work, and cultural context.

We are inviting theoretical, conceptual, and empirical contributions which focus on, but are not limited to, the following questions:

1. What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how does it present itself in different cultural, organizational, educational, and work contexts?
2. What answers at the level of competences and skills result from the current developments in the field of AI?
3. Which transformational skills and competences are needed from the perspectives of different organizations, work contexts and socio-cultural scenarios?
4. How can educational institutions and especially higher education contribute to define and foster the competences and skills needed?
5. Which methodologies are needed to explore the future transformational skills and competences needed in future work places and how can these skills then be promoted in educational contexts?
6. Which didactics and pedagogics are needed to foster the required transformational skills and competences?
7. What are the social and cultural implications regarding the skill and competence development?
8. If it is assumed that there is a need for glocal competences and skills for thriving in the 4IR, which ones are the global and the local competences needed?

*Please note that all spontaneous submissions are required to submit an abstract and await feedback before submitting the full manuscript, any spontaneous submissions which only submit a full manuscript will be removed*

Keywords: Industry 4.0; Fourth Industrial Revolution, higher education, future, skills, cross-cultural skills, transformational skills, new work, competences, learning, human values, innovative solutions, complex thinking, critical thinking.

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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