Worker Tech: Skilling the future workforce

The rapid pace and scale of technological change, is disrupting labour markets and fundamentally altering the future of work. Anticipating and preparing for the impact of digital technologies on the workforce is an urgent issue.

A World Economic Forum report states that 65% of children starting school today will hold jobs that don’t exist yet, with many workers already active in the job market needing to adapt to avoid displacement and to thrive in the rapidly changing workplace.

The biggest change will be felt by workers in low- and middle-skilled jobs without university degrees. These workers account for a large proportion of the global workforce and face a greater likelihood of extensive job reconfiguration. Workers in low- and middle-skilled jobs require proactive support in transitioning to new career pathways. They often face greater financial and job insecurity, lower skills proficiency for working in a technology-rich environment, and reduced likelihood
of receiving on the job training.

This event will explore how technology can be used to equip people for the jobs of the future. We’ll discuss tech tools and new approaches to open up access to skill development, career advice and the opportunities to progress at work.

TIMINGS
6:30 Arrival for food, drinks and networking
(We have alcohol, non alcohol, vegetarian and vegan)
(If you don't fancy networking, the venue has plenty of space for you to sit and chill)
7:00 Speaking stuff starts.
8:15 speaking stuff ends. Time for more drinks, food and networking
9:00 ish - event close

SPEAKERS

Jessica Stacey BGV
is the Head of Partnerships at Bethnal Green Ventures, an early stage investor in tech for good. Jess works across portfolio support and programme partnerships at BGV, working closely with our partner Resolution Trust and Accenture on the WorkerTech partnership with the aim to support early stage ventures use technology to create a fairer future of work. She has a background in PR and communications, policy and research. She previously worked at Nesta, the innovation foundation, and has held communication roles in the social investment, social enterprise and banking sectors.
@JessStacey

Tom Forth - Head of Data at @odileeds
@thomasforth
Tom Forth will explain the work that he did at ODILeeds with GMB Union to understand the geography and evolution of low-paid, zero-hours, and precarious work. Based on an idea by Gavin Kelly at The Resolution Foundation, and building on existing successful apps built at ODILeeds and with partner organisations, he will argue that technology should be shifting power from employers to workers. Hopefully we can have a great discussions about why this hasn’t happened yet, and what we’d need to do to make it happen.

Shazma Alam from Accenture
Shazma is a consultant at Accenture and has worked on emerging technology solutions for clients across industry sectors, most recently with a large UK government agency. She’s interested in how intelligent technologies influence the workforce, and has managed ethnographic research into career transitions of workers in less complex roles affected by automation. She holds a BSC in Economics from Warwick and Masters degree in International Development from the London School of Economics.

LIGHTNING TALKS
We'll also have space for brief "lightning" talks on the night, where anyone will have a chance to speak for up to 3 minutes on something that helps more people do good with tech.

PARTNERS
This event is a part of a series of UK events about Worker Tech by Bethnal Green Ventures, Accenture and Resolution Trust

This event is brought to you in Partnership with: The Federation, Omidyar and the Co-op Foundation

OTHER STUFF
You can follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/techforgoodlive #tfgl

Please keep your RSVP up to date as we often have high demand, but a fair few no-shows on the night.