Certain skills and qualifications, such as those related to science, engineering and ICTs are especially useful for thriving in the context of the digital transformation. In 2016, out of all tertiary graduates in OECD countries, 6% did so with degrees in natural sciences, mathematics and statistics; 14% in engineering, manufacturing and construction; and nearly 4% in ICT fields. It should be noted, though, that modern degree programmes in other fields can also endow students with relevant ICT skills. For example, graduates in the arts, graphic design, journalism and information, 6% of all tertiary graduates in OECD countries, are increasingly involved in activities related to production and management of digital content.
Firm-based training is an important means of complementing and building upon academic and other qualifications. Employees in highly digital-intensive industries are more likely than others to engage in training - by 7 percentage points on average, though differences vary markedly across the countries for which data are available. In general, employers in highly digital-intensive industries are more likely to engage in formal training, leading to official qualifications, than employees in less digital-intensive sectors, whereas the inverse is true for on-the-job training.
Workers performing non-routine tasks or ICT-intensive tasks are generally endowed with relatively higher skills than other workers are. Firm-based training helps to motivate and reward employees, as well as to align their competences to firms’ needs. Training may also help to reduce income inequality and provide low-skilled workers with the skills needed to navigate the digital transformation. Evidence nevertheless suggests that most training further upskills medium and high-skilled workers rather than being undertaken by lower skilled workers. In all countries high-skilled workers have the highest incidence of training, almost 75% on average, compared to almost 55% of medium-skilled workers engaging in training on average and 40% of low-skilled workers doing so. On average, in the countries considered, between 30% (the Russian Federation and Greece) and 76% (the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland) of workers engaged in some training. With the exception of Turkey, only a quarter or less of workers receiving training are low skilled, whereas high-skilled workers account for between a quarter (Austria) and three-quarters (Russian Federation) of those receiving training.
