Future and the social impact vouchers – reality check

Introduction

How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed trends in the labour market? How to improve our digital skills that are necessary for remote work? Polish partners are looking for answers to these questions. Their activities focus on adapting women to new circumstances, adjusting their previous experiences to the digitized world. Find out more.

Future and the social impact vouchers

The main goal of all public interventions and projects with social impact, both on the country and the European level, should be the focus on prevention rather than on solving social problems. What does it mean for social impact projects, especially those focusing on digital skills and employment? 

First of all, we need to look forward and think about the future shape of the world, and of course, shape of the work. In the next few years, these two will change much faster than we are used to. 

According to the OECD Future of work report in 2019 [1] (good, old pre-pandemic times), as global society, we are faced with four megatrends: 

• demographic changes, which means both shifting average age in developed countries and global population growth. This will influence the structure of labor markets, and contribute to the next megatrend…
• globalization. Globalization of work, services, production and ideas. It’s not a simple and linear process. As The Economist wrote in January 2019, we are challenged by “slowbalisation” [2]. This refers to the process of closing borders, trade wars, new customs and, what’s most important, restrictions of the free flow of different services.   
• Digitalization – the third megatrend is one type of shield protecting us against the divided world. It’s not free of threats, but a new model of remote work, digital services,  better allocation of resources is going to help us face the climate changes and negative aspects of trends mentioned above.
• The change of our values – the last megatrend pointed out, was the most horizontal, and in fact the most influential. Every social and technological process affects the way people think and feel, and in the end, how they see the world: what is important, what they can fight for, how they’re using their energy. 

Has Covid-19 changed these trends? What we know now is that it has rather accelerated some of them. We know the general situation, but we’re not sure if it’s the right place to turn, stop or move forward. 

Nowadays, these changes relate especially to remote work and digital services, which require more advanced digital skills from all employees. It does not depend on our job position – it actually becomes a general rule. All of us need some new digital skills. Some of us should learn how to write a code in Python or C#, some should use advanced functions of our daily use software e.g. spreadsheets, but most of us need to know how to find good quality information on the Internet or how to automatize sending tones of e-mails. The most important issue is to see the social face of technology. It doesn’t matter what kind of digital tools we use. This time, the main point is to understand that we can automatize repetitive tasks in our work and focus on innovation and creativity. What does it mean? The main digital skill is to understand the nature of these times and these tools. 

Where is the place for demography? In 2050, in Poland, for each person over 65, there will only be 2 people under this age. Now the proportion is 1 to 5. The situation in all European countries is similar. It means that we need to focus on digitalization over other trends of the future. We need to divide the work that needs to be done into small pieces and do it remotely. Even if this will happen in Seattle, Kinshasa, or Przemyśl. Digitalize whatever we can. But first of all, we should find the values which affect each kind of stakeholder and respect them.

Any ideas on how to do it? The SIV model in Poland is focused on preparing women for these new circumstances through adapting their former experience to the new digital skills environment. Our main goal in the process of enlisting both investors and women is to find the values important for them. All efforts come down to one question: how to design workplaces that best serve each side’s values? We hope SIV can find the answer. 

Social Impact Vouchers – new challenges  and new opportunities

Challenges we are all facing in terms of the future are affecting Social Impact Vouchers project activities as well. COVID-19 has shifted us towards digitalization and new solutions much faster than expected and many people who became unemployed need comprehensive support in order to catch up with the new reality. 

Social Impact funds are becoming important and very much needed models that can serve as recovery action for those facing unemployment due to the pandemic. 

Future competences trainings as well as digital skills trainings combined with coaching support are tools that will improve the situation of many people that for different reasons are out of the labor market. 

Social Impact Vouchers in Poland – registration for job seekers is now open!

„Nothing will work unless you do” – Maya Angelou said it all. And what if we do work together on new possibilities for women in Poland? Those of them who are unemployed and want to start the job equipped with future competences, can register and join the project. Their profiles will be matched with requirements of employers and together we will work on their new journey.

Sources:

[1] OECD Employment Outlook 2019. The Future of work OECD 2019 link:
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9ee00155-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/9ee00155-en 

[2] Slowbalisation  The Economist 24th Jan 2019 link:
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2019/01/24/the-steam-has-gone-out-of-globalisation