Skills Knowledge Mix to Support Industrial Strategy 12122003

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Skills/ Knowledge Mix to Support Industrial
Strategy12/12/2003

• Toby Joyce
• Principal Reliability Engineer
• Lucent Technologies

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• Irish Industry
• Opportunities
• End of Cold War/ Widening of Global Market
• Internet enabled worldwide supply of diverse
  commodities
• Threats
• New low-cost industrial nations (Eastern Europe,
  Asia-Pacific)
• Worldwide Value Chain
• Multiplex locations/ logistical/ geopolitical
  constraints
• Decline of English language as an advantage as
  other countries produce English-speaking
  professionals.

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• Some Assumptions
• The days of competing on low-cost labour are
  gone.
• An educated prepared workforce will always be a
  competitive advantage.
• Continuance of rapid change diversification in
  world economy.
• More rapid growth/ more rapid decline of
  enterprises
• Morphing of old enterprises into new and more
  competitive forms

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• Other Assumptions
• Industrial strategy can be cast in terms of
  technological methods that minimize the use of
  manual labour.
• Diversification of industries chemical,
  biopharmaceutical, agriculture/ food, financial
  services, leisure/ entertainment.
• High value/ high mix ICT components
• optical components for the telecommunications
  industry.
• Design and Development services for ICT
• Next generation hardware/ software
• Catch/ create the next wave
• Niche design and manufacturing in ICT
• High quality reliability
• Services/ Novel Enterprises for ICT
• Ireland as a control tower for a worldwide
  value chain (logistics, quality mgmt, customer
  technical support) with multiple nodes.

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• Key Assumption
• The average person in modern technological
  industry can expect to encounter two to three
  episodes of rapid career transformation in his/
  her working life.
• Possibly voluntarily, but more likely
  involuntary.
• May be within companies, or between companies
• May be within industries or industry segments, or
  within industries or industry segments.

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• Skills/ Knowledge Mix
• Skills are experience-based, may ultimately be
  limiting.
• Darwinian trap of over-specialization
• No skill is totally independent of theoretical
  knowledge
• Vulnerable to external changes in knowledge base
  new paradigms
• Degree- based knowledge is broad and flexible,
  but
• May be too general
• Has a half life of usefulness equal to about 3
  to 5 years.
• Needs to be modulated by application
• It is the skills/ knowledge mix that is important.

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PUII COP1 Meeting

• How do we prepare?
• High standard of entry level education into
  modernized industry segments.
• Improve cooperation Industry Educational
  Institutions.
• Good generalized educational base
• Particular specializations also catered for.
• Think in terms of lifetime learning
• Give the workforce the tools and support to be
  adaptive
• Modularity in engineering and business education.
• Sabbaticals/ career breaks for further education
• Acceptable conversion between industries
• Change specialization in mid-career
• Acquire/ broaden the knowledge base.
• A knowledge/ skills health check at intervals
  in a career?