At AMBA’s Employers Forum, hosted at Warwick Business School at the Shard, Brexit unsurprisingly was at the top of everyone’s mind. It is AMBA’s 50th anniversary, and the challenges that business schools are facing in the UK are more prevalent than ever. These UK business schools are concerned about the job market post-Brexit and beyond.
Most agree there is no clear answer about the reality of what a post-Brexit future will look like. This year, we’ve had the triggering of Article 50, the general election and most recently, the Queen’s speech, and yet the future is still opaque.
In terms of employment, the government has said that they want to hire “the brightest and best” and want the UK to remain competitive, yet people are still unsure about the future of talent and skills in the UK. There was some light shed on EU citizens’ status in the past month, with Prime Minister Theresa May saying that a new "UK settled status" would grant EU migrants who had lived in the UK for five years rights to stay and access health, education and other benefits. However, these proposals are dependent on EU states guaranteeing Britons the same rights.
Penny Evans and Pat Saini from Penningtons Manches both agreed that there was a clear disconnect between industry and government, with the latter wanting to curb migration, and the former wanting to curb the skills shortage that the UK is facing. Until the skills shortage is managed, employers will need to rely on international talent – that was their point.
So can AI help fill the roles? Rob McCargow, AI programme leader at PwC says that AI can be a cause for good.
With a large number of jobs (30% UK, 38% US, 21% Japan) highly susceptible to automation by the early 2030’s, the impact on executive education could be significant. Some reports, though, have suggested that instead of taking value out of the economy, automation/AI could create $13.7 trillion globally. However, this won’t necessarily be shared globally; some countries will see the benefits of this more than others, such as China, India and the US.
In a time of such uncertainty for the UK, it’s more important now than ever for institutions of higher education to implement a campus-wide strategy like CSM to promote employability and job success for their students.