Hyper Island launches FutureFit program together with Nesta and Google, an innovative training program designed to empower workers with new skills and mindset to help the participants adapt to the changing workplace.
The name of the project is FutureFit.
Hyper Island has designed the learning journey so that the participants will:
- learn in a way that empowers them to develop new skills allowing them to adapt to changes in their workplace
- gain a larger understanding of the digital skills needed in their sector
- improve on their employability skills
In addition, we are tapping into our innovative methods to develop learning approaches that positively affect learner behavior, motivation, resilience, creative thinking, social intelligence and problem solving. The goal behind this is to train and strengthen our learners self leadership to continue the learning beyond the course.
format_quote“Google has extensive knowledge about the digital space and they realize that people need to be able to grasp this development in order to realize the potential of technical advances being made. In the future there will be enormous amounts of data and computational power which offers exciting opportunities for combining human learning and machine learning.
Approximately 500 000 Swedes will need to train every year and as much as one third of the Swedish population doesn’t have sufficient digital skills”
—
Anna WiklandGoogle’s Country Manager
About the program
FutureFit is a 6 week long online course free for selected members of the three Unions Vision, Finansförbundet and Unionen. The focus is on developing digital skills and work related competence for the now and future. The program is designed so that participants can take part during or after work hours. As part of the training they will learn through using collaborative digital technologies such as Slack, Zoom and other tools for learning virtually.
About the participants
The program targeted professionals within administration, back office and assistants.
- 2440 applications were received
- 505 were selected to participate
- The average age is 49 years (approximately half of the participants are born in the 1960’s)
- 87% female
Participants come from a whole breadth of industries and from all over Sweden.
The CEO of TCO’s think tank Futurion Ann-Therése Enarsson shared that their launched Futureproof Index shows that almost 700 000 people or 14% of the Swedish population believe it would be difficult to find a similar job if they were to lose their current one. Only one in four believe they have a safe position in the labor market. Also 22% experience that they are not getting sufficient training and competence development from their employer.
Other benefits we aim to provide with the program
Nesta will also use this opportunity to generate new insights about the effectiveness of training, learning models and approaches through skills assessment through a collaboration with Göteborgs university that will measure learning through the participants course.
Ultimately this course is a part of larger program that seeks to identify and test innovative approaches to reskilling that in the future can inform the design of more effective training provision for workers at risk of automation. It has the potential of providing governments, unions and other senior stakeholders with practical interventions that can boost skills across the workforce at scale.
Therese Svanström, President of TCO, The Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, comprised of 13 affiliated trade unions, said at the launch event for the program, that new forms of cooperation are needed for sufficient progress to be made in reskilling the workforce. We now are moving away from the alarmist message of major job loss to major restructuring with a potential for a net increase of jobs. However, the unions, employers, politicians and educational institutions need to work together to solve the challenges of reskilling but it isn’t the first time ever these important parties collaborate to do so. Futurefit is unconventional in that it is parties that don’t traditionally collaborate that are coming together to build new solutions. She also highlights that learning can not be seen as the entry ticket to a career but must be viewed as something needed throughout peoples entire careers.
