TITLE:
Digital Literacy & Digital Skills Scenario of ASEAN Marginal Workers Under & Post COVID-19 Pandemic
AUTHORS:
Kamolrat Intaratat
KEYWORDS:
Digital Literacy, Digital Skills, ASEAN, Marginal Workers, COVID-19 Pandemic
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.10 No.1,
December
31,
2021
ABSTRACT: This research aims to study 1) the scenario of workforces relevant with
digital literacy and digital skills among the marginal workers from the selected
six ASEAN countries; 2) the scenario of the digital literacy and digital skills
relevant to the current and the future jobs skills among all the marginal
workers; and 3) the government’s policy to support any digital
reskill-upskilling among the workforces including the marginal workers to serve
well with all demanding skills of the future jobs. The qualitative research
with document study and e-interview among all 178 key informants from all
relevant stakeholders by its clustered sampling: the policy, the private
sector, and the marginal workers from the selected six ASEAN countries base on
their similar digital literacy and digital skills workforces context. Narrative
description was used. The article organizes its findings as of its objectives 1) the scenario
of workforces relevant with digital literacy and digital skills among all the
marginal workers from the selected ASEAN countries affected by the pandemic as
well as technology disruption resulted in a pattern of businesses shifting from
the formal sector to the informal and will be most affected the low skilled.
The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online
white-collar workforce. Eighty-four percent of employers are set to rapidly
digitalize working processes, including a significant expansion of remote work
with its trend to change 44% of their workforce to operate remotely; 2) The scenario
of the digital literacy and digital skills relevant to the current and the
future jobs skills among all the marginal workers found the top emerging jobs
relevant to digital literacy and digital skills are data analysts & data
scientists, digital marketing specialist, software and application developer,
YouTubers, Start Ups, and some of the soft skills such as the creative &
the analytical thinking, problem-solving, and others. All kinds of
administrative jobs, secretaries, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll clerk, HR
would be declining. Most of the marginal workers have low to mid digital
literacy and digital skills such as Microsoft office, digital marketing,
photoshop, social media, content creating, and video editing. They are looking
forward to reskills in all related digital literacy and digital skills from
fundamental to mid and high skills such as
data analytic, data science, software development, web development,
cybersecurity, AI, programing, cyber manager, digital consultant and others; 3)
The government’s policy relevant to support any reskill-upskilling among the workforces including the marginal workers for future jobs found
similar among ASEAN with a) accelerate all relevant digital competency
by partnering with private and industry sectors through TVET training system;
and b) work with industries to revamp national
curriculums via digital learning pathway and emerging skillsets. The PPP
strategy must be used for knowledge transfer and building digital ecosystem.