Issue Brief

Shaping the Workforce of Tomorrow: Investing in Skills, Capacity-Building, and Mobility in a Changing World

Introduction

The global economy is undergoing a transformation unlike any in recent history. Artificial intelligence, automation, green technologies, and digital public infrastructure are reshaping not just what work looks like, but who can access it, where it can be performed, and what skills it demands. For G20 countries, which collectively account for the majority of global GDP and employment, this transformation presents both a challenge and an opportunity to build workforces that are not merely productive, but genuinely inclusive, continuously evolving in terms of learning, and globally mobile. This would help develop human capital in the true sense in these countries that can mutually reinforce inclusive global growth.

Given the current trends in global economy, this kind of skilling and capability building for the workforce is no longer just optional, but essential. The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2027, 44 per cent of workers' core skills will be disrupted by technology-driven change. The International Labour Organisation projects a global shortage of 85 million workers in skilled roles by 2030, even as millions of workers in routine and manual occupations face displacement. These two concomitant realities: scarcity at the top of the skills ladder and displacement at the bottom, are not unrelated, but two sides of the same structural transition. Addressing them requires a coordinated response across both government and businesses, including exchange of best practices and pooling in shared knowledge resources between B20 economies.

Addressing the Digital Divide

At the foundation of any meaningful skilling agenda lies digital literacy. In an economy where even traditional manufacturing, agriculture, and services are being transformed by digital systems, the ability to navigate technology is no longer a specialist skill, but a fundamental precondition for workforce participation. Yet the digital divide remains vast, both within and between G20 economies. Women, rural communities, informal workers, and small business employees are disproportionately concentrated on the other side of this divide, locked out of the productivity gains and economic opportunities that digitalisation creates.

Adopting digital literacy at scale

Addressing digital literacy at scale requires businesses to treat workforce digital capability as a core investment in supply chain resilience and productivity. Companies that operate in economies with large pools of digitally excluded workers face real operational constraints including in deploying technology-enabled processes, and in integrating into global value chains that demand data-driven operations. The business case for digital skilling is the first step in the ladder to building capabilities. Practically, this would entail inter alia

• Extending digital literacy programmes beyond the formal corporate workforce to encompass suppliers, distributors, and community ecosystems;
• Designing skilling initiatives that are multilingual, modular, and mobile-first, with content optimized for small screens, which would allow greater accessibility by workers who cannot travel physically to participate in digital literacy programmes; and
• Working with governments to ensure that digital public infrastructure, including broadband connectivity, digital identity, and digital payment systems, provide the foundation for such digital skills to be imparted.

Research, Innovation and Learning

In addition to closing the digital skills gap, there is a vital need to embed within organisations and economies, a culture for continuous learning, research, and innovation. This should not be confined to specific R&D departments but incorporated across the board.

Rethinking how businesses invest in human capital

To embed companies in such a structure, there is a need for businesses to fundamentally revamp their strategy for investment in human capital. Companies that treat training as a periodic cost to be minimised will fall behind those that treat learning as a strategic asset to be continuously developed. The most competitive firms in every sector, from advanced manufacturing to financial services to agri-technology, are those where workers at every level are empowered to experiment, to identify problems, and to contribute to solutions. If firms encourage and inculcate this, it could become a measurable competitive differentiator.

Building human capital ecosystems

In emerging economies, where formal educational infrastructure is growing but is unevenly distributed, industry-led models of skill development can be a key conduit to develop human capital. The B20 community has a particular role to play in building collaborative human capital ecosystems. This could be through:

• Industry-academia partnerships that align research priorities with real-world business needs;
• Apprenticeship and internship frameworks that give the youth meaningful industry exposure before they enter the workforce; and
• Cross-sector skill-sharing consortia that allow smaller firms to access capability-building resources that they might not be able to afford individually.

Sustainability as a Mindset

Crucially, a culture of R&D and innovation in the workforce cannot be confined to technology sectors. The green transition is creating demand for new skills across every industry be it in construction, agriculture, energy, logistics, and manufacturing. Equipping workers for the green economy requires not just technical training but a mindset shift toward sustainability thinking, circular economy principles, and adaptive problem-solving.

Businesses that lead this transition and can create internal cultures of green innovation and actively upskill their workforces for the net-zero economy, will be well-equipped to build enduring competitive advantages over those that treat the green transition as a compliance burden.

Skills Mobility as a Strategic Asset

The final dimension of this agenda is perhaps the most structurally complex, and the most consequential: international mobility of skilled talent. The mismatch between where skills exist and where they are needed is one of the defining economic inefficiencies of our time. Advanced economies face acute shortages in healthcare, technology, engineering, and skilled trades, while emerging economies – particularly in South and Southeast Asia and Africa – have large, young, increasingly educated workforces that lack sufficient domestic employment opportunities commensurate with their capabilities. Structured, well-governed international labour mobility is the most direct mechanism for addressing both challenges simultaneously.

A gain for both source and destination countries

For destination countries, skilled labour mobility can fill critical workforce gaps, sustain social security systems, and drive innovation. For source countries, it generates remittance flows and creates diaspora networks that channel investment and technology back home. Moreover, once workers return, it allows for building domestic capability with globally acquired skills and experience.

A roadmap for inclusive mobility frameworks

The B20 community must advocate for streamlined and transparent mobility frameworks, including faster skilled worker visa processing, broader mutual recognition of qualifications, and bilateral agreements that create structured pathways for workers to move, develop, and return.

Business should not wait for governments to lead here. Companies that establish their own global talent mobility infrastructure would gain access to the global talent pool on the most favourable terms. Some ways in which they could do this include:

• Creating internal markets for cross-border skill deployment;
• Building structured international rotation programmes; and
• Forging partnerships with source-country educational institutions.

Apart from being transparent, such mobility must also be inclusive. The benefits of international labour mobility have historically accrued disproportionately to highly skilled, formally educated workers, while lower-skilled workers face far greater barriers, fewer protections, and more exploitative conditions.

Businesses have both a responsibility and a commercial interest in changing this. They should channel their efforts in building supply chains and operations that source labour through ethical, transparent, and well-governed mobility channels, across the sectors in which they operate.

Conclusion

The agenda of human capital and workforce development involving skilling, capability-building, and mobility agenda is not one that any single company, industry or government can address alone. It requires the kind of collaboration that the B20 framework is uniquely positioned to facilitate including through shared investment in digital literacy infrastructure that scale beyond individual corporate initiatives; common frameworks for qualification recognition; and coordinated advocacy for policy reforms enabling greater workforce mobility, inter alia. The choices made today will determine whether the future of workforce will be one of shared prosperity or widening divides. The B20 has a distinctive voice in this conversation, and a distinctive responsibility to use it.