Publicizing the Report by the Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce for the Era of Society 5.0: For Skills-Based Workforce Development

1. Background

In the present labor market, skilled employees are not always evaluated appropriately based on their skills, and how workers will be treated at each company is hard to predict. Accordingly, individuals tend to have only limited motivation for learning and acquiring skills. On the other hand, continuous learning and proactive responses to change are required for the age of AI. In order to meet this requirement, it is essential to improve the environment for skills-based workforce development, thereby ensuring that efforts made to acquire new skills are rewarded and individuals can design their own careers with ownership. Specifically, an information infrastructure for skills that will support the development of digitally skilled workforce will promote skills-based workforce development in Japan as in other countries.

Given this context, METI has held repeated discussions on the desirable development of digitally skilled workforce at the Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce in the Era of Society 5.0 (chaired by Mr. Mitani Keiichiro, Executive Consultant, NTT DATA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTING, Inc.) and the Working Group on Skills and Learning Required of Digitally Skilled Workforce (led by Mr. Tsunoda Hitoshi, President, Development of Digital Human Resources). The discussion results were incorporated in the Report by the Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce for the Era of Society 5.0: For Skills-Based Workforce Development.

2. Composition of the report

Looking to speed up the development of digitally skilled workforce, the report raises questions about the background situation in Japan, where companies are unwilling to invest in human resources and individuals are unwilling to learn and where skills-related gaps are becoming a serious problem amid challenges such as the acceleration of technological reforms driven by generative AI systems and the structural shortages of the workforce. Based on this backdrop, the first chapter of the report describes the present situation regarding the development of digitally skilled workforce as well as past HR development measures and related challenges. The second chapter provides an outline of the visualization of skills, skills-based organizations, and the effective use of skills-related information and skill taxonomy. It also shows a desirable direction for skills-based workforce development and summarizes the related issues.

The third chapter examines a desirable information infrastructure for skills to support the development of digitally skilled workforce, specifically to support individuals in continuing to learn and enhancing their careers based on their own targets, and to encourage the widespread use of skills-related information in the labor market. The fourth chapter covers skills and learning required of digitally skilled workforce, outlining changes involving such skills and learning as well as the achievements and challenges concerning the Information Technology Engineers Examination. This final chapter also sets out the three domains of business, engineering, and digital literacy for the public and private sectors to jointly build skills development systems based on the latest version of the Digital Skill Standards. Finally, concerning the visualization of skills in the six fields specified for the concretization of mindsets for digital transformation and the methods to develop skills, the chapter focuses on an in-depth examination including the revision of the Digital Skill Standards as well as the addition of a new category to the Information Technology Engineers Examination.

3. Future plans

Going forward, based on this report, METI will set up task forces to conduct in-depth discussions for each of the skills and digital literacy issues.

Details of the task forces will be provided on the official website of the Ministry as soon as they are held.

Related Materials (in Japanese)

• Report by the Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce for the Era of Society 5.0: For Skills-Based Workforce Development(PDF:11,723KB)
• Report by the Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce for the Era of Society 5.0 (Summary)(PDF:1,900KB)

Related Link (in Japanese)

• Study Group on the Development of Digitally Skilled Workforce for the Era of Society 5.0

Division in Charge

IT Innovation Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau