One identified barrier to the application and widespread adoption of data economy and artificial intelligence (AI) is a lack of skills. Although it is of paramount importance to identify and develop technical skills in the field, they alone are not enough if the goal is to make data and AI Finland’s new spearhead. According to existing research literature, the challenges of data utilisation for both research institutes and the corporate sector require strong sectoral skills (e.g. robotics), technical skills (e.g. training in artificial intelligence algorithms) and soft skills (e.g. communication skills).
TAMK’s FairDatAct team aims to provide a comprehensive overview of working life-oriented future competence needs that can be used to accelerate innovations related to data and AI in Finland.
This is supported by concrete, sector-specific examples of the project, where the benefits of data and artificial intelligence can be demonstrated to the business sector.
What is done in the subproject?
The themes of the project related to skills are as follows:
- Qualitative research on skills required for data economy and artificial intelligence;
- International networking and familiarisation with ongoing EU-funded initiatives (including data spaces);
- Identification of critical skills development needs across sectors, categories of workers and also in education and training institutions;
- A deeper understanding of cross-sectoral skills (e.g. data management) in the context of skill development; and
- Gamification (demos).