The professions that will survive the pandemic are digital, global and environmental

COVID-19 has shaken up the world of work and many professions in stable and prosperous sectors have buckled under the fallout in the blink of an eye. What skills should professionals have in a time of health and economic crisis such as the one we are experiencing now? According to the UOC's Vice President for Competitiveness and Employability, Àngels Fitó, they should have "digital, global and environmental" knowledge. In the expert's view, "it's a question of equipping all professionals with new skills and resources, irrespective of the field they work in".

Key sectors in the Spanish economy such as tourism, agriculture and property are being forced to reinvent themselves. The way Fitó sees it, there are two key trends in this process that need to be taken into consideration: the digital and the environmental.

In the field of tourism, for example, the expert claims that there is an imperative need to take a clean look at the sector, both to improve its environmental footprint and to make the most of the opportunities offered by technology. She claims that "a new version of digitalized and sustainable tourism 4.0 calls both for experts in technologies applied to tourism (web positioning, digital communication, data science) and for experts in sustainable tourism, or ecotourism".

In the area of health, technology is also leading to the emergence of new professional profiles such as those related to e-health, biostatistics and personalized patient treatment, and nanomedicine.

In sectors such as agriculture, technology and sustainability are transforming the labour landscape. Fitó explained that "the need to have new predictive models, sustainable crops and automated systems that improve farm and agricultural business management is offering new opportunities to mathematicians, specialist engineers, biologists and economists, who will have to develop new technological, environmental and administrative skills".

She added that in the remaining sectors – retail, energy etc. – there will also be new opportunities resulting from these background trends. Consequently, the employability expert stated that for economists, the need for professionals such as algorithm auditors, circular economy experts, and credit and risk analysts will accelerate. For jurists, opportunities will arise through specialization in environmental and technological aspects. Finally, in other fields such as psychology and philosophy, the need to interact with new technologies will also open up new job opportunities.

What training needs do these new professions require?

According to the UOC vice president, there is a need for all training plans to include specific approaches to digital, global and environmental matters. This holds true for all disciplines, from the humanities to engineering and the social and health sciences. As regards skills, she explains that digital competencies, languages, analytical skills, results-orientation and digital leadership are the new requirements needed to contend for quality employment opportunities.

Fitó concluded by saying that, as in most cases, these profiles emerge from the process of knowledge hybridization, whereby training is accomplished through postgraduate programmes "that are able to reach the market more quickly, that evolve with the market and that serve to maintain the employability potential of workers focused on constant professional renewal".