Industrial 4.0 refers to the world’s fourth stage of industrial transformation in the 21st century. From mechanical production, computer technology and digitalisation to automation – industrial 4.0 brought tremendous improvements in the way we work, live, do business, create government policies, communicate, and even the way we achieve education.
There is an urgency to respond proactively and adapt to technological innovations brought in by IR4.0. This unprecedented growth could appear to be both an opportunity and a challenge to the global workforce and most especially to global academia.
Let us look at the possible impacts of IR4.0 to the global economic workforce, education and the role of Limkokwing University in bridging the gap:
Impacts of Industry 4.0 on the Economic Work force
The emergence of software application developments, artificial intelligence, robotics, digitalisation, and automation are impressively shaping the trajectory of various economic industries. Given that innovation has simplified and optimised most businesses’ standard processes today -sectors such as communication, manufacturing, construction, banking, marketing, design and even production have moved at tremendous pace to adapt to industrial trends.
Businesses are now looking at streamlining the process of time-consuming tasks that could be done automatically to help to yield greater outputs. It eliminates human error thus adding value to the skilled worker and enhances competitiveness. By optimising productivity and reducing redundant tasks, this would result in significant cost savings and a surge in profits.
The global workforce would need to intensify the value of necessary skills on innovation, creativity, technical skills, critical thinking, and even emotional intelligence. Industries would essentially require people or candidates that are already dominant in digital fields, competitive and creative in nature, emotionally ready, and capable of influencing and leading. In the future, there will be more innovations to come and being highly competitive and industry ready in the workforce ecosystem are crucial.
Impacts of Industry 4.0 to the Global Education
Industry 4.0 has directly impacted the development of education. This phase disrupted the traditional learning methods from physical face-to-face classroom to blended virtual learning utilising more interactive learning software and innovative educational tools.
Now more than ever, academia needs to step up and shift to various digital platforms to address learning challenges. The education sector is compelled to produce future-ready graduates that possess the necessary skills needed to prepare for a highly competitive work environment. In response to the ever-evolving demands of an innovative workforce, Academia needs to redefine its role in designing a more comprehensive learning system in terms of creativity and encourage breakthrough discoveries such as in the fields of science and technology. Furthermore, this allows for more opportunities to collaborate between academia and industry for future research and developments. Collaboration is crucial to these fields so as to synchronize and be up to date with the industry relevant skills and to secure future employability.
Limkokwing University: Developing creative, innovative & enterprising individuals
Limkokwing University has a strong global network bannering a global vision - “Developing creative, innovative and enterprising individuals.” Envisioning to prepare each graduate to be a responsible global citizen, highly resilient, anchored with creativity and innovative skills is the University’s commitment to global transformation. Learners are encouraged to explore and to design using their enabled creativity, they are exposed to various platforms that amplify social skills, and motivated to take part in industry projects that give on-the-job real life work training, and value the community.
Through Limkokwing University’s creative programmes, students are immersed in multicultural education, learn from competent international lecturers and experience hands-on knowledge from prominent brands and international industries.
