by Brian | Apr 17, 2024 | Career Management, News
What is the difference between Digital and Information Technology. A basic definition is: digital describes the content distributed through technological channels while InfoTech is the hardware that facilitates the distribution.
The technology sector consists of companies involved in information technology research and development, computers, hardware, and software. It revolves around the manufacturing of electronics, creation of software, computers, and other products and services related to information technology.
The Information and Communications Technology Council defines; ” Digital economy jobs as all jobs in the tech sector and technology roles in all other sectors.”
Digital jobs versus regular jobs
Digital technology in the context of jobs refers to the use of electronic tools, devices, systems, and resources that organizations utilize for various purposes. These technologies play a crucial role in processing or storing data, enhancing employee productivity, and improving efficiency.
ICTT also writes that; “Canada doesn’t really have a system for figuring out where digital technology jobs end and regular jobs begin or explore how a national standard of definition for digital skills and careers will be the gateway for policymakers and employers to fill any gaps.”
In the UK, the Northern Council for Further Education, NCFE is an example of Essential Digital Skills training and qualifications (EDSQ) that are; “funded qualifications mapped to national standards for essential digital literacy.” NCFE advertises that they “offer a vast range of digital units and qualifications to help adults progress in their careers and meet the need for a highly skilled digital workforce.”
Job growth in the Technology sector and E-commerce
“Technology is a growing sector in Canada driving employment and innovation. With approximately 37,000 companies and $160 billion CAD in revenue, the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) terms the IT industry as the engine of growth and people often refer to Toronto, one of the IT hubs of Canada, as the Silicon Valley of the North”.
In their “Digital talent Outlook 2025” the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) advise; “By 2025, ICTC forecasts employment in the Canadian digital economy to reach 2.26 million, triggering a demand for an additional 250,000 jobs”.
Digital Economy
The digital economy is the worldwide network of economic activities, commercial transactions and professional interactions that are enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT)
The Digital Economy consists of all the transactions carried out over digital infrastructure or using digital technologies, including e-commerce. In fact, anything with an “e-” in front of it is part of the digital economy. It’s not just Facebook and Amazon, but even traditional companies that are part of the digital economy. The represents the shift in business to an increasingly digital form of operations.
Online e-commerce spending in Canada grew by 72.7% in 2020, totaling $28.6 billion (dollar figures are in USD). That growth exceeds what we saw in 2019, where e-commerce reached 16.6 billion dollars in spending and 3.6% of all retail revenues.
This growth in the e-commerce sector has created an increased demand and hiring for customer service representatives, warehouse and inventory managers, e-commerce managers & analysts, logistics specialists and others.
Digital skill demand
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of digitalization in the workplace, resulting in a critical need for more workers with advanced digital skills.
“Many industrial sectors across Canada are experiencing huge disruption with the advent of new technologies and automation, and experiencing a shortage of skilled workers.”
“Disruption in labor markets is referring to new technologies, mainly automation, which might take the form of robots in manufacturing, artificial intelligence in the office, computerization,” explains Pissarides. “Digital technologies are disrupting labor markets and the way they work because they require different skills.”
Digital skills
Tenzin Adams of High Speed Training writes the following on digital skills; “Whilst they range from entry-level tasks to advanced abilities, all digital skills are highly transferable and are now considered to be a critical component for employability. As the use of digital technology and automation is transforming the jobs market, transferable skills, particularly those in the digital sphere, are becoming more and more sought after.”
The digital skills you need will depend on the type of career you’re pursuing, however there are essential skills that are increasingly required in most jobs. These are skills that everyone should aim to develop.
Essential Digital skills
- communicating
- handling information and content
- transacting
- problem solving
- being safe and legal online
For the more technically inclined, 10 of the top Advanced Digital Skills are listed below:
- Blockchain: Understanding decentralized digital ledgers and their applications.
- AI and Machine Learning: Grasping artificial intelligence concepts and machine learning algorithms.
- Big Data Analysis: Proficiency in analyzing large data sets to extract meaningful insights.
- Cybersecurity: Protecting digital systems and data from threats.
- Cloud Computing: Utilizing cloud services for storage, computation, and collaboration.
- User Experience (UX): Enhancing user satisfaction by designing intuitive interfaces.
- Marketing and SEO: Navigating digital marketing strategies and search engine optimization.
- Business Intelligence: Leveraging data-driven insights for informed decision-making.
- Office Automation: Streamlining tasks using tools like spreadsheets, macros, and workflows.
- Virtual and Augmented Reality: Understanding immersive technologies for various applications.
These advanced digital skills not only boost individual productivity but also contribute to a company’s competitive edge.
As technology evolves, fostering a digital mindset becomes crucial—enabling professionals to embrace digital transformation, innovate, and stay efficient.
Those with advanced digital skills can end up in current jobs and future opportunities being created.
“Best IT and tech jobs in Canada for 2023 and beyond.”
- developer/programmer
- Business System analyst administrator
- data analyst /scientist
- quality assurance/ analyst
- security analyst/architect
- cloud architect
- IT project manager
- network engineer
Essential tech skills yes, but not all of us have the aptitude or interest to obtain a computer science diploma or degree. Fortunately, countries like Canada offer Essential Digital Literacy programs as shown below.
For marginalized Canadians: “The Digital Literacy Exchange Program (DLEP) will invest $17.6 million to support initiatives aimed at teaching digital literacy skills to Canadians who face barriers to participating in the digital economy. The program aims to equip Canadians with the necessary skills to use computers, mobile devices, and the Internet safely, securely, and effectively. Project funding for the second phase will be available from 2022–23 to 2024–25.
Emotional/social soft skills plus hard skills or digital literacy will be highly transferable to different sectors of the current and future labor market. Or to reframe, you would be in demand in the job market and could work as a freelancer if that is your goal!
by Brian | Apr 2, 2016 | Ageism, Career Management
Countries such as Canada and the U.S.A. have largely abolished mandatory retirement and opened the gates for unretired Boomers to keep working. What lingers is possible age discrimination which will vary in degree, depending on the work setting.
For those un-retired workers who need or chose to keep working up to and past 65, ageism is a force that can work against your success in doing so.
Not only is age discrimination painful, it is unfair and can pose a barrier to finding or maintaining a job. It can also be experienced in settings other than the workplace.
Work related ageism is due to long-held cultural beliefs and policies that we stop working at or before 65, because by this age we are too old to work. Granted in some cases workers are no longer competitively employable by or before 65.
Human Rights and Discrimination
The Ontario Human Rights Commission describes age discrimination in employment as: “Assumptions and stereo-types about older workers are unfortunately all too prevalent in our workplaces. Older workers are often unfairly perceived as less productive, less committed to their jobs, not dynamic or innovative, un-receptive to change, unable to be trained or costly to the organization due to health problems and higher salaries. These ideas about older workers are simply myths that are not borne out by evidence. In fact, there is significant evidence that older workers:
- are highly-productive, offering considerable on the job experience;
- do as well or better than younger workers on creativity, flexibility, information processing, accident rates, absenteeism and turnover
- can learn as well as younger workers with appropriate training methods and environments
- and do not fear change but rather discrimination
In the United States, employment-related age discrimination charges can be filed through the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In Canada the governing body is the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Effects of Ageism and its Practice in the Workforce
Jen Laskey (2008) provides the following definition of Ageism and the psychological effects. “Ageism refers to a basic denial of older people’s human rights. The term was coined in 1968 by Robert N. Butler, M.D., a gerontologist, psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author. Like racism or sexism, ageism has a myriad of negative effects on emotional well-being. Age-based discrimination can decrease one’s self-esteem; it can cause feelings of stress, anxiety, guilt, shame, or helplessness. Others may also be quick to accept stereotypes about aging, thus compounding these effects.”
Alison Doyle, a job search expert advises that “Employment discrimination happens when a job seeker or an employee is treated unfavorably because of his or her race, skin color, national origin, gender, disability, religion, or age.”
The next paragraph is of particular interest to unretired Boomers:
How ageism is practiced is summarized by Kacey Stapleton (2009) in the following excerpt: “Ageism in the workplace is usually seen as a prejudice against anyone nearing or passing the standard age of retirement. Discrimination can either be systematic or incidental denial of employment, advancement or fair treatment. Systematic discrimination means an employer deliberately instructs management either against hiring individuals of a certain age or to force out workers as they near the age of retirement.”
Age discrimination can occur not only from a younger person towards an older one, but also in the other direction. Members of the older generation may view younger workers as inexperienced, or not reliable to name a few additional stereotypes, and values can clash. These types of discrimination issues can be found in the increasing number of inter-generational workplaces.
Beliefs Underlying Ageism
A post retrieved from the Older Adults-Aging in Canada website (2012) indicates that: “Older adults in the workplace are often perceived to be lower in productivity, slower in decision making, resistant to change, and slow to learn. Evidence suggests that this is not the case. Even with radical changes in technology and the expectations of faster and more intensified work, older workers are as productive as their younger counterparts with the appropriate training.
The central issue is not necessarily what your age is, but one of attitude of those perpetuating ageism. Read the list of six common stereotypes below and determine if they hold true for you. If so then it will become your homework to address them as need be.
- Have Reduced Learning Capacity
- Possess Outdated Skills
- Are Resistant to Change
- Demand Higher Wages
- Demonstrate Slower Decision- Making
- Have Lower Productivity
By confronting ageism in the labour market, un-retired Boomers may defuse this form of discrimination not only for themselves, but also the younger generations that follow.
Another option
I believe self-employment may give you more control as an older worker. I talk about this more in my book; “The Un-Retirement Guide” which is described under the Offering tab in this website.
by Brian | Feb 26, 2016 | Career Management, Unretirement
If so, you have joined the Un-Retired club which has many members!
“Un-Retirement” is the growing trend either by choice or economic necessity to continue to work past 65. This post will focus on those un-retired persons who need to keep working longer out of economic necessity.
It doesn’t matter whether your collar is blue, pink, green or white, Un-Retired Boomers come from all occupations and income levels.
White collar workers (those that perform professional, managerial, or administrative work) may have more formal education, and a higher working income, but they are not excluded from un-retirement. These workers can find themselves impacted by global market changes, forced layoff, or job loss for other causes with their retirement savings interrupted. The news media is filled with numerous stories:
- offshoring of white collar jobs and in some cases moving entire companies overseas;
- corporate downsizing and the resulting reduction of management positions; and
- automation through digital technologies with job redundancy or loss.
A large number of Un-Retired Boomers in North America never fit into the financial industry’s “freedom 50 Plus” model. This is due to the many personal and market events and circumstances that can prevent this from happening by or before, what was once the mandatory age of retirement at 65.
Zoomer Media Limited (2012) informs us “Data from Statistics Canada and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that a growing number of people are not retiring at age 65. In Canada, the percentage of participation in the labor force by people age 55 and up is at an all-time high. Experts believe the trend will continue, permanently wiping out the idea that 65 is a magic number signifying the end of the income-earning years. In both Canada and the USA, about 30% of people aged 65-69 are still working, either full time or part time. That age break captures only a tiny percentage of Baby Boomers, the oldest of whom just entered retirement age. The rest of the wave – now aged 47 to 64 – are still outside that traditional retirement benchmark. What will they do when they hit the number? The research is clear: they’ll keep right on working.”
Born between 1946 and 1964, there are approximately 76 million Baby Boomers in the USA and 10 million in Canada.
For the older worker who hasn’t accumulated enough assets to have the choice whether they want to keep working or not, the options are limited. Working longer (Un-Retired) and consuming less, saving more from any income derived is the primary strategy, ideally at a job you like and one that provides adequate compensation. This work could be in the form of part time, casual, seasonal, full time or self-employment, depending on the individual needs and employment situation.
Staying gainfully employed for an Un-Retired worker can be challenging enough if you are in good health. If a disabling health event occurs before a sufficient nest egg is established, then the strategy described above might not be available. This would depend on the severity of the disability and what level of recovery occurs. Working longer may not be possible and barring a windfall or other injection of funds, these folks essentially become unemployed and un-retired at whatever level their savings after the fact, allow. This may require downsizing and/or consolidation to reduce expenses or if there is debt with a decrease in standard of living.
There are Un-Retired individuals though, who work longer and achieve whatever their definition of financial freedom is, so all is not gloom and doom!
