Role of lifelong learning in the 'fourth industrial revolution' in the spotlight

The role that adult education and colleges play in preparing the labour market for technological disruption will be explored by MPs. The World Economic Forum, which holds an annual conference at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, set the theme of its 2016 gathering of world leaders around the topic of the fourth industrial revolution. Since then, the term has entered common parlance and it is now widely characterised as concerning what impact that new technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics, will have on the labour market with many low and medium skilled jobs believed to be at risk of automation. Now the education select committee is to explore the issue of preparing for the so-called fourth industrial revolution. Stressing the importance of the inquiry, committee chairman Robert Halfon said by the 2030s, as many as 28 per cent of the current jobs taken by 16- 24-year-olds are likely to be at risk of automation.