The 4th industrial revolution, improve your skills or be deemed irrelevant

Abstract

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is the time of technological convergence, where innovative technologies such as big data, the sharing economy, the internet of everything and blockchain are increasing, connecting the physical world with the information world (Baller, Dutta & Lanvin, 2016), giving birth to the “SMARTIES”: smart cities, smart infrastructure, smart transportation etc. and one needs to improve their skills to stay up to date. SMARTIES need to be improving, servicing the public in effective and efficient ways. The citizens, our customers and cannot afford to experience any down-time. In this changing world, citizens expect, better, faster and more efficient service delivery. The CSIR has through the years been involved in the skills development and training of transport officials, including traffic law enforcement. This presentation discusses a summary of the experiences that were acquired during these training initiatives. The presentation considers lessons learned as well as recommendations on the way forward. Through this experience it is clear that the industry need to get involved in the law enforcement and assist in developing the skills of officials. In order to facilitate this brave new world there is a need for a skilled SMARTY workforce, able to predict, react and in turn deliver, smarter and connected cities.