Automation Job Insecurity and The Pursuit of Educational Opportunities in Digital Skills

Abstract

By applying a questionnaire to a random sample in the United States of America this thesis aimed to find out if the idea of automation and the digital transformation of the workplace created job insecurity and if as a result people are preparing through the pursuit of education on work-ready digital skills The findings of this thesis suggest that Americans are indeed preparing by developing their digital skills but the reason is not job insecurity Contrary to our hypothesis those who were more job insecure had taken fewer steps towards preparing themselves with digital skills; nonetheless as predicted in this thesis internet searching had a relationship with the pursuit of education showing that those that are more active online are the ones that have been more active in their digital skills preparation The findings of this thesis satisfy a research gap on job insecurity research by studying the pursuit of education as a potential outcome From a managerial point of view this work is useful to companies as it brings light to human resource managers regarding the preparation of the workforce for the future Finally it is also a topic of interest for governments and international organizations since the preparation of the labor force for the changes of the years to come is a topic that concerns the globe

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Miin-Jye Wen (Supervisor)