Digital Literacy & Digital Skills Scenario of ASEAN Marginal Workers Under & Post COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This research aims to study 1) the scenario of workforces relevant with digital literacy and digital skills among the marginal workers from the selected six ASEAN countries; 2) the scenario of the digital literacy and digital skills relevant to the current and the future jobs skills among all the marginal workers; and 3) the government’s policy to support any digital reskill-upskilling among the workforces including the marginal workers to serve well with all demanding skills of the future jobs. The qualitative research with document study and e-interview among all 178 key informants from all relevant stakeholders by its clustered sampling: the policy, the private sector, and the marginal workers from the selected six ASEAN countries base on their similar digital literacy and digital skills workforces context. Narrative description was used. The article organizes its findings as of its objectives 1) the scenario of workforces relevant with digital literacy and digital skills among all the marginal workers from the selected ASEAN countries affected by the pandemic as well as technology disruption resulted in a pattern of businesses shifting from the formal sector to the informal and will be most affected the low skilled. The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce. Eighty-four percent of employers are set to rapidly digitalize working processes, including a significant expansion of remote work with its trend to change 44% of their workforce to operate remotely; 2) The scenario of the digital literacy and digital skills relevant to the current and the future jobs skills among all the marginal workers found the top emerging jobs relevant to digital literacy and digital skills are data analysts & data scientists, digital marketing specialist, software and application developer, YouTubers, Start Ups, and some of the soft skills such as the creative & the analytical thinking, problem-solving, and others. All kinds of administrative jobs, secretaries, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll clerk, HR would be declining. Most of the marginal workers have low to mid digital literacy and digital skills such as Microsoft office, digital marketing, photoshop, social media, content creating, and video editing. They are looking forward to reskills in all related digital literacy and digital skills from fundamental to mid and high skills such as data analytic, data science, software development, web development, cybersecurity, AI, programing, cyber manager, digital consultant and others; 3) The government’s policy relevant to support any reskill-upskilling among the workforces including the marginal workers for future jobs found similar among ASEAN with a) accelerate all relevant digital competency by partnering with private and industry sectors through TVET training system; and b) work with industries to revamp national curriculums via digital learning pathway and emerging skillsets. The PPP strategy must be used for knowledge transfer and building digital ecosystem.