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Brazil and India's Young People Are the Most Confident in Their Tech Skills

People across the world are increasingly worrying that machines will replace them in their workplace in the years to come, according to a survey by Indian IT outsourcing giant Infosys. The report comes in wake of growing concern that robotic technology is bound to automate large verities of jobs currently handled by humans.
But there is good news for this generation in both Brazil and India, where 78% of young people are confident that they have the necessary tech skills for a successful future career. This is much higher than the sentiments reported by their peers in France and Australia, where only 53% and 51%, respectively, have a similar confidence.
On the other hand, many young people in all countries believe their schools are failing them. Employers in the tech world often complain that they are finding it hard to find workers equipped with the skills to carry out the jobs of today, and large majorities of youths surveyed have conceded this fact, blaming an education system that did not prepare them for the current challenge. Nearly half (45%) of respondents in the United States, for example, consider their academic education to be old-fashioned and unable to support modern career goals.
Over two-thirds in all markets claim they have had to learn new skills for their current job. For this reason, both communications and on-the-job learning were viewed as a higher priority than pure academic achievement in all the countries.
In Brazil and Germany, 70% agree that their formal education is useful for their current job, but this falls to 50% in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Globally, four out of ten young people believe machines will be able to do their jobs within a decade.
The skills gap is especially pronounced in Europe, according to Infosys, which surveyed more than 9,000 young people in major economies, including Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India, and South Africa and the United States.
Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka said technologies have evolved far faster than what was thought possible even a decade ago, while the educational system remains wedded to practices initially designed for agrarian societies 300 years ago.

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Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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