Future ready Talent Unlocking Potential of our Human Capital

[Music] all right good afternoon everybody Welcome to today's session today I'd like to represent myself my name is Asel mansuri and I'm the executive director of the Emirates family office Association today with the esteemed guest that we've got and panelist I think we're going to drive you through unlocking um human capital and what do we see the potential of unlocking it I've got Mr Rob Bert and Michelle and um fiar which I'm very excited to present to you and I hope that within this session we come out with really unlocking what is it important for the human capital uh to begin with I would like to ask each of the panelists starting with you for how to give us a brief about yourself but as you can see the timers are literally in front of us so we need to keep this short and brief and quick uh so we'll start with you and then go to Michelle and Robert and then we'll kick off with the discussion please well um thank you for having me a quick introduction I'm the CEO of The Wealth Management Institute headquarter in Singapore let me tell you a little bit about our school it's founded by tamasic and GIC two of the world's Global Investors responsible for investing Singapore's National reserves uh we're school for professionals 20,000 enrollments 130 programs that we run uh covering wealth management Asset Management family office risk and governance uh to very recently philanthropy and impact so um that's a little bit about myself and what we do thank you so much Michelle hi everyone it's a pleasure to be here today I am very happy to see many familiar faces new faces as well my name is Michelle saati uh I've been in the region for 14 years uh focusing on investment for family offices and today I'm more on my uh invest uh education hat uh I'm advising sbor on several uh training and we've developed executive training for specifically designed for for the talent of the region thank you so much Michelle Robert please hi thanks for having me I'm uh Rob Solomon I'm the dean of the stern School of Business at NYU abudhabi where I've also been a professor at NYU Stern for 20 years we are at Stern one of the oldest Business Schools continuously operating Business Schools in the world we're nearly 125 years old and I also like to say that now that we are opening a business school here in Abu Dhabi we're also one of the newest Business Schools in the world and we will be starting with our inaugural full-time MBA class on January 12th we're really excited for that program to get off the ground and for the business school to get running thank you thank you so much for your introduction so let's kick it off guys um with if you can explain to me what exactly we mean when we refer to Future Ready talent and the importance of this concept if you may allow me I'll allow fori har to start and then the gents you can um chip into the question well Future Ready talent I think uh we really have to think about it in terms of the challenge organizations and individuals need to think about how they continuous update their skill and their expertise in today's fast changing environment so I always equate Future Ready telling about how do you upskill so let's put some context our parents generation 20 years of education can last you a lifetime of a career one career for a lifetime that's our parents generation now the reality is quite different based on the study uh that was uh done recently the halflife of skill has D dramatically Shunk from about 10 years to now 4.5 and this study was done before generative AI okay so from 10 years half life of your skill means the value of the skill you've acquired half of its value will be lost used to be 10 years now it's 4.5 years so it really dramatically request uh requires to rethink about how do we do education how do we keep learning so to me Future Ready Talent it's all about how do we build the capacity to continuously learn actually we talk about learn relearn unlearn and how do you have nurture and institutionalize the ability to really look at continuous learning as a wave of life thank you so much uh miar uh off to you Michelle so miar put on learning and we'll love to hear from you no absolutely I think we are referring here to uh individuals who are not just equipped to uh the today's job but prepare for the future of the the new Industries uh they must Embrace Innovation even if they're not necessarily capable of provoking it or anticipating it but they need to be able to take advantage of it they will need to be open to new technology new trends they will uh need of course data analysis skills critical thinking I think human uh uh judgment will be essential and why it is important is because we're in a world where the the techn the indust the technology is changing the shape of the industry and we need those future talent to be able to quickly uh learn and adopt new tools and processes there will be more and more powerful tools but ultimately it's the human element who will drive Innovation and problem solving and for that we need the future Talent thank you so much Michelle Robert uh yeah this is the part of the show where I say yeah what they said absolutely what they said this is my yes and moment so much for there we go um sorry about that uh so I when I think about future ready talent I think about a world in which we have to stop training people for yesterday's Industries and even stop training people for today's Industries because we have to get people ready for tomorrow's Industries and I actually think that for universities while we do engage in this upskilling and Executive Education for continuous skill development one of the interesting things that this holds uh that mihar was describing about how the half-life of a particular education that you get today is decreasing I think that one of the things that this highlights for universities is what is the relationship between a student and a university moving forward not just that what is the relationship between the alumnus alumni and the university moving forward to be honest I think gone are the days when you would go to university get your education get your degree and then be done with the university bye-bye by University it was nice to know you I can say I went there and then I have no further relationship with that University I actually think the future of the university is having a continuous relationship not just through the degree program but thereafter coming back to the university periodically to upskill to improve to refine to retrain and to get yourself ready for the new realities of the workplace thank you Robert so I'd like to ask you about how can businesses effectively determine which skills will be most vital for their teams in the years to come so I was struck by a panel that probably two panels before this because I believe it was Donna from the the chartered CFA Institute who was talking about the five things the five areas where she consistently hears about the areas of uh technology and AI sustain ability Financial skills Etc and and and and I I want to sort of add to that because what I think is um Abu Dhabi and by extension the UAE has bold Ambitions and those are the right Ambitions right it's a very ambitious plan to to transform from uh an economy that was focused mostly on industry to one that is focused on a services-based economy and a knowledge-based economy behind that transition is human capital right you need people right the the the the financial capital is there the ambition is there the will is there the people need to be there um and so we need to make sure that the people are ready to lead those changes and where are those changes going to take place in the areas that Donna mentioned before and we need to train folks for those areas thank you so much Robert so I'd like to give a question to both you and Michelle since both of you are fundamentally in Abu Dhabi and what do you think makes Abu Dhabi or the UAE a talent landscape that is unique and why is it so important that we continue to emphasize on the nurturing of our talent and if we can like both of you give us like a very short answer to it so that we can allow more questions to be shared and the audience to interact as well sure so I would say the the the talent in the in the region is is a mix Dynamic blend between the UI Emira and the exper talent um but what's really uh specific to here is I would say two things is one is the entrepreneurship mindset there's really a strong spirit that permeates in the nation which encourage uh Innovation and uh risk taking and the second part is really the optimistic Vision because uh there is a collective belief of the future of the UAE uh and it's really people are here proud to be here and to be part of this success story and why it's important in uh in one one it's important for many different reason but one that I would like to mention today is really about the global uh competitiveness so you need the talent to really U continue the growth but the UA ambition is even more than that they they are Global leader but they want to be on selected are in the top three worldwide and that can only happen if you nurture the talent thank you Michelle Robert yeah just building I think on what I said before is that the the transition to a knowledge-based services-based economy requires not just the skills those areas and technology and AI those areas like um Financial skills those areas like sustainability not just the individual skills to perform those but when we go around and we speak with employers here in the local environment we hear the same things over and over again is we need folks with managerial skills we need folks with leadership skills we need folks with analytical skills those are the people who will be able to drive that transition and to make sure that we go from where we are now today and we are Future Ready for 10 15 20 50 years from now thank you so much um miar what are the strategies that can be used to bridge in the skills that may be present Within in the workforce and if you can hit on the key elements and strategies that systematically will develop Future Ready Talent yeah I'm that's a that's a great question um first I like to um don't have Abu Dhabi experience yet to speak about but we are very excited this morning we launched the collaboration with adgm um and Singapore um so you know really I think the two two two great uh Marketplace is coming together to do things so I thought maybe this is a good time for us to share a little bit about what we do in Singapore to systematically develop Talent um we started a journey of preparing Future Ready talent in a very systematic way 10 years ago we launched an initiative in Singapore called the skills future movement and it's really trying to Pivot everybody away from front loading education and think they're done the point that Robert made to learn for life so a few PE key new things that was launched first the government gave skills future credit as part of the national movement what is that literally that is a learning bank account that every Singaporean 25 years old and above get from the government right they put money in that account and say go learn and the older you are they more money they'll give to you because they think you may be disrupted so that's whole concept of encouraging people to learn and giving the money so government no longer does fund formative education they fund lifelong learning then the industry knows that okay this is happening we're not just going to sit and do the usual thing so the industry came together and look at how they're going to look at transform the jobs that's going to be transformed and the schools associated so for example we have 40 job transformation maps in Singapore where all the industry are systematically upskilling the people and making sure the talent is Future Ready employers what are their roles first they get huge incentive to send people to go training they get up to 70 to 90% funding from the government all they need to do is that okay this is the kind of training you need to go I give you time off to do very generous in fact I'm a member of parliament in Singapore I track since 2015 when we launch every year in Singapore budget there will always be money set aside for companies to send the people for training and last but not least Educational Institute like us wmi is a practice base a school designed and set up to train Finance professional Finance is a big sector in Singapore so we are encouraged together with with the schools to make sure that everything we teach are completely aligned with the industry so really many the whole of society approach starting from the government the industry the employers and Institute of Higher Learning like ourselves thank you so much me that was super insightful to also see how does Singapore appreciate education similarly to how the UAE is also thriving to be on the top as I mean Robert if you can tell us or discuss with us what are the most crucial skills that you believe employers should focus on when they Empower their employees to stay ahead of the global business environment so we we focused a little bit on the employers and what employers should be looking for in upskilling but I think now we want to turn it around to what's the employee or what's the individual's responsibility in education and and and I would say I personally I'm an educator I've been an educator my whole life just about and I believe in the ability of education to transform lives uh that's always a fundamental belief and I've observed it in practice so if you are an employee or an individual you need to take ownership of your own education what are the things that are going to help you get ahead and to meet the needs and the demands of today's workplace and today's environment I I'm fascinated to learn about what Singapore is doing by the government providing an education Bank in the United States uh employers used to provide a certain amount for each employee per year and it varied by company it was used to be quite generous after the financial crisis a lot of those benefits started to diminish but I think now because some of those uh corporate benefits have been in Decline I think individuals need to start to look and take stock of what do I need to do to continue to improve and enhance my own skills because gone are the days when the employers used to do it all for me thank you so much Robert I mean we've just got like less than two minutes to go so I'd like to end the session by asking you um miar about how can individuals take ownership of their professional growth and what are the tools that can be used to achieve this so that we can keep our audience with some very important things that they can go back and really reflect upon and we might see them being implemented in the next ADW well I um you know lots have been said about individual taking ownership that's absolutely important and I just shared with you that in Singapore we have a bank account training Grant are up to 70 to 90 and yet we're still working progress we've been 10 years in the journey with all that money we've moved from 35% going for training to 50% it's a progress but we still have 50% not what's inertial so we looked at we've every year we scru tonight basically we've learned the key to success for lifelong learning is able to have the new generation of adult learning institution that can meet the demand um we all know what are Great Schools right and what you to stern a great school I mean these are very established formative education that people know what are the well established Norms but ad adult education is very different the uh the Norms are quite different uh the the impact and the relevance are quite in uneven so because we have a wonderful audience and we're going to about to launch a program I would like to actually take this opportunity Aisha if I may to speak about a particular program that I think would be the key to make adult learning lifelong learning really suitable and attractive to adults and professionals so this is about the Dalo Market principles program that we about we just launched this morning with adgm a adma um really four things four things adults are looking for if you want them to go back to school first is the training applied and real life right so this program that we're going to be launching with Ray it's based on Ray's 50 years of investment um experience and insights uh is taught through the way you think about the market and the investment performance uh everything is real real Market data so applied and based on real world scenarios second adults don't learn in the traditional way they need it to be flexible and deliver in bike siiz self-pace so this program that we're launching is completely online on time on target anytime anywhere yet you're engaged with videos animations case studies interactive that you can do anytime you like um third cohort based learning people want to um get to know people who is interested we've attracted investment community of from about 26 countries for this program so um uh it's wonderful to see people come together and learn and of course raise feature in this program and last but not least um I think very very important is use of technology to customize training so in this particular program you will have a digital Ray doio we've loaded all his lifetime of research both published and unpublished and so depending on where you are on the investment experience you can ask The Bard basically Ray Dalo as your personal coach to learn so these are some of the things that you need uh in order to engage adult Learners thank you so much miar and thank you so much Robert and Michelle for this very nice session and I hope you guys enjoyed it thank you so much [Music]