Fostering Digital and Green Transformation in SMEs

The discussion about the future of jobs, skills and competencies is one of the most important issues in education, particularly in higher education. Many people have used to fear of automation and replacing workers by robots for years. Looking back, technology creates more jobs than it destroys. However, it does not mean, that every people keep their jobs which they have been trained and educated to. According to the findings of Person’s researchers reported in “The future of skills. Employment in 2030” (2020), the future is not as dark as many people have predicted. Only 20% of population has occupations that will shrink. This figure is much lower than research studies of automation have suggested. At the same time only 10% does the job for which the demand is likely to grow. 70% have a profession as it will exist, but the way they practice it will change. Finally, 20% have mechanical work, which is likely to be replaced by robots in 2030. We have to expect that demand for soft skills will increase, continuous learning and improvement will be the condition of good work, education sector will have to introduce new methods and techniques of teaching and people will have to supplement qualification with those outside of own field of study. The labour market is affected by numerous trends, among the digital revolution seems to be one of the great importance. In another Report – “Rewriting the rules for the digital age” (2017) specialist from Deloitte argue than digital revolution starts to accelerate its pace which creates new rules for business and for HR for nearly every organisational people practice from learning to management to the definition of the work itself. Rapid change is not limited to the technology, but encompasses society, environment, demography and social relations. The main problem that arises, is that business productivity has not kept pace with technological progress and it remains low despite the introduction of new technologies into the business environment. We also have important gender issue which have a huge impact on the labour market. One of the tasks of higher education is to prepare human resources in the service of the economy, society, and technology. Therefore, universities must anticipate trends and adapt tools, but also educational techniques to the challenges of the new world. As the world around us becomes more and more digital, tools and methods must consider the technological aspect. The global processes especially affect SMEs, which are not so properly prepared to finance all required changes. We need to consider first of all the following processes: 1) The shift of trade to the web - the rapid growth of e-commerce - the coronovirus epidemic accelerated the global trend that was taking place anyway as part of the technological revolution known as Industry 4.0 - companies that have not yet moved their activities online are losing their competitiveness faster and faster and they will soon be unable to cope with the competition. 2) Automating customer service by introducing chatbots. With resource constraints, the smart way to get things done is through automation. 3) Generation Z has become the greatest market force, understanding the market completely differently and displaying consumer behaviour in a completely different way than previous generations. This creates a demand for new marketing strategies, new tools and new skills, as well as for new content that must be more visual and saturated with deeper content than before - refer not only to the substantive content of the message, but also for an attractive and visual message. 4) Moving business processes to the cloud - companies implementing the cloud have many benefits from improving processes, and at the same time cloud solutions are advanced, inexpensive, and easy to use. 5) Green shift – considering aspects of protection of the environment in every aspect of business operation. General objective: Develop and transfer innovative and good practices on the quality of business education for SMEs, enabling digital and green transformation