- Four experts discuss skills and workforce in the 6G era
- Topics include soft skills, the war for talent and changing approaches to education
- On the other hand, AI is really important, but it can’t do everything
The next generation of mobile technology, 6G, is due to arrive around 2030, but work on standards, technologies, etc. is already underway. As standards body 3GPP noted in December 2023, delivering a new mobile generation is a multi-year process, and work on 6G specifications is being planned well in advance.
For operators and vendors, an immediate challenge is ensuring that their workforce has the skills necessary to implement, deploy and sell 6G services, whatever those services may look like. Indeed, operators are already well aware that they will need to upskill and reskill their existing workforce in areas such as AI, cloud, cybersecurity, software development, data science and IT to keep up with the rapidly changing technology landscape.
In a recent webinar hosted by 6GWorld, a group of mobile technology experts offered some insights into ways the communications industry can help prepare itself and its workforce for future demands, with the broader skills and talent challenges facing the tech industry topping the list.
1: Engage students and keep them interested in the long term
Tim Brown is a senior lecturer in RF antennas and propagation at the University of Surrey in the UK. He spoke about the importance of training young graduates and experienced engineers, noting that security, communications and AI skills “absolutely need to converge.”
Brown said one of the biggest challenges is making sure employers’ needs are aligned with courses and internships that will attract students and keep them interested in the long term.
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“There’s a balance between what employers need and what prospective students are actually interested in,” he commented, noting that adding buzzwords like “space,” AI and machine learning to course names, as well as providing students with early job opportunities, can also be beneficial.
2: Expand your talent pipeline
Bradley Mead, head of network managed services at Ericsson, said the rate of change in how networks are operated will accelerate over the next two years. “Getting the talent to handle that is our biggest challenge and it’s something we’re investing heavily in.”
At the same time, people will continue to move. “So in parallel, we need to focus on how to make sure that our talent pipeline is filled with the right talent, the right diversity, so that we can meet the demand as well. So we need to do both at the same time: focusing on our existing talent and making sure they’re ready, but also attracting new talent and making sure that we have enough talent coming in to match the demand profile,” Mead said.
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Piotr Pietrzyk, CEO and founder of 6G Academy, also noted that people are increasingly becoming experts in multiple fields, rather than having a single specialty.
He noted that while a typical T-shaped professional has broad expertise and one deep expertise, an M-shaped professional has many areas of deep expertise, allowing them to reskill and upskill in a variety of areas.
3: Soft skills matter
In addition to knowing the competencies themselves, IEEE 2024 Chairman and CEO Tom Coughlin said soft skills applied to technical fields are important. “And I think that’s how we can learn better from each other, too,” he said.
“People who go into these fields tend to be shy and bookish,” Coughlin says. “Learning skills, learning how to communicate well with one another, is something that a lot of us really need help with. And some of that comes from experience, and some of it comes from putting in the effort to learn it.”
Coughlin noted that it’s important to communicate effectively with each other, “so we can come up with better ideas than we could on our own,” which is a really important skill. [and one] Although we sometimes overlook this, we are creatures who live in community and communication is a vital part of what we do with each other.”
4: Don’t forget the basics
While 6G will undoubtedly require an increasing number of new skills, Brown said it’s important to remember that every new mobile generation builds on the previous “G”, with new developments occurring even in previous generations such as 4G.
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“Every time there’s a release from 3GPP, there’s an upgrade, an evolution of the technology, but in most cases it’s actually quite incremental and you have to work at each stage and make incremental improvements. So I think it’ll remain to be seen what G we end up with, the extent to which there’s adoption of 6G, or 7G if 7G comes along, or even beyond that,” he said.
5: Remember that AI can’t do everything
The use of AI and automation will become more embedded in the technology, making installation and deployment simpler and easier to plug and play.
“One thing people need to remember is that AI can’t do anything without automation,” Mead says. “If you can’t act on the recommendations without automation, then it’s not really adding value. That’s a critical skill set on the automation side, but one that people often overlook.”
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Mead added: “Technology is technology, and what happens when it stops working? That’s where humans come in. So you still need a basic level of understanding, and you still need access to experts when needed.”
At the same time, Mead noted that AI and automation will become increasingly built into technology, “and of course that’s a very good thing, because it makes things simpler.”
