Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Applied Research in Management, Business and Economics
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Future-Oriented Innovative Practices for Human Resources Development
Prof. Beata Poteralska
ABSTRACT:
Dynamic changes taking place on the labour market, resulting, among others, from implementation of technological innovations, justify the need for constant development of competences. It is necessary to prepare the staff to function within the “knowledge societies” of the future and to face the dynamically changing environment characterised by uncertainty. Competences necessary in the future will comprise two categories: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) and soft competences (e.g. creativity, dealing with uncertainty, unpredictability, and quick adaptation to the changing environment) (Klowden & Lim 2021, Sala et al. 2020, Dębkowska et al. 2022). However, competence gaps between competences acquired in education and training and market demand by companies are observed (Bauer et al 2011, Haukka 2011). Moreover, investigations clearly show that people do not learn well as „spectators”, passive recipients of knowledge delivered by experts. Effective learning requires active engagement in the process (Serrano et al. 2019, Bolstad et al. 2012). The changes taking place on the labour market force the need to modify the approach to the processes of human resources development. The author of the paper raises the research question: What innovative teaching-learning practices can be used to enable human resources development meeting contemporary needs of the market? For this purpose, the author proposes to apply foresight and Futures Literacy approaches allowing, on the one hand, for active participation (participatory approach), and on the other hand, allowing for the acquisition of currently needed soft future-oriented competences, mainly dealing with uncertainty and unpredictability. The paper presents examples of already undertaken, however on a limited scale, workshops and activities aimed at developing future-oriented competences with the use of foresight and Futures Literacy. In stresses the legitimacy of using this type of approach as a way to meet the challenges identified. The use of the proposed methods supports effective human resource management.
Keywords: human resources development, competences, innovative teaching-learning practices, foresight, Futures Literacy