The Role of the University in Developing Digital Competencies and Reducing Skills Mismatch from a Human Capital Perspective for the 21st Century

Abstract

This work analyzes the role of the university and its necessary evolution and intervention to address the challenge of skills mismatch, collaborating to reduce this gap in the 21st century labor market that manifests itself through both underqualification and overqualification.

Based on a review of the literature on human capital theory and digital skills, it proposes how the University plays an essential role in developing digital skills within the framework of human capital theory and digital competencies, at an inflection point produced by the end of the pandemic and the learnings and necessary adaptations it has left us in terms of evaluating distance education, added to the emergence and continuous growth of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning processes.

In this complex and disruptive context, Universities emerge as ideal spaces to offer training and development programs focused on digital skills and thus contribute to the development of relevant capabilities for current work environments, collaborating with companies and government organizations in identifying new competencies needed in the labor market and designing training programs that meet those needs, promoting lifelong learning and skill development throughout workers’ careers.