Mesut Akdere, associate professor of human resource development in Purdue Polytechnic’s Department of Technology Leadership & Innovation and director of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Virtual Lab, has been invited to join a task force at this November’s G20 summit, to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
At the summit, members of the “Economy, Employment and Education in the Digital Age” task force will make recommendations for policies that reform education and provide opportunities for training and entrepreneurship. They plan to address such topics as the digital continuum within the changing labor market, challenges raised by the platform economy and the implications affecting the young. Their policy recommendations will provide concrete and sustainable policy measures that maintain individuality, respect confidentiality, and encourage inclusion in the digital age.
The Polytechnic’s HRD Virtual Lab, which Akdere directs, investigates how human resource training and development can be augmented through immersive technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). At the G20 Summit, a policy debrief from each task force member will be shared with G20 leaders for their consideration. Akdere’s policy debriefing, entitled “Re-skilling Employees for Future Work: How G20 countries can utilize immersive learning technologies to scale up workplace training,” explores the potential of immersive VR and AR technologies in employee re-skilling in the face of rapid automation, digitalization and artificial intelligence.
“The task force is part of the T20 entity of the G20 Summit,” said Akdere. “Think20 (T20) is responsible for connecting and collaborating with regional and international think tanks to contribute to the G20 Summit by providing research-based policy recommendations for societal impact.”
The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. Collectively, G20 members represent around 80% of the world’s economic output, two-thirds of global population and three-quarters of international trade.