Mr. Rumsfeld cited a number of steps taken to ease the strain on the American military, including the shift of important combat skills from the reserves to active-duty troops, and the assignment of administrative tasks to civilians so those in uniform could return to combat duties.
The recent autumn statement signalled a fundamental shift in the flow of skills funding, away from colleges and directly into the control of employers.
If hard skills are the priority, shouldn't the attention shift to those types of skills?
Neither industrial nor demographic shifts nor a mismatch of skills with job vacancies is behind the increased rates of unemployment.
This shift in the workplace will fuel a transference of skills, a revolution led by a new generation leading the charge and transferring skills to the existing workforce.
Factors favouring task shifting included successful examples of task shifting, proper referral channels, the need for services, scarcity of skills and focused initiatives such as home based management of fever.
Education officials, scientists, and politicians continue to buzz about last week's sudden demise of the U.K.'s Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the shift of its remit to a newly created Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
We need to shift the way we approach our working lives – to think in terms of skills instead of jobs.
For example, some of the emerging threats and opportunities of this fundamental shift involve managing skills gaps and jobs scarcity in the context of a still accelerating pace of technological change, whilst avoiding a low growth trap.
