Mobility Could Create 100,000 Jobs in the Next Decade. Will the Workforce Be Ready?
On this episode of the podcast, the co-founder of the Detroit Mobility Lab describes the skills needed to fuel the growth of mobility businesses.
Jessica Robinson, co-founder of the Detroit Mobility Lab and president and executive director of the Michigan Mobility Institute, sat down with MMG on the sidelines of last week’s Great Lakes ACG Capital Connection in Detroit to talk about training the engineering workforce of the future.
In Robinson’s definition, mobility encompasses the transportation of not only people and goods, but also livestock, food, and even data and information. It also increasingly includes an emphasis on social and environmental considerations. She discussed her organization’s focus on creating a talent pipeline for mobility careers, which require expertise in areas including software development, cybersecurity and data science. The skills gap is already causing a hiring bottleneck and threatens to limit the growth of mobility businesses in Michigan and beyond.
Robinson also weighed in on autonomous vehicles and when we’ll see them on the roads.
“If we don’t boost the number of people that are acquiring these skills, either as new university grads or transitioning professionals, that lag will have an impact. It could be just slower time to market, or potentially new innovations that don’t even see the light of day because you don’t have the creative minds working on these problems.”
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