Training professional smart city workforces through a partnership with technology firms

Abstract

Smart cities need professionals who are well trained in basic technologies. However the existing workforce in the cities is unable to meet this new and complex job demand due to the ever-evolving and diverse technological changes. Professionals trained in high technology are few in number and demand high wages. As a result the need for a workforce is increasing and it becomes a necessity to train the existing workforce to adapt to high-quality jobs. It is necessary to change the training programs in technical schools and universities to train a highly qualified workforce but the results of this can be seen in a long period. Naturally to achieve an effective result in a short time existing technology employees should be educated on the needed subjects and adapt to new technologies. New graduates trained with old education programs should also be included in these programs. Resources available for education are universities technical schools professional organizations and companies that produce technology. Due to their official programs and institutional nature the adaptation of the first three sources to the new conditions will take a longer time. Today technology-producing companies are more advanced in technology than most educational institutions. Therefore in the training of the current workforce technology companies are an important alternative that the state or private institutions can offer to get fast results and to train a sufficient number of qualified workforce together with both the main mechanism of the master–apprentice approach for the company and the cooperation between companies working in the same sector. © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.