Abstract
Knowledge is the greatest raw material. To build a secure future, you need knowledge, skills, to network, and to get involved in the new. Digitization with the technological and social challenges requires a rethinking and adjustment of professional qualifications at the same time. More than half of 70% of the open AI positions in companies are currently unfilled. This high number describes the dilemma and the challenges for the teaching and training of tomorrow. Are we ready for the technological challenges of tomorrow? There is significantly high potential for diverse teams staffing the STEM fields with more female specialists and fully using specialist knowledge and personal qualifications of men and women to ensure gender-independent decision-making structures in human-technology interaction and use diversity as key for reaching sustainable goals and set milestones in the digital era. The foundation for diversity, inclusion, and sustainable digital innovations can only be ensured by adjusted education and academic training.
TopIntroduction
The Italian Presidency decided at the Digital Economy Ministers’ Meeting in Trieste on the 5th of August 2021 to place digitization at the core of G20 discussions. Participation in education and training for all to eliminate digital gender gaps and challenge stereotypes are, thus, not just buzzwords anymore but lived engagement. The diversity of existing regulatory approaches and technologies within the G20 means that many questions are yet to be answered: how to make digitization an opportunity for all? Fostering diversity and inclusion in the digital era is essential to protect and enlarge global value chains, create a trustworthy Artificial Intelligence ecosystem, enhance the digital to achieve sustainable growth.
A Memorandum has been created by two researchers from US and from Europe, who is the author of this article, standing themselves for diversity, women leadership, strengthening the innovative action in digital era. The Memorandum has been fully embedded into the policy recommendations for G20 Summit 2021. In the frame of the external scientific support of TF4 Task Force on Digital Transformation, part of that work has begun; there is much more to be done. The commitment, dedication and cooperation to move the T20/G20 discussions forward continue to be greatly appreciated (T20-B20 Joint Statement, 2021) (T20 Task Force 4, 2021) (Görlich, D., 2021).
In this thematic context, the first thing to do is to critically question the concept of sustainability. Is it pure rhetoric or a substitute religion for do-gooders? The term is actually empty and arbitrary because you don't know what it is referring to. The word sustainability can also be misused for certain purposes. Thus, it is considered as a combination of the area to which sustainability should relate and the corresponding ethical and moral evaluation framework of the human being. Sustainability consists of two levels: active design and reflection. (Grünwald, A., 2017)
In other words, when using the term “sustainability of digital innovations” in this article, it refers to securing the necessary basis for diversity, inclusion and equality: education and training.
Key Terms in this Chapter
STEMs: These fields include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
Inclusion: Inclusion is the act of allowing different types of people to do something and treating them fairly and equally. Inclusion is part of social, corporate, and political responsibility.
BIM: Building information modeling describes a working method for networked planning, construction and management of buildings and other structures using software. All relevant building data is digitally modeled, combined, and recorded.
Diversity: Diversity is the range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, social class, physical ability, or attributes, religious or ethical values system, national origin, and political beliefs. Diversity of people does not mean just the obvious in terms of demographics such as race, ethnicity, gender, and age. Diversity means people with different skill sets, experiences, educational backgrounds, cultural and geographic perspectives, ways of thinking and working. Diversity is part of social, corporate, and political responsibility.
Gender Bias: In scientific research, gender bias or gender-related distortion effect describes a distortion of reality through formulations, conceptual assumptions, or statistical errors, which leads to incorrect representations of the actual gender-specific relationships.
Gender Mainstreaming: Realization of equality between men and women, taking into account gender-specific living conditions and interests.