ABB survey reveals re-industrialization at risk from global education gap in automation

A global ABB survey has revealed a growing trend in U.S. and European businesses toward reshoring or nearshoring operations to build resilience in the face of global challenges—along with a significant education gap in the skills necessary for these strategies to succeed.

“The world is constantly evolving—businesses are shifting existing structures and adopting new technologies to future-proof their operations for a variety of challenges and uncertainties, with robotic automation playing a key role,” said Sami Atiya, president of ABB’s Robotics & Discrete Automation Business. “We need significant investment in continuous education to prepare our existing and future workforce to thrive in an age of robotics and automation, important not only to prepare for the widespread shifts we are seeing, but to create prosperous societies going forward.”

ABB’s 2022 survey of U.S. and European business leaders revealed that 74% of European and 70% of U.S. businesses are planning to re- or nearshore operations to build their supply chain resilience in response to labor shortages, the need for a more sustainable global footprint, and global uncertainty.

Most of these businesses view automation as the enabler of these shifts, with 75% of European and 62% of U.S. businesses surveyed planning to invest in robotics and automation in the next three years to facilitate this shift in operations.

Despite this appetite for automation, ABB’s 2022 global education survey found a significant gap in the education and training needed to ensure the skills necessary for work in the increasingly connected and automated workplaces of the future. Of the global education professionals surveyed, 80% believe robotics and automation will shape the future of employment in the next 10 years, while only one in four education institutions currently use robots as part of their teaching programs.