ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, June 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev has issued an invitation to world leaders from politics, business and education to join a debate to urgently implement human-centred solutions that can help solve the widening global skills gap and worsening talent shortage. Around 6% of the world's GDP has been lost due to these issues according to latest research unveiled at a panel discussion.

"Free trade has been good for the world economy but the rapid pace of globalisation and the digital revolution have left many behind. Now is the time to act, so nobody will be left behind," said Mr Likhachev, at a roundtable event at SPIEF '19 (St. Petersburg International Economic Forum).

"Not a single company, not a single state, not even the largest one in the world can change the labour market culture on its own. To avoid wasting time, we need the Kazan WorldSkills Conference in August to agree on a roadmap to enact a set of human-centred principles to solve this pressing skills gap issue. We have already found the right set of principles, thanks to a joint study commissioned by our new 'Mission: Talent' initiative supported by our partners BCG and WorldSkills Russia. Now we need to build a consensus among the top experts and leaders from the industrialised world how to bring these human-centred solutions to life."

The five human-centred principles are as follows:

• Skills of the future (everyone should be equipped with future proof basic skills - including cognitive, social, cultural and digital)
• Self-sustainability (everyone has the right to follow a unique and individual career path during their entire professional development)
• Skills liquidity (information on job vacancies should be easily accessible around the world; employees hired only on skills and experience, regardless of education, gender, race, social status or physical health)
• Labor market transparency (labour mobility, flexible and remote 'virtual' employment should be available to all, regardless of current place of residence)
• Diversity of values (the workplace and working conditions should support the professional and personal development of each employee, regardless of their values and beliefs)

SOURCE ROSATOM