BRICS moves to forecast future skills as technology reshapes labour markets

The BRICS CONNECT (Cooperation Network for Capacity Building, Employability, and New Skills and Technologies) will provide a platform for member countries to share best practices and knowledge on skills forecasting, labour-market intelligence, future skills and digital employment services. Its four areas of cooperation will cover capacity building on social security, women’s participation in the workforce, skills and employability, and digital public infrastructure.

The network builds on the BRICS Virtual Liaison Office, an existing online platform for cooperation and knowledge-sharing on social security, and will function as a flexible platform, with cooperation being voluntary and non-binding. The initiative is aimed at strengthening knowledge exchange and capacity building among member countries on labour-market and employment policies.

The focus on skills forecasting follows several rounds of discussions on the future of work under India’s 2026 BRICS chairship. At the second BRICS Employment Working Group meeting in Thiruvananthapuram in May, member countries discussed cooperation on social protection, women’s workforce participation and skills development, with skills mapping identified as one of the priority areas. The meeting also proposed voluntary, consensus-based mechanisms for capacity building on social security and skills.

The discussions were taken forward at the 12th BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting in Hyderabad in July, where ministers adopted a declaration and launched the framework for BRICS CONNECT. The meeting focused on social protection, labour-market formalisation, women’s workforce participation, skills development and digital technologies. The preceding Employment Working Group meeting had identified four priority areas, including cooperation on employability, skills mapping and development, and the use of digital technologies for workers, including gig and platform workers.

The labour track has also included discussions on how technology will reshape jobs. During the July meetings, BRICS labour delegations visited technology and industry facilities in Hyderabad, where discussions covered artificial intelligence, future-ready skilling, industry-academia collaboration and workplace transformation.

Separately, BRICS ministers on Thursday backed a proposal to give traditional and indigenous knowledge a dedicated place in academic cooperation among member countries. They welcomed the Guiding Principles on Strengthening Academic Collaboration on Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge Systems and proposed that the subject be considered as an additional International Thematic Group under the BRICS Network University, a network of universities from member countries that collaborate on research, academic programmes and exchanges. If taken forward, the new group would provide a formal platform for universities to work together on areas such as documenting, preserving and sharing traditional and indigenous knowledge.

The move follows a BRICS Network University conference held in July specifically on traditional and indigenous knowledge systems, where participants discussed ways to document and preserve such knowledge and use digital technologies to make it more accessible. The conference also examined how academic institutions could collaborate across BRICS countries on knowledge systems that are often transmitted through communities and generations. The guiding principles emerging from the process were subsequently taken up by the BRICS education ministers.

The development is part of a broader push to deepen cooperation on skills and higher education. At the 13th BRICS Education Ministers’ Meeting in Bhubaneswar in August, member countries discussed skill development and cooperation through the BRICS TVET Cooperation Alliance, as well as collaborative research and innovation, mutual recognition of qualifications and capacity building for academic leadership. The education ministers also backed the initiative to consider traditional and indigenous knowledge as a new thematic area under the BRICS Network University.