Virtual hackathon tackles fast-changing labour landscape

By: Aaniqa Karmali

Photo: Courtesy Aqeela Somani

UpSkill is a prospective web portal designed to help today’s workers adapt to shifting trends in the labour market. It was the winning entry in the Future of Work Challenge, a virtual hackathon hosted by the Economic Planning Board and AKYSB in May 2020.

A team of five, including Alykhan Alani, 30, Aqeela Somani, 32, Shamez Walji, 25, Shaleen Walji, 15, and Aliya Mohamed, 24, created UpSkill. The website aims to  provide individuals with resources to adapt their personal skills to changes in the labour market.

“It’s critical that we prepare this generation and future generations for shifting and dynamic work environments,” says Alani, who is currently pursuing an MBA and MA in design strategy from Johns Hopkins University.

Alani explains that UpSkill combines technology and cohort mentorship to provide Ismaili youth and professionals with feedback on their skills, advice on how to improve their profiles, a suggested career trajectory, and a curriculum to help them achieve their goals.

The technology uses a Python algorithm that scans users’ resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and responses to career-based questionnaires. Based on the keywords found in these documents, UpSkill generates a report on users’ skills and prospective career paths and connects them with volunteer mentors in their fields of interest.

Sixty competitors from across Canada took part in the Future of Work Challenge with participants ranging in age from 10 to 35. EPB and AKYSB organized the challenge to help the Jamat stay ahead in the labour market by providing education about current labour trends and their implications.

Teams developed technology-based solutions to adapt to these trends in groups of five or six, and were given eight hours to create a prototype and present it to a panel of judges.

According to Samir Javer, AKYSB Chair in B.C. and one of the event’s organizers, the primary labour trends at the core of the hackathon were based on a report produced by the Economic Planning Board this year. The report focused on three challenges today’s youth will face.

The first is the automation of basic tasks and jobs that rely on manual labour. As technology advances, so does the potential to replace people with machinery for the performance of routine tasks, Javer explained. With the disappearance of jobs in these fields, we must shift our focus to the design process and develop skills such as creativity, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence, he says.

The second labour trend highlighted by the report is the emergence of the “gig” economy, which places an emphasis on flexible work and project-based opportunities.

Finally, the report explored opportunities that are being created through technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Javer says these changes in the labour landscape are not decades away, they’re happening right now.

“We need to skate where the puck is going,” says Javer. “If we just stay complacent and do what we’ve always done, we will actually fall behind.”

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