Consultant: Children’s digital skills in an AI world

UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight is the dedicated research office of UNICEF. It undertakes and commissions research and foresight on emerging or current issues of relevance for children to inform the strategic directions, policies and programs of UNICEF and its partners.

With access to digital technologies growing worldwide, the environment in which children are growing up is fundamentally changing. They are exposed to new and rapidly evolving opportunities and risks – whether they go online to create and express their identities, to socialize and build relationships, or to learn and build skills for the future. Recent advancement in generative AI has accelerated this development, as AI systems are quickly becoming central to children’s digital environment through homework-helping chatbots, recommendation algorithms or automated decision-making systems.

These developments make digital skills a critical precondition for successful engagement with the world today and in the future. A study by the IFC found that by 2030, over 230 million jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills. An IMF study estimates that AI will affect 40% of global employment. The potential disruption of AI has great relevance for children’s future work life, as well as how and what education is provided to them today. There is a need to better anticipate the skills needed in the future workplace and adapt educational offerings accordingly. Overall, children must learn from an early age how to leverage digital and AI tools to their maximum potential, both in their daily lives, ongoing education and for future work, and education systems must prepare them as best as possible for the fast-changing digital environment.

Often absent from efforts to navigate this changing landscape are the voices of children themselves, which are critical if we are to better prepare children with the digital skills, they need in an AI world. UNICEF Innocenti is undertaking a project that aims to focus on this topic, with three phases: i) producing a rapid literature review of projections and state of evidence on (digital) skills needs and future work impacts; ii) conduct two multi-sectoral consultations with experts (including policymakers, the private sector, civil society and academia) on literature review findings and skills needs and projections; and iii) five virtual consultation workshops with children around the world to generate insights on children’s perspectives on digital skills today, the impacts of AI and their future skills needs. While the final methodology is still being defined, UNICEF is considering an interactive approach that may involve children brainstorming, debating, developing scenarios, and co-creating recommendations. As the consultations will take place online, each session is expected to last between 1-2 hours and include 8-10 child participants aged 13 to 17.

How can you make a difference? 

1. Develop a project plan, including timelines for the child consultations, an outline for the literature review, and key considerations for the child consultation methodology. Help to identify key stakeholders to get involved in the project, including participants for expert consultations.

2. Draft a rapid literature review (not longer than 10,000 words) to lay the foundation for the content and direction of this workstream. Topics to cover could include: state of digital and digital related skills today (globally and by income groups); review and horizon scanning of projected impacts of AI on jobs and state of evidence on skills needs and future work impacts, broken down by income groups and geography, to understand effects in global North and South; approaches to better anticipate changing market needs; and how education systems are responding. The structure and content of the report will be agreed with the consultant. The literature review will be an internal document but should be complemented by a public-facing article written by the consultant with the key takeaways (around 2,000-3,000 words). The article will be published on the UNICEF site.

3. Help plan, organize and participate in at least two online consultations with experts, presenting the findings of the draft literature review and glean insights to shape the child consultations methodology and final report with recommendations.

4. Drawing on the literature review and expert consultations, co-develop the child consultation methodology and materials. At least 5 online consultations are expected with diverse representation of children around the world. Questions include: How children feel about AI (what excites them, concerns them, where they see it going, etc.); How children think about their digital skills – do they feel equipped? Do they need support? What do children think about their future working lives? What support or opportunities do they want? The consultant is responsible for planning, implementing and writing up the consultations, including developing the consultation materials; preparing documentation for submission to global ethical review boards by UNICEF; liaising with UNICEF country offices and National Commissions and child-focused organizations, as needed, to recruit the children and obtaining parental consent and child assent; develop a pre-consultation ‘information pack’ for the participants; conducting training of co-facilitators; facilitating the workshops; and developing a coding scheme for analysis. The team at UNICEF Innocenti will facilitate connections to country office colleagues.

5. Code and analyze the consultation data and write a short child consultations report that will include key findings, illustrative quotes and insights. The findings should be co-reviewed and discussed with UNICEF.

6. Provide input into the planning of the consultations with the UNICEF Youth Foresight Fellows/Network and read the outputs of it. Provide inputs into the planning of the final visioning and scenario development activities, which draw on the expert, child and youth foresight consultations, and participate virtually in the activities. Review the final project report.

7. After the scenario development exercises, update the child consultations report with a short set of recommendations for policymakers, educators and tech companies on how best to support children’s digital skills development in an AI world.

8. As a principle, the consultant will work closely with the UNICEF team in ensuring alignment across the different aspects of the project. UNICEF will review all draft outputs. Based on emerging findings throughout the project, provide ongoing input into the consultation processes, such as helping to adapt key questions to ask or areas to explore.

9. Advocacy: propose events to target for maximum advocacy impact and visibility for the project, and policy/regulatory processes to influence in the future.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity, please review the complete Terms of Reference here:  GORaF ToR Children's digital skills in an AI world consultant EXT.pdf