The New Industrial Strategy: Who Will Win The Jobs Of Tomorrow

Forbes

6 days ago

Governments around the world are scrambling to adopt the right industrial strategy to stay competitive in the global race for the jobs of tomorrow.
In the United States, the Trump administration's tariff strategy is primarily aimed at bringing manufacturing back to the country. In Australia, the newly re-elected Albanese Labor government is placing a AUD $ 20 billion+ bet on green manufacturing to reindustrialize the nation. Meanwhile, in the UK, the Starmer government has launched a 10-year AI Opportunities Action Plan, focused on scaling compute infrastructure and making Britain a global hub for AI-driven jobs.
With the World Economic Forum forecasting that nearly as many jobs will disappear as will be created in the coming decade, the stakes could not be higher. In a world shaped by technological disruption, geopolitical realignment, and climate volatility, no single lever is enough.
What matters is the alignment of skills, sector focus, and smart incentives, which ought to be the building blocks of any serious strategy for job creation and industrial renewal.
These are the three questions every government must answer to compete for the next wave of jobs.
This question comes first for a reason. No matter which industries a country prioritizes—or how much capital it attracts—none of it sticks without the right talent.
Education systems are the foundation that determines whether a country can attract, retain, and grow the industries of tomorrow.
Ireland's rise from a struggling, high-emigration economy in the 1980s to a high-income innovation hub is one of the most striking industrial policy success stories of the modern era.
While often credited to low corporate tax rates, what also kept companies like Apple, Google, and Pfizer there and growing was talent. Firms like Intel, Meta, and Alphabet have consistently cited Ireland's skilled workforce as a key reason for their success.
By contrast, one of the most high-profile failures of the past decade—the $10 billion Foxconn deal in Wisconsin—collapsed in part because the local workforce reportedly lacked the specialized skills needed to support advanced manufacturing.
There are many ways to upskill a population, both in the short and long term. In markets with clear potential, the private sector is already stepping in. In South Africa, Microsoft and Google have launched large-scale training programs in AI and digital skills, viewing widespread youth unemployment as an opportunity to build a future-ready workforce.
Such initiatives are tailored to meet real and immediate job demand. As Evan Jones, CEO of Collective X, puts it: 'We're not just skilling for the sake of it—we're skilling for absorption.'
Collective X is a public-private partnership tackling South Africa's digital skills gap at scale. It manages a R500 million ($28 million) outcomes-based fund that only pays training providers when learners are placed in real jobs. To date, over 500 organizations have signed on.
But while short-term technical bootcamps may fill immediate gaps, they're no substitute for long-term talent strategy. That starts with reforming higher education.
According to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report, the fastest-growing roles—from AI engineers to renewable energy technicians—require not only technical skills but also adaptive capabilities such as analytical thinking, creativity, and complex problem-solving. These are precisely what traditional lecture-based university models struggle to deliver on a large scale.
To stay competitive, universities must evolve from passive knowledge providers and rethink not only what students learn, but also how they learn.
One promising approach is peer-to-peer learning, a student-driven, project-based approach that fosters collaboration, initiative, and effective communication. Paired with co-designed curricula and digital platforms, it helps bridge the gap between academic theory and real-world readiness.
Countries that embed these models into their higher education systems have a better chance of attracting investment and retaining talent at home.
Some countries, such as the U.S., can afford to bet on multiple high-growth sectors. However, even the U.S. faces trade-offs, including talent, infrastructure, and political bandwidth. No country can do everything well.
In a world of limited resources and global competition, focus matters. That means setting priorities, making trade-offs, and resisting the urge to chase everything because trying to do it all often means doing none of it well.
India's Special Economic Zones (SEZs) offer a cautionary tale. Meant to boost exports across dozens of sectors, many fell short of their targets. A World Bank report blamed 'policy fragmentation, lack of sector focus, and poor coordination.' Some zones became real estate plays; a few built lasting industrial strength.
By contrast, one often-overlooked sector with real potential is the creative economy. When Bill Gates recently named the three job categories most resilient to AI—pharma, energy, and coders—music, film, and live events didn't make the cut.
Yet countries like Nigeria and Kenya are leaning into the creative economy as potential job creators. Nigerian artists now top global charts, Nollywood is among the world's largest film industries, and Kenyan animators and storytellers are gaining traction across the continent.
A range of ancillary industries and services will be needed to support this momentum. UNCTAD estimates that Africa's creative economy could generate up to 20 million jobs by 2030, particularly for young people and women. One example: Move Afrika, a touring platform backed by Global Citizen, created over 1,000 jobs during its stop in Kigali and increased local sourcing from 75% to 90% in just 18 months (Disclaimer: I work for Global Citizen).
However, transforming the creative economy into a genuine engine of job creation will require a proper policy framework—modern copyright laws, fair digital revenue-sharing, and robust intellectual property protections. This is especially urgent as broad exemptions to copyright are being proposed in several jurisdictions, threatening the ability of artists and creators to earn a living, and, by extension, generate jobs.
This is precisely why the Music and Entertainment Development Initiative (MEDI) was launched: to provide governments with the data needed to justify innovative policy frameworks and unlock the full economic potential of their creative economies. MEDI is mapping music ecosystems across 22 African countries and will provide targeted policy recommendations to support growth, from intellectual property (IP) reform to infrastructure and investment.
Not every country needs to chase AI labs or hyperscale data centers. The point isn't to mimic Silicon Valley. Instead, the countries that win and retain jobs won't be the ones that try to do everything—they'll be the ones that do something well.
Even with the right sectors and skills in place, nothing moves without investment.
That's where smart incentives come in. Today's investors are seeking predictable, de-risked environments in a world that is increasingly messy and ever-changing. That means:
Stable procurement pipelines. India's solar auction system is a standout example of a bright and stable policy. Launched in 2010 under the National Solar Mission, it invited developers to bid competitively for utility-scale projects backed by 25-year power purchase agreements. As a result, costs dropped, investor confidence surged, and solar jobs nearly tripled. According to IRENA, the sector grew from just over 110,000 jobs in 2010 to more than 318,000 by 2023, spanning manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
Targeted subsidies and industrial strategy incentives. In Collie, Western Australia, the state government took a proactive approach to transitioning from coal to clean energy and green manufacturing. A flagship project is the Collie Green Steel Mill—a $400 million facility that will produce low-carbon rebar using renewable-powered electric arc furnaces. It's expected to create 500 construction jobs and 200 long-term roles.
To support the project, the government committed:
Long-term industrial strategy policy certainty and investor confidence. Even the best incentives fall flat if investors don't believe they'll last. As strategist and investor Taufiq Rahim explores in his new book, Trump 2.5, today's industrial strategies—particularly in the U.S.—are increasingly shaped by short-term political cycles and populist pressures. Investors—and foreign governments eyeing an opening—need to pay close attention to where policy continuity might hold, where it might fracture, and what that means for capital flows.
As a case in point, just a few years ago, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was poised to help catalyze a boom in clean energy investment, with 142,000 renewable energy jobs added in 2023 alone. But that momentum now risks being reversed following the House's passage of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act.'
One climate tech founder recently warned that his entire business—built around a $85-per-ton carbon capture credit—could be 'vaporized overnight' if the credit disappears or is diluted, as now seems increasingly possible.
As a counterpoint, after years of stagnation, nuclear energy appeared to be making a comeback in the U.S., driven by rising demand, concerns over grid reliability, bipartisan support, and net-zero goals. But with the passage of the House version of the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' prospects have once again become mixed.
That's a challenge—because, like all major energy infrastructure, nuclear projects require coordinated, credible policy that investors can count on for years. The timelines are long, the risks are high, and without lasting policy commitment, capital stays on the sidelines.
As nuclear-focused investor Arthur Hyde put it to me recently: 'All energy infrastructure is long-lived. Timelines are a red herring. The real question is who offers credible, coordinated policy over time.'
Ultimately, the countries that win the new industrial era won't be the ones with the loudest rhetoric. They'll be the ones with the right industrial strategy that invests in people, places smart bets, and aligns policy incentives with long-term intent. The industrial strategy playbook is there. To those with the discipline to follow it, will go the spoils.