From October 20-22, by the banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference returns. Nobel Prize and Turing Award winners will take the stage to discuss the future and trends of technology, and the internet-famous professors who "rescue" people from anxiety and involution—McFarlane and Xiang Biao—will hold a live dialogue!
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The real economy is the foundation of the national economy and an important support for building future strategic development advantages. At present, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is developing in depth. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the industrial internet, and intelligent robots are accelerating breakthroughs and spreading widely into the production sector, profoundly changing the production methods and employment methods of the real economy, and also bringing new challenges to the employment structure and social operations. As new technologies and new equipment are applied at an accelerating pace, the real economy is accelerating its transformation toward digitalized and intelligent production models. Some traditional positions characterized mainly by repetitive and procedural operations have placed new and higher demands on workers' knowledge structure, skill levels, and innovation capabilities. In this context, to promote high-quality development of the real economy, it is necessary not only to fully leverage the important role of technological progress in improving production efficiency and cultivating development momentum, but also to place greater emphasis on human development and human capital accumulation, and actively mitigate the structural impact of technological iteration on workers' employment and career transitions. It is necessary to promote a closer integration of "investment in things" and "investment in people," embed talent cultivation and skill upgrading throughout the entire process of technological progress and industrial upgrading, continuously improve workers' ability to adapt to new technologies, new industries, and new business forms, promote better integration of workers with new technologies and new production methods, and drive technological progress to more fully translate into new momentum for the steady development of the real economy.
Fully recognizing the core significance of "investment in people" for the steady development of the real economy
Reshape the comparative advantage of the labor force and promote the transition from the demographic dividend to the talent dividend. Since the reform and opening up, as China has continuously integrated into the global division of labor system, the real economy, especially manufacturing, has for a long period relied on comparative advantages such as abundant labor resources and relatively low labor costs to continuously strengthen product competitiveness and industrial undertaking capacity. At present, artificial intelligence, digital technology, and automated production equipment are accelerating their integration into all links of research and development, production, and sales in the real economy. The traditional development model that relied on labor quantity and cost to form competitive advantages is undergoing profound changes. In particular, as the population structure and labor supply-demand relationship change, the traditional demographic dividend tends to weaken, and workers' knowledge levels, professional skills, and technological adaptability are increasingly becoming important factors affecting the competitiveness of the real economy. It is necessary to adapt to the trends of technological progress and changes in production methods, increase investment in human capital, strengthen workers' knowledge renewal and skill upgrading, promote the shift of development advantages from greater reliance on the demographic dividend to greater reliance on the talent dividend, promote better integration of human resources with new technologies, new equipment, and new production methods, and continuously accumulate new competitive advantages for the transformation and upgrading of the real economy.
Promote human-technology synergy and unleash the effectiveness of industrial digitalization and intelligent transformation. Technological innovation is an important driving force for industrial transformation and upgrading, but advanced equipment can only truly be transformed into real productivity when effectively combined with high-quality workers. At present, China's traditional industries are accelerating their development toward high-end, intelligent, and green development, and more and more enterprises are improving production efficiency through equipment renewal, digital transformation, and intelligent upgrading. At the same time, automated, digitalized, and intelligent production models are accelerating their spread. Demand for some repetitive and procedural positions is declining, while demand for new positions such as digital equipment operation, intelligent production management, and equipment operation and maintenance continues to increase. The insufficient alignment between workers' original skill structures and new production methods has become more prominent. Therefore, industrial transformation cannot stop at updating machinery and equipment and building intelligent production lines; it must also simultaneously advance the upgrading of workers' capabilities. Talent cultivation and skill upgrading should be embedded in the entire process of industrial transformation. Through methods such as vocational skills training and coordinated training between higher education and vocational education, workers' digital skills, intelligent equipment operation, and production management capabilities should be improved, promoting coordinated progress in equipment renewal and talent renewal, technological transformation and skill upgrading, so that more workers can achieve job transitions and capability leaps in the transformation of production methods.
Strengthen the support of innovation factors and enhance the long-term competitive advantage of the real economy. Talent is the most active, potential-rich, and dynamic production factor in the development of the real economy. Competition in the modern real economy appears on the surface to be competition in products, industries, technology, and markets, but in the final analysis it is competition for talent. On the one hand, talent directly participates in production and operations and is an important force in promoting the optimal combination of production factors and improving product quality and production efficiency; on the other hand, talent is also the core carrier of scientific and technological research and development and technological innovation, undertaking important functions such as knowledge creation, technological breakthroughs, and achievement transformation. As competition in the real economy increasingly concentrates on key core technologies, strategic emerging industries, and important links in industrial chains, the supporting role of scientific and technological innovation in industrial competitiveness has become more prominent. Whether it is breakthroughs in basic research, tackling key core technologies, or the transformation and industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, none can be achieved without the sustained support of high-quality talent. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen human capital accumulation based on the long-term development of industries, promote more effective alignment between talent supply and industrial demand, continuously transform talent advantages into innovation advantages, industrial advantages, and competitive advantages, and cultivate a solid talent foundation for the transformation and upgrading of the real economy.
Focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of "investment in people" in empowering the development of the real economy
Strengthen the supply of skilled talent and consolidate the human foundation for intelligent production. As intelligent manufacturing advances rapidly, the requirements of the production front line for skilled talent are shifting from single operational skills to equal emphasis on professional skills, digital skills, and innovation capabilities. However, in some fields, problems remain, such as insufficiently close alignment between talent cultivation and industrial demand, and on-the-job workers' skill renewal lagging behind technological iteration. In response, first, demand must be accurately identified. Around key industrial chains, distinctive industrial clusters, and enterprise technological transformation, dynamically grasp talent gaps in fields such as CNC machining, industrial robots, intelligent equipment operation and maintenance, process optimization, and quality inspection, establish a linkage adjustment mechanism for job demand, skill standards, and training plans, and transmit changes in enterprise employment needs to the training side in a timely manner. Second, training methods must be reformed. Deepen industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation, support vocational colleges, technical schools, and leading enterprises in jointly building industrial colleges, training bases, and skill training centers, integrate real production environments, production equipment, process flows, and technical standards into education and teaching, and strengthen on-the-job workers' skill improvement and transfer training around new equipment and new processes. Third, growth incentives must be improved. Improve evaluation mechanisms oriented toward skill levels, job contributions, and actual performance, smooth skill-level promotion and career development channels, and promote effective linkage between skill improvement and compensation. Through coordinated efforts in demand identification, training reform, and incentive improvement, promote the transformation of more traditional industrial workers into highly skilled talent adapted to intelligent production.
Expand technology service talent and open channels for transforming scientific and technological achievements into real productivity. To promote innovative development of the real economy, it is necessary not only to strengthen the supply of technological sources, but also to improve the capacity for transforming and industrializing scientific and technological achievements. At present, some scientific and technological achievements are not closely aligned with enterprise production needs, and specialized service talent who understand both technology and industry and markets is still insufficient. In response, first, specialized training must be strengthened. Relying on universities, research institutes, technology transfer institutions, and industrial parks, accelerate the training of professionals such as technology managers, technology brokers, science and technology consultants, intellectual property operators, and professionals in concept validation and pilot-scale maturation, strengthen composite knowledge training in technology assessment, intellectual property, enterprise management, and science and technology finance, and improve their ability to identify technology value, match enterprise needs, and organize achievement transformation. Second, market-oriented application scenarios must be expanded. Support industrial parks, public technology service platforms, and professional institutions in forming science and technology service teams, carry out technology diagnosis, achievement screening, supply-demand matching, and transformation services for small and medium-sized enterprises, promote science and technology service talent to go deep into both the research side and the industrial side, and precisely match achievements around enterprise technological needs. Third, achievement-oriented evaluation must be highlighted. Improve professional evaluation and incentive mechanisms, focus on the actual results of technology transfer, achievement transformation, and industrialization, explore incentive methods that match transformation performance, and guide more professional talent to serve achievement transformation. Through specialized training, market-oriented use, and achievement-oriented evaluation, promote more scientific and technological achievements to move from the laboratory to the production line and transform into real productivity.
Cultivate interdisciplinary digital-intelligent talent and improve the adaptability of talent to industrial transformation. New technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the industrial internet are accelerating their integration into the real economy. Talent supply based on a single discipline or a single skill is increasingly unable to meet the needs of industrial digitalization and intelligent transformation, and structural contradictions still need to be resolved, such as understanding technology but not being familiar with production scenarios, or understanding processes but lacking digital capabilities. In response, first, interdisciplinary training must be promoted. Encourage universities and vocational colleges, in light of the development needs of key industries, to build interdisciplinary courses and micro-majors in artificial intelligence, data analysis, industrial software, equipment manufacturing, quality inspection, and equipment operation and maintenance, and promote the accelerated penetration of digital technology and new-generation information technology knowledge into traditional engineering and vocational skills education. Second, industrial scenario training must be strengthened. Support universities, vocational colleges, digital technology enterprises, and real enterprises in jointly building digital-intelligent training platforms, carry out project-based training around actual production issues such as intelligent inspection, predictive maintenance, intelligent scheduling, and energy consumption management, transform real enterprise needs into teaching projects and training tasks, and improve talent's ability to use digital technology to solve industrial problems. Third, on-the-job improvement in enterprises must be strengthened. Give play to the main role of enterprises in talent cultivation, carry out training for technical backbones in digital skills, industrial software, and intelligent system applications, support technical personnel in improving their capabilities in equipment transformation, process optimization, and scenario application, and cultivate high-quality talent who are both familiar with production processes and able to participate in digital transformation. Through interdisciplinary training, scenario-based practical training, and on-the-job capability improvement, promote two-way integration between digital technology talent and industrial talent, and improve the alignment between talent supply and industrial transformation needs.
[The author is an assistant researcher at the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences; this article is part of the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences 2026 think tank project "Research on the Path of Relying on 'Investment in People' to Promote the Integrated Development of Our Province's Talent Chain, Innovation Chain, and Industrial Chain" (Project No.: RC2026009)]
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