Examine the Competencies for Upskilling in VUCA Era (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) in Indonesia

A fundamental transformation in competency development is needed to create a smart civil servant and smart governance in the context of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). The first step in the transformation is to define the competencies that are needed to address the challenges that occur. The findings of this study suggest new competencies to target for upskilling—the process of continuous learning for new skills—through formal training, self-learning, internships, and benchmarking. A focus group discussion with three ministries (the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, the National Research and Innovation Agency, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology) and a survey with a total of 416 Civil Servant from ministries, non-ministries, and provinces/districts, revealed that there is a change in the work environment nowadays, which makes the existing competencies need to be improved through upskilling. Based on the data finding there are two policy recommendations: 1. First, improvements are needed in the substance of upskilling/competency development so that it is more relevant to today’s changing environment. Collaboration was found to be the most important competency, and this finding supports the need to achieve the target of smart governance. Digital IT competency is needed in terms of smart governance through the collaboration. 2. Second, change in competency development methods from analog to digital, from pedagogy to heutagogy, and from training to learning.