Upskilling & Reskilling for the Digital Workplace
The digital revolution has led to the rise of terms such as “knowledge work” and “knowledge economy.” This transformation is changing the way we operate in the world.
Today, much of our daily activities are conducted online and through mobile devices, making data and analytics an essential aspect of modern business. We need to adopt a new mindset and view our work as an “ecosystem.”
To succeed in the digital revolution, we must reimagine how we manage people in terms of knowledge. This includes upskilling employees for their current roles, reskilling them for new positions, or retraining them for entirely different career paths.
What is Upskilling?
Upskilling refers to the process of acquiring new knowledge and skills that can improve an employee’s current job performance. This can involve learning new tasks or acquiring new technologies related to the worker’s occupation.
Upskilling is essential for both new talent and seasoned professionals. While new talent needs to learn the skills required for their roles, experienced workers may require skill refreshers, additional certifications, or higher degrees to position themselves for advancement opportunities.
What is Reskilling?
Reskilling involves resetting an employee’s knowledge and skills to perform at higher levels or develop new abilities. It goes beyond acquiring new skills and knowledge for existing jobs and can include training employees for entirely new roles, such as transitioning from a software engineer to a sales representative or from an administrative assistant to a remote bookkeeper.
Reskilling can take many forms, including formal training, on-the-job coaching, self-study with online courses or other resources, and mentoring from company managers.
Also Read: Transform the learning culture in your organisation
Developing a successful upskilling and reskilling program.
Upskilling and reskilling are crucial for modern workplaces as they enable employees to take on new tasks and work in different capacities. It’s also vital for companies to evolve with the times and help their employees stay ahead of the curve by learning new skills that may become relevant over time.
Identify existing upskilling/ reskilling areas:
Identifying skill gaps is one way to fill skill shortages by identifying areas where people lack expertise and training them on what they need to know. To get started, understand your employees’ needs, wishes, professional interests, and goals. Run surveys and feedback to collect more information and assess their skills independently to pinpoint the areas that need upgrading.
Decide: Upskilling or reskilling?
Once you have identified skill gaps, create an action plan and decide on the training programs that will benefit your employees the most. Determine whether it’s a short or long-term program, the effort, time, and financial investment it requires, and whether the organisation can implement it.
Identify tools for upskilling and reskilling.
There are many tools available today that would allow organisations to effectively train and educate their employees to upskill and reskill them. For instance, upskilling programs for new talent can include internships, mentorship, on-the-job training, coaching sessions, skills workshops, and boot camps. Reskilling programs for seasoned veterans may be more likely achieved through mentorship or formal education, such as graduate courses. However, mentorship can be incredibly beneficial for reskilling programs. It’s typically easier to learn new skills through coaching or on-the-job training than it is independently.
Develop a career path.
An effective upskilling and reskilling program is integrated into a company’s overall career development plan. This allows employees to see the long-term value and makes it more likely that they will participate in training programs. It also helps managers track employees’ progress and ensure they are taking advantage of available opportunities.
Personalise programs.
Designing an upskilling or reskilling program that is personalised to meet the needs of individual employees is crucial. Tailoring programs are engaging and interesting, offering a variety of methods through which employees can learn, such as online courses, videos, books, or lectures.
Maintain Continuity.
Finally, it’s important to remember that upskilling and reskilling should be an ongoing process. New technologies and tools are always emerging, so employees must be constantly learning to keep up. Managers should schedule regular training and development sessions to ensure that employees are continually upgrading their skills.
Learnsure Ai can help.
While all this works very well for big organisations with budgets and resources, it may not be easy for smaller organisations to implement upskilling and reskilling programs. In these cases, you might want to work with someone else who has expertise in managing this process so your company doesn’t get stuck or lost along the way.
This is where Learnsure AI comes in. It can custom-build any upskilling or reskilling programs for smaller organisations, with limited resources and staff available to them – this way the organisation has more time spent on its core business activities
Learnsure LMS, our digital learning experience platform, allows any company to build its upskilling or reskilling programs on the cloud. It’s built by education experts who have spent years creating courses for leading employers around the world. These programs are 100% online and can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
