According to a Deloitte survey, the skills that employees require to perform well in their roles are “becoming obsolete at an accelerating rate”. For this reason, employers need to have a continuous up-skilling program. This article will delve into the exact meaning of upskilling, who it is intended for, and when it should be done.
What Is Upskilling?
Upskilling refers to the process of imparting new skills to people at the workplace so that they will be best equipped to cater to the business needs of the company. Although some people use “reskilling” to refer to the same, reskilling is focused on replacing old competencies with new skills. A classic example would be the training offered to marketers to help them thrive in an online environment.
When Is Upskilling Necessary and Who Is It For?
Ideally, upskilling should be for everyone but most businesses have limited resources to invest into this process. Organizations that have limited learning and development resources should consider allocating them to employees that will require them in the near future. Such employees include;
- Workers that have been out of the employment arena for a long time or have not had an upskilling opportunity in a long time. Such employees will be limited in their performance because their skill set is either outdated or inefficient for current organizational needs.
- Employees that work in job fields that are constantly changing. The fasting growing industry right now is IT and this is evident from the changed witnessed in training curriculums offered all over the world. If you have an in-house team working in this or related departments, it is necessary to upskill to keep up with the rest of the industry.
- People who are looking to enhance their value within the organization. While some people are contented with their current roles at the workplace, there are others who are eager to scale up within the business.
Based on the above classification of employees that would be found seated in an upskilling forum, it is clear that companies will sponsor upskilling to
- Help employees to perfect or improve a skill to be able to deliver better results at work. Embedded with the investment to upskill is the hope that those that benefit will reciprocate the gesture by pulling up junior members of their team.
- Update the skill set available within the company to align the workforce with an ever-changing business environment. Employees working in strictly governed industries such as law practitioners for instance need to be upskilling all the time to master new legislation as it is passed.
- Equip employees with a totally new skill set so as to prepare them for a new role or challenge. In such instances, upskilling is supposed to fill an existing gap within an organization. For instance, during the pandemic it was necessary for teachers to engage their learners online so as to prepare them for examinations in good time. For a lot of teachers, this meant getting trained on digital networking and collaboration tools.
Imbibe Learning provides a variety of upskilling and learning solutions to our clients. Contact us to discuss how we can best meet your needs.