Upskilling: Everything you need to know
What is upskilling?
Upskilling is the practice of enhancing and developing your present abilities through extra education or training. You can perform it for your benefit and the benefit of others.
Taking a coding session to advance your knowledge of programming or going to a virtual conference to learn about new business trends are two instances of upskilling. It’s important to understand the difference between upskilling and reskilling, which is the process of learning new skills to do a different job.
How can one up-skill themselves?
Volunteering
You can venture outside your comfort zone and acclimate to strange settings by volunteering. Along with making new friends and learning fresh techniques, you’ll also gain new perspectives and give back.
When I read volunteer experience on a CV, I consider the aforementioned traits and think it says a lot about the attitude of the applicant.
Locate a mentor
If you follow advice from someone who has previously achieved their goal, you can skip a ton of steps and avoid making lots of mistakes. Discuss with them how they arrived at their current position and the lessons they have learned thus far.
Speaking to someone with more professional experience will help you obtain a lot of knowledge. Additionally, you can identify the abilities you still need to acquire.
Guide or instruct people
The trip you have taken is unique to you. You could be a great mentor to someone because you will have your own experiences and life lessons to share. Additionally, you’ll discover that this process is teaching you just as much.
The mentee will probably teach you something, especially about their perspectives on and experiences with the working world. As you gain confidence in teaching others, mentoring will also improve your coaching and leadership abilities.
In addition, articulating your understanding to another person can help you confirm your understanding and identify any knowledge gaps.
Internet
Talk to people online and offline, both within and outside of your industry. Speak with a variety of age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. By doing this, you will expand your perspective, social network, and interpersonal abilities while learning what life might be like in a position other than your current one.
Be on the lookout for live events, podcasts, and webinars
Webinars and podcasts are fantastic since you can usually listen to a recording whenever and wherever it’s convenient. If you quickly Google any topic, you’ll be completely inundated with options; but, you can focus your search by finding out what other people suggest.
Live events do need some travel expenses and time, but you’ll gain the advantages of in-person instruction and networking. To list any ideas you wish to follow up on, don’t forget to bring a notepad or use the Notes feature on your phone. This is another excellent technique to gain knowledge from professionals and develop your expertise.
Why is upskilling important?
1. Remaining Applicable
When looking for new employment prospects or trying to advance within your existing firm, developing skill sets that apply to your industry is essential. You can close any skill gaps you may have by upskilling.
Aspirants’ confidence and morale are typically at an all-time high after upskilling, making it simple for them to land the job of their dreams. Because it avoids the need to spend additional resources to train them, businesses are always happy to see qualified experts apply for a position.
2. Increasing opportunities for career progress
There is a high demand for digitally literate people in IT organizations because of the continuously changing digital world. In 2022, organizations like Infosys, HCL, TCS, Wipro, and others hope to employ 2 lakh specialists.
Your competitive edge in seizing these possibilities and raising your chances of receiving more lucrative offers will come through upskilling.
3. A profitable career
Many businesses have already started relocating their workforce to their offices. Companies are identifying the skills needed to adapt to a hybrid future where a mix of remote workers and office-goers will transform the workplace.
Utilizing chances like these to advance your skill sets puts you in a favorable position and secures your future. Upskilling naturally makes you more dedicated to your work.
You will become more effective and increase the worth of your firm by picking up new abilities and comprehending how your industry is changing.
Expertise in cutting-edge fields like AI, machine learning, data science, business analytics, full-stack development, and cybersecurity is highly sought after in today’s market since they boost productivity, automate processes, and carry out challenging computational jobs.
You may improve your current talents, learn new ones, draw in employers, and land the job you want through upskilling. Consequently, now is a crucial time to reskill and upskill to advance your profession.
Benefits of upskilling
For employers
Increased employee retention
Perceived lack of advancement possibilities is listed by Gallup as the No. 1 reason why people leave their jobs. Employee engagement and retention can increase if your business offers a path for new skill development and career advancement.
Cost saving
Upskilling can result in significant cost savings for a company because it costs on average around a third of an employee’s annual compensation to replace one who leaves a company.
A recruitment device
Although it might be challenging to gauge a company’s reputation among job searchers, offering possibilities for advancement can aid in hiring since 86% of employees value on-the-job training.
A learning culture
According to PwC data, 77% of workers desire to upskill. Employee morale, teamwork, and satisfaction can all increase in a supportive workplace that stresses skill development.
Narrowing skills gaps
As the workplace in today’s economy evolves quickly, companies are becoming more aware of the contribution that upskilling can make to bridging crucial skills gaps and facilitating strategic transformation. 72% of former Emeritus students said their program had prepared them for the demands of their field at the time they graduated, according to the 2022 Emeritus Global Career Impact Survey.
For employees
The workforce as a whole can benefit from upskilling as well. The following are advantages of employee upskilling.
Career advancement
Employees that receive upskilling training may be able to advance in their careers. In our Impact Survey, 94% of former Emeritus students reported that their professional and career growth had improved as a result of completing an Emeritus program. Additionally, 55% of respondents indicated they had seen specific job advancements.
Reducing knowledge gaps and improving flexibility
Automation and digital transformation has risen to the top of the list of objectives in our quickly changing workplace, along with soft skills like digital literacy and adaptable leadership. To tackle these problems, upskilling is required. According to the results of an Impact Survey, 77% of former students who enrolled in Emeritus programs were able to fill knowledge gaps and increased assurance in their problem-solving.
How to develop an upskilling strategy
For an upskilling program to be effective, it must have a diverse approach. Here are six strategies for staff upskilling.
1. Determine Skills Gaps and Priority Areas
Even though most employees can benefit from upskilling, businesses will receive the most return on their investment when they prioritize areas and skills based on their objectives and strategic plans. An organization could want to make sure, for instance, that its logistics team is up to speed on industry software or that its sales and marketing teams are making the most of social media.
To determine where development is required within your team or company, perform a skills gap analysis. Company and team leaders should put the most emphasis on upskilling people whose responsibilities will demand those abilities in the future. They should also prioritize the talents that are most likely to make a difference.
2. Integrate upskilling into employee development and performance plans
Company and team leaders can emphasize how upskilling will advance individuals’ careers to win support from their team or the larger organization. For instance, acquiring particular abilities might be integrated into a worker’s annual goals or connected to a potential promotion.
Company executives must also be aware of the time required for upskilling and give it the attention it deserves. They may also need to modify employee responsibilities as appropriate.
3. Enroll Employees in Training Programs or Courses
There is no alternative to formal education when learning certain talents. Online professional courses are an option for businesses that want to educate their staff on machine learning or get them ready for new leadership chances.
Along with enterprise solutions for upskilling on a broader scale, Emeritus has hundreds of products developed in association with prominent universities. The majority of our programs are made to fit a professional’s hectic schedule, and many of them offer chances to work on certain company-related initiatives.
4. Employ internal and outside experts
Organizations frequently have some personnel with a specific skill set, but not enough. Companies might encourage knowledgeable workers to assume the role of a mentor or even a trainer in this circumstance. Companies may connect an employee who possesses a specific ability with one who aspires to acquire it for one-on-one tutoring, depending on the skills in question.
They might also encourage knowledgeable workers to offer longer-term educational opportunities, such as multi-week training courses or one-time speeches.
no in-house specialists? For group coaching sessions on particular tools or abilities, many businesses find success in hiring outside trainers who specialize in a particular field.
5. Give employees stretch assignments
Employees have the option to learn on the job while demonstrating their capacity to take on new challenges through upskilling stretch chances, or assignments outside of an employee’s current scope of experience and job description. For instance, an employee might take on a new responsibility in a project or an individual contributor might be granted control over a project team in a stretch assignment (such as analyzing data or creating a marketing strategy).
Naturally, for stretch assignments to be successful, staff members must be given the assistance and tools necessary to rise to the challenge and develop new abilities.
6. Follow-up and Progress Monitoring
Measuring the return on investment (ROI) of employee training is crucial for iteration and development, just like with any other business investment. Employees can continue to develop and pick up new skills with the aid of tracking what works and what doesn’t, which also benefits other managers who are considering how to upskill their staff. Asking the employee to complete a test project, report on their learnings, or complete an assessment are just a few possible strategies, however, they may vary based on the skill at hand.