The Global Learning Imperative

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that more than 60% of employers are looking for candidates with problem-solving and teamwork abilities. The study also notes a significant decrease in the use of GPA for candidate screening, dropping from 73.3% for the Class of 2019 to just 37% for the Class of 2023, indicating a shift towards competencies and skills over academic performance

According to the Deloitte 2023 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 87% of business leaders believe that developing the right workplace model is crucial for their organization’s success. However, only 24% feel very ready to address this trend. This emphasizes the need for organizations to reimagine the workplace to support different ways of working, including for frontline workers such as call center representatives and field service personnel

For workers who will remain in their roles till 2025, the share of core skills that will change is 40%, and 50% of all employees will need reskilling. (WEF, 2020)

The skill sets for jobs have changed by around 25% since 2015. By 2027, this number is expected to double. (LinkedIn, 2022A)

These findings are hardly surprising. Let’s face it, the world is complicated…and has been increasing in complexity for many years. As we continue the digital evolution journey, change where and how we work, address the needs of the largest multi-generational workforce in history all while moving as fast as possible to meet aggressive deadlines and deliver company results, the skills profiles and talent requirements that organizations need to be successful have dramatically expanded.

The world moves forward with both macro and micro level “steps” of change. With each step, the way we work and the nature of the companies in the world also change – creating new jobs, new roles that require new skills. At different times during their career journey, workers may need to learn a new tool or type of behavioral skill but at the major evolutionary points, we dramatically need to figure out how to impart new skills at scale. To unlock new phases of work and enable community, company and team success, new skilling is front and center. What’s the challenge to companies? As higher education is lagging in delivering the real skills required of today’s corporate workforce, companies must take on the great global learning imperative to deliver new critical skills to unlock new ways of working

We believe there are a few key areas of this imperative that we all need to be focused on to solve the global skills gap and here is a simple starting list:

Prioritize Learning Where It should be – an ROI maker

Priorities, budget and direction all start at the top – learning leaders need to engage directly with the senior leaders in their organizations, and likewise in government agencies, to promote the case for learning and shift the paradigm from cost to profit and performance.

Scale Learning through New Technologies

While short term investments are needed, the long-term ROI for implementing new learning technologies and tools will not only payoff significantly, but act as a key catalyst to help deliver higher quality learning experiences, faster and at better price points. AI has the most potential to accelerate the development process and supplement delivery needs. At the same time, many traditional tools are being enhanced with AI and automation to further help reduce timelines and cost.

Make Learning Fun and Embed Experiences Everywhere

Somewhere along the corporate training continuum, as annual compliance training, multi hour CBT’s and 100-page PPT decks became the norm, training lost out on a big opportunity and gained a bad reputation – and further as a result, failed to show the ROI potential. To re-skill the world, training must shift back to being fun, engaging, interesting and a positive experience. Using new immersive technologies like XR is a great start and incorporating video-style byte sized learning more embedded in everyday experiences is an easy, in expensive way to move the needle forward. Companies need to redesign their programs. Period.

Conclusion: We can do better!

Delivering on this imperative is not the sole responsibility of one entity such as governments, higher education or individual companies, but everyone doing their part to prioritize learning, invest and put in place the programs that are needed.