By Dr. Tianyi Jiang (TJ) / Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, AvePoint
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other organizations have consistently stressed the importance of lifelong learning for economic growth, emphasizing the necessity to upskill and reskill workers.
This impending need for lifelong learning continues to drive market demand, with the continuing education industry in APAC projected to reach a market size of $58 billion by 2030.
As the work landscape rapidly evolves, the need for employees to keep abreast of emerging skills demands brought by technology trends becomes more urgent, making it necessary for local company leaders to start prioritizing the talent development of their employees.
Talent development is crucial
The provision of continuous education is critical in achieving happier employees and increased revenue which eventually contributes to the greater good of a company. This is why investing in talent and accommodating their upskilling and reskilling needs, especially in the Philippines, is key to future-proofing organizations.
The Future of Jobs Report 2023 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) revealed that analytical thinking was the most important skill for workers. On top of this cognitive skill, organizations are anticipated to put a premium on creative thinking in the next few years to address the growing complexity of problem-solving in the modern workplace. Other in-demand skills are technological literacy, curiosity and lifelong learning, systems thinking, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.
Mirroring the latest skills demanded from globally competitive talents, technology, especially generative AI, will continue to revolutionize adult learning and will drive a shift towards more social, personalized, and informal learning methods, akin to the customer experiences (CX) provided by many industry leaders in direct service of consumers, for optimum manpower development.
How continuous learning benefits companies
According to a study by LinkedIn Learning, employee retention is a concern of 93 percent of global companies. Despite the economic challenges left by the pandemic and inflation, employees still value skill and career growth alongside good compensation and work flexibility. The study has found that an individual’s reasons for pursuing a new company include doing challenging and impactful work, opportunities for career growth and the chance to learn and develop new skills. If an employee’s priorities are being provided for in their current workplace, they are less likely to leave and seek a new job. Thus, companies need to highlight their employees’ skills and career growth in their organization goals to achieve a lower turnover rate. Aside from achieving employee retention, supporting employees’ continuous learning also aids organizations to become more agile, enabling them to act quickly on valuable opportunities. An agile workforce helps an organization thrive and survive amid economic headwinds.
Skill shortage is another challenge for organizations. Companies in the US and Europe are witnessing an imbalance in job openings and seekers where there are more unfilled positions than there are unemployed workers. WEF revealed that six out of 10 businesses say that the skills gap problem impedes business transformation. Investing in employees’ constant learning can address this issue. Creating opportunities and strategies that enable employees to upskill and reskill, especially with the emergence of technologies such as generative AI, which are likely to change the skills their jobs require, will help keep companies afloat.
Technology is evolving very rapidly and at a rate even outpacing human learning capability. In WEF’s report, 23 percent of jobs worldwide are expected to change because of technology. This renders upskilling— especially with AI integration to customize learning experiences, is essential to close the skills gap in the hyper-competitive enterprise technology market.
Additionally, by adopting a skills-first approach companies can dive deeper into their employees’ current skills, what skills they aspire to develop and how they can achieve those goals. Through this approach, companies are able to help their employees build a versatile skill set that is transferable across roles and industries, which, in turn, can help companies match the current skills of their employees with the skills needed for work.
Overall, an upskilled and reskilled workforce improves the performance of a company. A study by Deloitte has found that high-performing learning organizations are more likely to lead the market in innovations (92%), respond better to customer needs (34%), deliver greater quality products (26%) and, more importantly, be prepared to meet future demands (58%).
Leveraging technology to foster continuous learning
According to the Deloitte study, most employees are seeking learning opportunities on their own as these are not provided by their employers. Workers turn to their smartphones to find just-in-time solutions for unexpected challenges which can be counter-productive as it does not equip them with the proper skills needed for inevitable challenges. To augment effective training and upskilling/reskilling, organizations should adopt a corporate learning management system (LMS) that supports the provision of skills-based courses. This will help companies equip employees with skills for the future and eventually reduce long-term personnel costs.
LMS platforms are necessary for organizations as these can help onboard new employees and assist in upskilling existing team members faster for quality services and higher customer satisfaction rates. An LMS platform typically includes a comprehensive set of tools that boost learning and training management in employees, as well as manage attendance and evaluation. An ideal LMS program would include video conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom to assist companies in conducting cohesive online meetings and virtual classes, such as MaivenPoint’s Curricula for Corporate Learning, a cloud-based LMS platform that incorporates cloud and AI technologies. A holistic LMS platform can help seamlessly integrate learning into employees’ routines.
In addition, a company that values and utilizes new technologies, such as generative AI, can maximize digital education and create better learning experiences for all. An LMS platform that leverages generative AI can aid in personalizing experiences (by scaffolding the learning process), automating administrative tasks, improving accessibility, and providing real-time feedback to learners and teachers alike.
Upskilling and reskilling demands are indeed rising as new priority skills keep popping up on the job requirement list of modern organizations. It is crucial for company leaders to embrace the need for continuous learning and take advantage of these highly disruptive times to propagate a nurturing environment for Filipino workers and ultimately achieve better business outcomes.