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Humanizing Brands: The Impact of User-Centered Marketing
14 de May de 2024
Reskilling to Boost Your Career
Alvin Toffler, the writer, once remarked, “The illiterates of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” This underscores the critical importance of adaptability and continual growth in our modern era. Interestingly, this idea permeates our lives more deeply than we realize. Take, for instance, the realm of work. In today’s changing workplaces, reskilling shows how important it is to keep learning and adapting.
What’s reskilling?
Reskilling involves acquiring new competencies and abilities to be able to transition to a different career path or adapt to new job responsibilities.
In today’s economy, reskilling has become essential for professional survival. It helps workers stay current in fast-evolving industries and unlocks new career paths that might not have been available when they started working. Take, for instance, specialized roles in artificial intelligence.
Why is it necessary?
Over the past few years, we’ve seen an unprecedented transformation across almost every sector, driven by numerous technological advancements like artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics.
Aside from creating new job opportunities, these technologies have rendered many traditional skills obsolete. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, by 2025, 85 million jobs could be displaced by automation and technology, while 97 million new positions could emerge.
This changing job landscape presents challenges and opportunities, and this is where reskilling comes into play.
Benefits reskilling
- Adaptability: Equips workers with the ability to adapt to changes in the job market, ensuring their long-term employability.
- Innovation: Promotes a culture of continuous learning that can foster innovation within organizations.
- Job satisfaction: Improves morale and job satisfaction by providing new opportunities for growth and development.
- Cost reduction: It’s more cost-effective to reskill an existing employee than to hire a new one. Also, reskilling can reduce employee turnover, thus decreasing the costs associated with hiring and training new employees.
- Competitiveness: Increases competitiveness by aligning employees’ skills with market needs and the latest technologies.
Differences between upskilling, reskilling and cross-skilling
While they’re often confused, these three terms are crucial in the realm of professional development and talent management within organizations. Each has a distinct focus on learning and training, tailored to different goals and workplace scenarios.
While upskilling aims to enhance professional abilities for career advancement, reskilling equips employees with new skills to make substantial changes in their career paths.
On the other hand, cross-skilling refers to training employees in skills that are not directly related to their current role but are valuable for other areas of the company. This promotes employees’ flexibility and adaptability without the need for a career change.
How to start Reskilling
This learning process doesn’t necessarily have to be a corporate initiative. Given the dynamic nature of the job market, employees can proactively prepare for potential changes within the company by acquiring or developing skills that are unrelated to their current role. But how can we make it happen?
- Assess your skills: Conduct a self-assessment to identify your current skills and determine areas where you need improvement. Tools such as online skills assessments or consultations with career advisors can be helpful.
- Research future roles: Start by identifying careers or roles that interest you, then research the skills needed for those positions. Use employment websites, job descriptions, and interviews with professionals in the industry to gather this information.
- Plan your learning path: Look for online courses, workshops, webinars, or formal education. Use resources like MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and learning platforms like Coursera or Domestika.
- Practice what you learn: Apply what you’ve learned in real projects, whether they’re personal, volunteer work, or temporary assignments in your current job.
Reskilling is a continuous process that demands commitment and dedication. In today’s work environment, employees secure their employability while unlocking new career paths. Indeed, reskilling extends beyond addressing skill obsolescence — it’s a proactive investment in the future, vital for personal growth and business success in a globally interconnected economy.
