Reskilling – It takes a village

In 2019, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted that within 15 to 20 years, new automation technologies would likely eliminate 14% of the world’s jobs and radically transform 32% of them. Those sobering numbers, involving more than 1 billion people globally, didn’t even account for the sudden ascent of generative AI.

Advances in technologies are rapidly changing the demand for skills. Increasingly, technology is handling repetitive and manual tasks and even sophisticated knowledge-based work—such as research, coding, and writing—long considered safe from disruption. But the average half-life of skills is now less than five years—and half that in some tech fields. Many knowledge workers will discover that AI and other new technologies have altered what they do. They will effectively be working in completely new fields.

To cope with these disruptions, many organizations are investing heavily in upskilling their workforces, devoting as much as 1.5% of revenue to learning and development. But more and more, these programs will have to both upskill employees and reskill them for new roles and responsibilities.

The need for a reskilling revolution is apparent. What must companies do to make it happen? In collaboration with Harvard University’s Digital Reskilling Lab, we interviewed leaders at almost 40 organizations around the world that are investing in large-scale reskilling programs. We observed five success factors that companies must address to thrive in the rapidly evolving era of automation and AI.

Reskilling Takes a Village

Companies have tended to think of reskilling as a challenge they must overcome by themselves. But many of the companies we looked at recognize that reskilling requires partners. Governments can incentivize reskilling investments; industries can team up with universities to develop new skill-building techniques; and NGOs can connect corporate talent needs with disadvantaged and marginalized populations. Coalitions of companies may be more effective at meeting the reskilling challenge than individual organizations on their own.

Many companies understand the need to embrace reskilling, but they have been hampered by a lack of rigor in measuring and evaluating what actually works and by a lack of understanding about how to scale reskilling programs. In today’s rapidly changing environment, companies will have to develop new ways to learn that are systematic, rigorous, experimental, and durable. Only then will the reskilling revolution really take off.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story @  Reskilling the Workforce for the Future | BCG