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What Is Digital Upskilling? A Guide and Resources
The speed of digital transformation demands a digital-literate, agile workforce. These resources will guide you through developing and implementing a sound digital upskilling strategy.
What Is Digital Upskilling? A Guide and Resources
The speed of digital transformation demands a digital-literate, agile workforce. These resources will guide you through developing and implementing a sound digital upskilling strategy.
The rapid emergence of digital solutions in recent years has fundamentally changed how we work. Digital transformation has accelerated productivity across all sectors and functions, from enabling previously unimagined oversight of complex processes to eliminating mundane and repetitive tasks through automation.
But to stay ahead of the curve, organizations need to maintain a highly digital-literate workforce. This requires ongoing digital upskilling.
What is digital upskilling?
Digital upskilling involves providing training resources for relevant and useful digital skills to ensure your workforce can keep pace with digital transformation.
Organizations should make digital upskilling a priority element of any internal digital transformation strategy. Companies face a significant risk of putting off ROI gains from digital solutions if their workforce is unable to use those solutions effectively.
The widening digital skills gap
The skills gap is that space between the skills employers need to continue growing their organization and the skills workers possess. Employers are feeling increasing pressure from the widening skills gap. The skills gap has even lengthened the hiring process as companies struggle to find candidates that possess the skills required to fill open positions.
According to Wiley, between 2021 and 2022, organizations reporting a skills gap jumped from 55% to 69%.
What makes this skills gap unique – and why it is causing alarm in boardrooms around the world – is that it is impacting workers across all industries and demographics. Technology is simply outpacing traditional learning paths. Organizations risk experiencing stagnation if their workforce isn’t prepared to take on the challenges of digital transformation.
Digital upskilling and reskilling programs will be an essential part of business models moving forward.
Growing demand for digital skills across functions
Digital skills are in demand across all functions. A recent report by the National Skills Coalition found that 92% of all job listings required some degree of digital proficiency, ranging from technological skills like coding to administrative skills like bookkeeping.
Expanding technology roles
As companies increasingly rely on technology to conduct business, they need more workers who are skilled in developing, managing, and implementing technology solutions to support their operations.
The most in-demand skills for technology fields include:
Management
SQL
Microsoft Office
Project management
Analytical skills
Communication
Customer service
Leadership
Cloud computing
Python programming language
Digital skills in demand for non-technical roles
The demand for digital literacy is high across non-technical roles as well and demonstrates the transition of these roles into a much more digital space.
These are the most in-demand digital skills for non-technical roles:
Analytical skills
Financial analysis
Financial reporting
Engineering
Research
Digital marketing
Social media
E-learning
Data analysis and automation are two key drivers of digital upskilling in non-technology roles.
With the exponential growth of available data, digital skills have become essential to fields that rely on reporting and advanced data analysis, such as evaluating program effectiveness or identifying optimization opportunities in processes.
72% of U.S. businesses find it challenging to hire workers with the digital skills they need.
Developing a digital upskilling program
To create a formal and structured digital upskilling program that fully supports your organizational goals, you will want to focus on three key areas:
- Gaining C-suite buy-in.
- Identifying digital skills that support business goals.
- Working with digital transformation stakeholders.
Gaining C-suite buy-in
Half of all L&D leaders report a strong working relationship with C-suite executives, a number that has experienced a 16% increase year over year.
Gaining buy-in from organization leaders is vital for securing the budget and carving out employee time to take part in these necessary upskilling programs.
Resource: Digital Transformation
- This video tutorial is aimed at helping leadership understand digital transformation and the demands it places on L&D to upskill the workforce.
Working with digital transformation stakeholders
Since digital transformation affects every role in every sector, your L&D team needs to identify and work closely with other leaders in your organization to ensure their team’s digital upskilling needs are met.
Resource: Advance Your Digital Transformation Strategy as a Leader
This learning path helps leaders contextualize digital transformation and learn practical skills for moving their digital transformation strategy forward.
Identifying digital skills that support business goals
Once you have the backing of the C-suite and the cooperation of department leaders, you can start zeroing in on the specific skills your workforce needs to excel through digital transformation.
The following learning paths offer training in digital skills for career fields most impacted by digital transformation and can help you quickly and effectively launch your digital upskilling program:
Help your employees develop skills they can use right away.
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