In today’s world, technology is changing at a fast pace and no industry is left behind from its influence. From medical to automobiles, every industry is becoming more and more technologically advanced with each passing day. And the more an industry is technologically advanced, the more skilled employees it requires. So no matter how many jobs are vacant, if the right skilled employees will not be found, they will remain vacant. This gap between skilled vacant jobs and capable candidates is known as the skill gap. The skill gap is high in many industries because of recent technological advancements. Also, industries want more of those employees who can cope with further development too. This is where upskilling comes into consideration.
Upskilling, as the name itself hints, means to upgrade one’s skills. This can either be done by learning new skills or advancing the already learned ones. And the recent digital transformation has increased the demand for upskilling. Also, the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning in all the sectors has raised the demand for better-skilled employees. So upskilling is a perfect idea that everyone should be looking into. And there are many benefits of upskilling that can be obtained by employees as well as employers. Some of them are mentioned below.
Table of Contents
Benefits for employees
Employees or job seeking candidates can use upskilling tools to master new skills and gain these benefits:
Better job opportunities
No matter how many textbooks a candidate has read, it can never match the level of industry knowledge. This is because:
- The textbooks are generally old and they cannot match the current situation of the industry.
- Even if the textbook is based on the current industry situations, there are many things that only comes with experience. And no textbook can mention them.
This is the reason why most institutes require their students to do some industrial work. Only then the candidates will be able to stand better in front of the employers. This is the reason for the increasing popularity of industrial training programs. But with upskilling, the candidates can easily get highlighted in the crowd by acquiring better skills than their fellow students.
Job security and promotion
If a person is already working with some organization, he/she can easily get a promotion with upskilling. As they will be able to perform better than their co-employees by learning new and trending skills. This will also secure their jobs because the employer will be more interested in keeping a candidate that has better skills and is willing to learn new ones every now and then. And job security is the most important thing in today’s scenario. Because it won’t be hard for the employer to find a replacement for a not-so-good employee.
Better future opportunities
No matter how secure a job is, there are always chances of failure. Maybe the organization found a replacement, maybe the organization itself got closed or anything else. With upskilling, a person can make sure that in the worst situations, he/she would be ready to acquire any other job. Because of the knowledge of the latest trends and technologies. Also, work experience along with the right skill-set can help the candidate in getting a new job easily.
Benefits for employers
Employers can use the upskilling tools to teach their employees new and trending skills. This can help them in:
Getting better productivity and employee retention
Recruiting new candidates can be a hectic task for any employer. There is a huge process that they need to follow, each time they are hiring someone new. The process includes:
- Looking for the eligible candidates and sorting them out on the basis of their skills.
- Conducting tests or interviews to check the knowledge of the shortlisted candidates.
- And finally, training the newly hired candidates according to the organization standards.
The last step of the process can be the toughest one. Because no candidate can start giving benefits to the organization from the very first day. Initially, the employer needs to invest their time in the candidates to teach them about their work and standards.
But with upskilling, the employer can upgrade the skills of their current employees. This is a win-win situation for employees and the employer. As the employees get a chance to learn and the employers are saved from the difficult task of recruitment. Also, the will-skilled employees will be able to give better inputs to the organization and it can do better than its competitions in the market.
Susceptible to change
If the organization’s employees are well-skilled, then they can easily adapt to the latest technologies that are available in the market. This way, the organization will be able to switch to new technologies with ease. It will not only increase the overall productivity but also save time and money.
Expansion of business
This is one of the major benefits of upskilling for employers. With upskilling, they can teach their employees about new skills and easily expand their business into different sectors. And with proper training, they would not even require to hire new employees for extended work. Their existing employees can easily move into the new work and the organization will be able to do better.
Conclusion
The skill gap is increasing in every industry. And this is a big point of concern for both organizations and the government. Organizations because their jobs are kept vacant for long times and this can cost them in many ways. Government because a large number of people remain unemployed because of a lack of proper skills, which increases the unemployment rate. Also, unemployed candidates tend to move towards unethical ways of earning. Which is again something worth thinking of.
So everybody should look forward to the upskilling programs. Because better learning and skill development will provide people with better job opportunities. And that will be good for everyone. As the candidates will get jobs to focus on, the organizations will have more skilled employees and for the government, the employment rate will increase. So, it is the best option for everyone.
