Get to know the concepts of upskilling and reskilling and see how these strategies can help your organization build high performance teams.
The need to remain competitive makes people seek the continuous development of their technical and behavioral skills. In this environment, companies that encourage team training and participate in this process tend to benefit from having more specialized and engaged individuals.
To support your organization in keeping up with the trends, in this article, we present the concepts, differences and practical applications of upskilling and reskilling for a team built to exceed goals.
What is upskilling?
Upskilling is related to continuous learning and the process of professional growth. Similarly to lifelong learning, upskilling allows each person on the team to improve knowledge and skills in areas in which they are already engaged.
For example, a software engineer can plan to build a career specializing in artificial intelligence.
In other words, upskilling is a way to expand or update the range of subjects that are already in the employee’s domain, supporting the development and evolution of their career.
What is corporate training and how does it benefit companies?
What is reskilling?
Reskilling is becoming increasingly important to meet market demands, learn new concepts and support evolving tools that are emerging every day.
The term is related to adaptation or professional updating and learning new skills. Its goal is to support the development of new skills with some goals in mind:
- the employee can re-qualify and adapt to the job market;
- the company can develop internal talent and run internal mobility initiatives.
The World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025, 50% of all employees will need reskilling due to the adoption of new technologies and increased automation.
An example of reskilling would be a manufacturing company that replaces a sewing process that was done by hand with a machine that does the work automatically and trains people for new positions in the logistics department.
What are the differences between upskilling and reskilling?
Upskilling focuses on the same group of competencies, aiming at vertical development.
Reskilling, on the other hand, is related to horizontal training, proposing recycling or the acquisition of new knowledge.
Despite this difference, both are essential for a company and its employees to achieve increasingly better results and adapt to the demands of the market in which they operate.
Voxy Skills Mapping – make the most of your T&D budget
What are the benefits of upskilling and reskilling?
As we have seen, upskilling and reskilling are different ways to invest in training and developing a team, from any area or department, to reach company goals.
Some of the benefits of developing the skills of a team are:
- adapting to the needs of the market;
- increased employee engagement and connection with the company;
- attracting and retaining talent;
- lower turnover;
- reduction of costs with new hires.
How do you apply upskilling and reskilling at your company?
Both upskilling and reskilling can benefit from applying technology to learn new techniques, practices or concepts. Learning a new language or improving fluency is a good example of this.
To ensure more effective results, L&D pros need to:
- map the demand for training in every team looking identify the gaps;
- evaluate which knowledge should be addressed during the development program;
- organize the initiative on an online platform aligned with the needs of today’s learners.
Using technology to deliver personalized and relevant content to teams is a good way to apply upskilling and reskilling in the company.
L&D professionals can also count on several tools that use artificial intelligence to identify the ideal content and improve the retention of what was learned.
With regards to language learning, microlearning is another format that facilitates upskilling and reskilling. After all, making training content available in small chunks of knowledge helps promote flexibility and engagement with a successful training program.
What is the role of the HR team in the upskilling and reskilling strategy?
As a strategic area, HR needs to be aware of learning and development trends. This is necessary to avoid talent shortages and ensure that professionals are up to date with changes in their field.
For this, it is important to identify the skill gaps of each team, in order to invest in the upskilling and reskilling of its employees.
In this sense, HR is responsible for monitoring the need to propose training and qualifications for teams or even the reallocation of professionals in a new area. Increasingly, the human resources professional needs to be aware of the news and needs of the market to reflect them in the upskilling and reskilling strategies.
Upskilling and reskilling example
Check out one of the main practical applications of upskilling and reskilling.
Offer online corporate training
Online training is indicated for companies that want to invest in the professional training of their talent. This model gives employees more freedom, as they can attend classes at the most convenient time to fit their busy schedule.
Another characteristic that makes online corporate training suitable for upskilling and reskilling strategies is the fact that they increase both the reach of the content and engagement.
This type of format is also more cost-effective when compared to other teaching methods. However, you need to follow some steps before offering online corporate training:
- establish the objective of the training;
- assess which areas and functions need improvement;
- select those that should be prioritized;
- consider options for private training or group classes;
- develop a scope with content to be addressed and duration.
Voxy has designed specific English courses to meet the needs of different specialties, such as courses for technology professionals or training for professionals in the financial sector.
These programs allow people to develop the technical skills and knowledge needed for their daily activities while at the same time achieving proficiency in English.
To learn more about how Voxy combines innovative technology and effective methodology to offer online and personalized English training for employees from different organizations, visit our website and learn about our solutions for companies.
