“Exploring why everybody is talking about all things ‘skills’ and how this is relevant for training providers.”
What training providers should know about the current ‘skills obsession’
Reskilling, upskilling, the skills gap, the skills odyssey, skills-forward approach, skills obsession… The talk of the town in the learniverse these days is all about skills, skills, skills. Why is this and what’s exactly going on? More importantly, is it relevant for training providers or are the opportunities only for corporate L&D departments?
We are exploring these questions together with the very knowledgeable people from Mind Tools in this recording. Yeah, you could call it a podcast.
Read the quick summary for instant learnings or listen to the recording (48 minutes) for the full insights.
A quick summary
“You had one job!” Helping to develop the skills of professionals has always been the core job of learning professionals. So why is reskilling and upskilling popping up all of a sudden in almost every report or analysis as if it is something new?
Certain economical and societal developments in recent years played a role, the pandemic did as well. The scarcity of hiring new, skilled employees has put an increased demand on learning and training.
Quite often, skills development is handled by managers, but learning happens from doing the work. Motivation to learn comes into play, too. Sometimes that’s internal, sometimes the motivation comes from the organisation. And recently, government funding has become a factor, mostly not a positive one, in motivation for training as well.
There seems to be plenty of money sloshing around in learning and development, meaning plenty of opportunity for training providers. There is room for training broad, generalised skills on a great scale and creating specific training for niche demands as well. Take your pick.
Probably most importantly, this is the time to have conversations with your clients and work together on creating learning solutions that help all parties involved.
Find out more insights and a deeper dive into the topic by listening to the full recording.
Mind Tools
Owen Ferguson is Chief Product Officer at Mind Tools, responsible for the development of our consumer and enterprise learning platforms, as well as our free benchmarking tool: the Learning Performance Benchmark.
Ross Garner is an award-winning learning designer and Head of Learning Experience at Mind Tools, where his team collaborates with clients to solve their specific challenges.
Together, they host the industry-leading Mind Tools L&D Podcast, which has almost 300 episodes. Ger Driesen was also present for three of them: about starting with online learning, blockchain for learning and Jobs To Be Done.
Find out more at mindtoolsbusiness.com and check out their podcast here or on any of the podcast channels.
More about this topic
aNewSpring will explore the topic of this ‘skills obsession’ further in the coming months. The perspective will always be how this is relevant for training providers. There will be webinars, customer cases, in-depth interviews with experts, how-to’s and we would love to hear from you! Sign up for aNewLetter to stay up to date.
Share your thoughts on
the ‘skills obsession’
We are very much interested in hearing what you think or have to say about all this talk about ‘skills’. Get in touch with us if you have anything to share.
Lunch & Learn
Another way to learn more about this topic is to join the Lunch & Learn for senior managers of training providers, organised regularly for the Dutch and Flemish markets. Read more about them here.
