The Great Resignation : Upskilling , Reskilling and Formal Education
by Ky Ekinci
What can we learn from the ‘ Great Resignation ’ that is now driving millions of workers and billions of dollars to Upskilling Startups ? Finding , attracting and retaining talent with requisite skills has been increasingly difficult for businesses . Employees who feel stuck in jobs that are not satisfying or lucrative have created a change-in-the-workplace movement . Woven inside these macro trends are upskilling and reskilling , as well as new questions about learning inside and outside of school .
What is Upskilling ? The verb “ upskill ” first appeared in the Oxford Learning
Dictionaries in 2010 . Simply put , upskilling is the process of learning new skills or improving existing ones to meet the demands of a changing marketplace . With technological advances and automation , many jobs that have existed for decades are disappearing . In their place are new types of jobs that require different skill sets .
The upskilling process begins with an assessment of one ’ s current skills and the gaps in one ’ s knowledge . Once a worker has identified the skills that need bridging or improvement , that person can focus on acquiring the relevant skills .
There are many ways to upskill , including online courses , peerto-peer learning , workshops , immersive bootcamps and one-on-
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