Today, human knowledge is doubling every 13 months; by 2020 it will double every 72 days. That growth has profound impacts on how people learn and brings about a real challenge at a macroeconomic level, at a small business level and at an employee level.
How do we develop systems where employees and job seekers can attain the skills they need on-demand and as they need them so that they are continuously relevant and productive?
In my last post, I explored how organizations can increase the productivity of their workforces internally. However, there are many factors impacting workers’ productivity, and some can only be tackled from a macro level.
The most critical skills in the workplace today generally revolve around personal productivity, problem solving, task/ team management, computer skills and what is broadly defined as “people skills.” Employers are struggling to improve these skills in their current employees and desperately looking for these in the people that they recruit. According to a recent survey, most small businesses said they would rather hire with these soft skills and train in specific job functions rather than the other way around. The lack of soft skills is the key challenge that holds back small business growth and economic output, yet they are not explicitly addressed in most post-secondary education.
Traditional higher education institutions simply cannot scale to meet the magnitude and pace of a skills gap that is evolving and morphing in real time – especially in the small business economy. Often times, at the point our formal education systems have addressed many of the newest skills demanded by employers, the demand for that skill has faded, and the market has moved forward. Post-secondary education is a critical part of the solution, but on-demand or just-in-time skills development must be part of the mix as well.
Employees and job seekers need to be able to access training in a timely manner to improve retention and the ability to effectively apply knowledge. For example, studies show that when individuals attend any kind of instructor-led training, after three weeks they will only remember 10-15 per cent of what they heard — hence, the need to leverage technology and on demand learning to improve retention and competence. Large businesses have been doing this for years, but employees in small businesses and job seekers are often left behind.
The marketplace can’t and won’t fix these issues for small businesses or job seekers on its own. It is not economical or attractive for companies in the e-learning industry to market down to small businesses or individuals – e-learning is unfortunately not viral. SMBs are struggling to make sense of how to implement a proper employee development program, and job seekers are grappling with the issue of attaining skills to make themselves marketable. The industry is making strides towards helping businesses evolve their current employees and helping job seekers keep their skills up to date. Governments are also stepping up to support this critical shift. However, it is not just about technology; we need holistic programs that deliver wide scale adoption of on demand learning. That is the only way we can help smaller businesses and individuals struggling to keep pace in a tsunami of change.
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