A PwC survey has found that 65 per cent of workers are currently considering quitting their current jobs. This has fuelled theories that we are in the midst of the ‘Great Resignation’ (workers quitting jobs and exiting the labour market) or the ‘Great Reshuffle’ (workers exiting their jobs in exchange for better paid or more flexible work elsewhere).
A new World Economic Forum article released in January contends that the current trend is better described as a Great Learning Revolution, whereby workers are driving demand for new skills that better match the disrupted and evolving digital workplace. This has led to rapid increase in enrolments in e-learning products - such as online courses and interactive digital learning environments.
Online courses are digitally enabled classes that allow students to learn at their own pace and schedule and develop skills and (oftentimes) earn accredited qualifications. Interactive digital learning environments, such as Code Academy, LinkedIn Learning and Coursera offer a diverse range of courses that blend instructed learning with direct application to problems in bespoke digital learning environments.
These new learning programs are an important element in enabling life-long learning, and they generate significant value to businesses and society. So much so that the global e-learning industry is currently on a trajectory to be valued close to one trillion dollars by 2027.
The World Economic Forum has some tips for businesses on how to leverage the digital learning tools that provide self-directed courses in response to strong employee demand for upskilling:
Offer learning to reward employees
Surveys suggest that employees are willing to retrain and learn new skills. As a result, training may now be a suitable non-financial reward to provide to employees. Pursuing this strategy may help to retain top talent and generate productivity gains.
Recruit for skill, not qualification
The new modes of informal, self-directed learning (i.e.: through Massive Online Open Courses or MOOCs) can result in the development of new valuable skills. These skills lack certification or qualifications that conventional recruitment strategies seek, and thus it is important for employers to recruit for skills, not only qualifications.
Become people-enabling
The digital transformation is heralding a new way of thinking about work, to which employers must adapt. An essential component of this is to provide mobility to employees seeking to develop their professional skills and expand horizons – which can avoid the traditional need for employees to change jobs to achieve their goals.
Brett contributes to the Centre’s ongoing research and policy development projects. As the Centre’s main data collector and analyst, he is interested in finding and drawing links between various datasets and developing evidence-based policy that can lead to improved system performance and productivity growth.
