The future-ready workforce series - Upskilling to prepare for the future of work

Before we can ensure our teams are ready for the future of work, it’s important to understand the key skills that workers will need to navigate and thrive in an ever-changing labour market. But how can organizations identify the most in-demand skills?

At the University of Waterloo, we began by analyzing more than 74,000 job postings to determine the most in-demand, required skills sought by co-op employers. That analysis showed a heightened focus on uniquely human talents and capabilities (some organizations may recognize these as soft skills), such as communication, problem solving and interpersonal skills. These uniquely human talents and capabilities were often paired with more in-demand technical skills, such as software development, data analysis and machine learning. From there, we undertook a large research project to identify and validate the key competencies that will be required to remain competitive in the workforce.

Through a review of the existing literature, an analysis of numerous competency frameworks, and consultation with students, faculty and employers, we established the Future Ready Talent Framework as a way for our students and employers to understand, identify and practice the skills needed to succeed in the future of work.

In other sectors, there’s similar focus on enabling the workforce with opportunities to learn, apply and adapt quickly through experience and practice on enduring capabilities like imagination, empathy, curiosity and critical thinking.

If organizations can embrace, cultivate and nurture these enduring human capabilities, they will be well-positioned to gain a strategic advantage in the years to come. Their workforces will have the capabilities to sense and respond to change and to rapidly learn the skills needed to continue moving forward and thriving in an environment of relentless disruption.

As we build our understanding of the key competencies required to thrive in a complex future of work, it’s important for us to think about the ways in which we can upskill our existing workforce with those key competencies.

The Work-Learn Institute (WxL) recently completed a literature review on the future of work to identify some of the existing trends that we expect to grow in the future workforce. Those key themes for the future of work were released in our whitepaper, Preparing for the Future of Work through Work-Integrated Learning:

• Advances in technology
• Skill agility and transferability
• Responsibility for adaptation
• Fostering equity, diversity and inclusion
• Gig economy and precarious work
• Employee vs. organizational values

When we think about creating a sustainable workforce for today and tomorrow, it’s also important to acknowledge that the future of workplace learning and professional development is continuous and human-centric.

By creating a workplace that balances education, experience, environment and exposure, organizations can vary the ways in which they upskill team members:

• Incorporate forms of experiential learning that connect human emotion and relevant experiences, which is important for committing learning to memory.
• Use work-integrated learning to provide opportunities for employees to develop their skills during day-to-day work – making learning more applicable and efficient.
• Blend a mix of digital and hands-on experiences to ensure learning is more accessible and scalable.
• Offer professional and personal development that contributes to workers’ ongoing future employability, ensuring that workers can perceive their learning as valuable and help them remain relevant in an evolving world of work.

To meet the upskilling demands of the future of work, organizations and institutions must think deeply and critically about how we train our teams. What worked in the past simply will not be agile enough to adapt to the current rate of change. That’s why we need to think more holistically about training and development and move away from the idea that training on specific technologies or processes is the most efficient way for our workforce to endure. 

Globally, we are experiencing a skills shortage. To establish a solution among our emerging talent, the University of Waterloo began to examine how certain models of work-integrated learning, including opportunities for skills development and upskilling, could intervene to improve unemployment – and subsequently, the resulting underemployment – of the younger talent within our institution. The result? The Waterloo Experience (WE) Accelerate Program.

It’s challenging to understand the skills workers will need to support future business strategies, especially when it comes to determining existing skills gaps. It’s also difficult to identify which skills and capabilities are top priority, and whether to build those skills and capabilities in-house, recruit them in the market, or hire them temporarily as they’re needed.

Building an environment around work experiences – or creating a learning environment that combines elements of upskilling – is something more organizations need to consider as they adapt to the changes happening in our workforce. 

Academic institutions or other upskilling experts (including industry partners) can offer support for organizations wanting to build specialty knowledge and enduring capabilities among their teams. And once your teams have had opportunities for upskilling, you can begin to think about how to transition them to new roles where they can share their skills and expertise with incoming or existing talent. 

Here are the top three ways you can start thinking about improving the way you upskill talent in your workplace today:

1. Look for opportunities to develop ensuring skills and capabilities, including a variety of technical and human-centred skills.
2. Train your talent through workplace experiences, considering environment and exposure, along with work-integrated learning and opportunities for continuous or lifelong learning.
3. Consider partnerships for upskilling and reskilling programs, such as post-secondary institutions, upskilling professionals, or other businesses in your professional network who have implemented successful programs.