The fourth industrial revolution is upon us, creating a fast-paced, technologically-driven world. The impact of this change is strongly felt across industry verticals. The new opportunities are created for businesses by industry 4.0 technologies such as machine learning & AI, big data, data science, cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics. To enjoy the benefits of this opportunity, businesses are increasingly investing in the identification and implementation of the correct digital initiatives.
The demand for hands-on technical skills is rising in the context of the changing digital economy. We are moving through a phase of transformation across the industry and the access to skilled staff is a major challenge for the businesses. As demand continues to grow, the workforce requires to align skills and career objectives with the demands of the industry.
Currently the skills necessary for jobs are evolving quickly, but the times have not been met by our formal education systems. According to the latest National Employability Report, only about 3.84% of our graduate technicians are employable in start-up software-centered employment and only 3% have functional skills linked to mobile technologies, machine learning, AI and data engineering.
With the present education system totally out of sync with changing requirements in the professional world, e-learning platforms offering industry-relevant skills programs arise as a strong alternative to enhancing skills. Today’s world requires an educational system that can overhaul itself, a system that continually realigns with the industry’s evolving requirements.
The challenge is not only for employment at the entry level. The report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) also confirms this skill mismatch trend for lateral hires. According to the report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), 35% of the skills required across vertical industry will change by 2020. The workforce’s skill sets are getting outdated faster than ever before. Continuous learning for today’s workforce has become a survival requirement.
Access to skilled talent is becoming a bottleneck for businesses to navigate through digital transformation challenges. Traditional job boards serve well, while there is a sufficient talent pool with appropriate abilities accessible, but times are changing. The market lacks skilled talent. The lateral talent requires to be re-skilled and the industry requires new talent to be skilled. This has led in businesses turning to recruitment requirements for e-learning platforms. The recruitment of skilled talent from these platforms is the ideal symbiotic relationship for all.
This model quickly emerges as a true disruptor in the new age hiring scheme.
IT companies such as Infosys, TCS, MindTree, and others have been putting their recruits through three to nine months of training to get them ready for work. However, most mid-level companies do not have the resources to put their new or existing employees into skills development programs. Therefore e-learning platforms are a natural solution.
Online schools train the talent to make them employable to the present requirements of the industry. Hiring companies save valuable time and training expenses by hiring skilled candidates from this pool.
What makes e-learning platforms widely attractive to candidates is that the programs are intended for everyone and can be accessed at one’s convenience. Anyone who wants to improve their skills and abilities, whether a new graduate or a professional with a decade of experience, can use the platforms. This produces a constant supply of skilled talent across experience and skill levels. As a result, moving towards a recruitment platform appears to be a natural transition for these platforms.
This software-based education system development signals the development of a system of education into an iterative, adaptive and more agile system. It also offers a new channel for businesses seeking to employ skilled talent. New Age E-learning platforms not only help graduates and experienced professionals to improve their skills, but also help them find employment prospects with hiring partners.
It is interesting to see how this e-learning wave becomes the next major step towards acquiring talent, disrupting two industries simultaneously – education and hiring.
About author: This article was written by Mr. Arman Ahmed, Co-founder and CEO of Edyoda.
