People Are Ready and Willing to Learn
In one of the largest global surveys of labor trends and work preferences, BCG and online recruiting company the Network surveyed 366,000 people in 197 countries. The results revealed that most people are prepared to retrain for a new position.
Percentage of Respondents Willing to Retrain for a New Job by Category
GLOBAL OVERVIEW
EDUCATION LEVEL
JOB ROLE
AGE GROUP
Sixty-seven percent of respondents are willing to retrain in any situation, while 29% would do so if they hit serious roadblocks in a job search.
67%
29%
3%
Digital jobs are hot—and digital experts want to keep learning more.
Demand for skills in areas such as AI, robotics, and automation is exploding, with mentions in online job postings growing more than 40% per year.
Digital experts ranked learning
and training second in importance among dozens of job factors.
LEARN MORE ABOUT GLOBAL TRENDS IN RESKILLING AND UPSKILLING
Companies Have Been Slow to Respond
Reskilling and upskilling is just one element of an emerging workforce crisis. Addressing that crisis will require an entirely new approach to recruiting, training, and motivating talent.
In the near future, the world will face a global workforce crisis consisting of an overall labor shortage plus a skills mismatch. Every company needs a people strategy and to act on it immediately. There is a huge upskilling challenge ahead of us.
RAINER STRACK
Managing Director & Senior Partner
In this TED@BCG talk, Rainer Strack describes the scope of the coming workforce
crisis and how companies must address it.
1
2
3
4
5
6
Create a strategic workforce plan
Launch
targeted upskilling programs
Embrace learning contracts
Adopt the latest learning technologies
Build a continuous learning culture
Extend upskilling to the wider society
Quantify mid- and long-term talent gaps by mapping employee skills against current and future needs.
Remaining Competitive in a Fast-Changing Labor Market
There are six steps companies can take to meet the upskilling challenge and future-proof their workforce.
Learning is a CEO issue. A large-scale, digitally oriented reskilling initiative should be a core aspect of any corporate transformation and a top priority for the CEO.
READ THE CEO’s GUIDE TO LEADING AND LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Building learning programs
at speed and scale
EXPLORE
LEARN MORE
Competing on the
rate of learning
Explore more topics in the #HowtobyBCG series
How to Get
Agile Right
How to Win the
Next Economic Downturn
How to Unlock
Innovation with Deep Tech
How to Harness
the Power of Purpose
EXPLORE
LEARN MORE
1
Create a strategic workforce plan
2
Launch
targeted upskilling programs
Define a broad portfolio of learning interventions—reskilling existing employees, recruiting new employees, and acquiring companies with desired capabilities and skills—to fill the gaps.
3
Formalize a commitment between the company and its employees to reskilling and upskilling, so the workforce is continually preparing for the next technological disruption.
Embrace learning contracts
New techniques such as mobile apps, augmented reality, and gamification are powerful tools for real-time, on-site learning.
4
Adopt the latest learning technologies
Incorporate incentives to learn new skills into talent management and performance assessment. Encourage employees to adopt a continuous-growth mindset.
5
Build a continuous learning culture
Collaborate with government and educational institutions to train the next generation of employees, including initiatives to motivate young people to enter in-demand careers.
6
Extend upskilling to the wider society
LEARN MORE ABOUT GLOBAL TRENDS IN RESKILLING AND UPSKILLING
How to Future-Proof Your Workforce
To win in today’s business environment, companies need a comprehensive strategy for helping employees acquire new skills.
#HowtobyBCG
How to Win the
Next Economic Downturn
How to Unlock
Innovation with Deep Tech
GLOBAL OVERVIEW
EDUCATION LEVEL
JOB ROLE
AGE GROUP
Majorities at all education levels are willing to retrain—but the percentage falls off at the highest levels of education.
No formal education
High school
Secondary qualification
Bachelor's degree
Master’s degree or post-graduate qualification
Doctorate or
equivalent
67%
72%
76%
70%
64%
56%
Appetite for retraining is highest among people in sales, administrative, and services jobs.
58%
Legal
59%
IT
59%
Science
73%
Services
73%
Administrative
Sales
75%
Young people want retraining the most, but strong majorities of the elderly also want to improve their skills.
59%
61 and older
60%
51-60
67%
41-50
70%
31-40
69%
21-30
20 and under
61%
Yes
No
If necessary
READ THE CEO’s GUIDE TO LEADING AND LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
GLOBAL OVERVIEW
EDUCATION LEVEL
AGE GROUP
JOB ROLE
How to Get
Agile Right
RAINER STRACK
How to Harness
the Power of Purpose
Extend upskilling to the wider society
6
Collaborate with government and educational institutions to train the next generation of employees, including initiatives to motivate young people to enter in-demand careers.
5
Build a continuous learning culture
5
Incorporate incentives to learn new skills into talent management and performance assessment. Encourage employees to adopt a continuous-growth mindset.
6
4
Adopt the latest learning technologies
4
New techniques such as mobile apps, augmented reality, and gamification are powerful tools for real-time, on-site learning.
5
3
Embrace learning contracts
3
Formalize a commitment between the company and its employees to reskilling and upskilling, so the workforce is continually preparing for the next technological disruption.
4
2
Launch
targeted upskilling programs
2
Define a broad portfolio of learning interventions—reskilling existing employees, recruiting new employees, and acquiring companies with desired capabilities and skills—to fill the gaps.
3
1
Create a strategic workforce plan
1
Quantify mid- and long-term talent gaps by mapping employee skills against current and future needs.
2
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