Smarter investments = skilled workers

Might restructuring the current maze of investments in worker upskilling and reskilling help address skill mismatches in key industries and boost workers’ economic mobility?

A fresh analysis from Pearson offers insights on several complex challenges to higher education access and affordability—as well as prospects for economic growth—in the US and globally.

Large-scale employers ranging from Amazon to AT&T and Walmart have recently announced major worker retraining and upskilling efforts. But almost one-half of employers are seeking guidance on everything from ensuring that employees gain in-demand skills to curriculum development and measuring outcomes, the researchers found. In addition, the patchwork of revenue streams for these and broader efforts creates friction in the system—and barriers to strengthening learners’ opportunities.

One potential solution: “a more collaborative ecosystem approach.” Such partnerships between large-scale employers and higher education leaders—from community and technical colleges to research universities—could also strengthen the offerings of small- and medium-scale companies that lack the capacity to offer in-house retraining. Coupled with what the authors call an AI-powered “Waze for lifelong learning”—and enhanced by state-of-the-art labor market analytics—learners could find their best path forward, and companies would gain a strategic tool to match employees’ skills with emerging market forces.

Supporting workers through “distributed investment in learning.” The authors—economist Marco Annunziata and Pearson analysts Alexa Christon, Laurie Forcier, and Janine Mathó—also suggest that private sector and higher education leaders can collaborate with policymakers to forge innovative public regulatory, tax, and expenditure policies. The shared goal? Fostering a “distributed investment in learning” model supporting seamless skills acquisition by workers accessing multiple institutions and platforms throughout their careers.

A Global “Upskilling Divide”? Check out “Opportunity for Higher Education in the Era of the Talent Economy” and the accompanying "Global Learner Survey," conducted by The Harris Poll for Pearson, which reports thought-provoking evidence that a global “upskilling divide” is emerging. The upshot: people in China, India, Brazil and Hispano-America appear more likely to upskill or retrain than workers in the US and UK.