Upskill to level up your career

The World Economic Forum has projected that 50% of jobs will need skillset changes by 2027. With rapid changes in technology, including digitisation and automation, the World Economic Forum projects that 50% of all jobs will require a change in skillsets by 2027.

Job specifications change as business demands change, and employees are expected to prove their value with increasingly higher expectations.

Honing your skills and continuous learning are essential to succeeding in any career in the competitive world we live in, which constantly changes and evolves with technology.

If you want to change your role or career path, you must level up your skills (upskill) or learn new skills while working. Studying full-time for skills while working is difficult. There are many ways to learn that do not involve going back to an educational institution. Here are five ways to upskill without going back to college/ school.

Certifications: Certifications show you have knowledge and capabilities in a certain field, which makes them especially important if you’re transitioning careers and don’t have much work experience in the new field. Many certifications are for jobs like business analytics, business processes, project management, marketing, and leadership.

Internships, rotations, and volunteering: Many internships require attending college or school. If you already have a full-time job, check whether your organisation offers sabbatical leave. Otherwise, you may attend evening or executive programmes.

This type of arrangement may not be feasible for every company. Then, you could seek to volunteer in another organisation during your free time. Another way to gain experience is to find a small family business to gain skills like analytics, customer acquisition, marketing, media etc. 

Extra assignments: Ask for work from another department/section in your organisation so that you will enhance your visibility and bring value to your organisation. Extra assignments will get you a new / higher level of skills so that your performance becomes more visible, and you may be considered for the next opportunity. 

Online learning: There are many online learning courses, including free courses from top schools like MIT, Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Although the individual online classes may not be compared to full-time programmes, this shows that you are continuously learning/ growing your job-relevant skills, which is an impressive employee quality. After completing the online learning, you can show your relevant coursework by adding ‘continuous education’ to your resume.

Mentorship: Mentors who are senior leaders have in-depth knowledge of the organisation’s growth trajectory and can foresee the required skills and capabilities in the future. 

Mentors outside your section/ department will give you new perspectives on work/role, teach you how to level up your skills and enable you to think differently. In addition to the hard skills, mentors help you master soft skills like cross-functional communication, complex problem-solving, inclusive leadership, etc.

You must develop different perspectives on issues that will help you improve your thought leadership for future opportunities. 

As business demands are changing, you are expected to prove your value by levelling up your skills to grow ahead.