Debunked: four myths about reskilling

Let’s talk reskilling. Defined as the training of employees to develop a new range of skills, either for a new or existing role. 

According to the CBI’s Learning for life: funding world class adult education report, based on McKinsey analysis, reskilling can offer: 

• Increased job satisfaction 
• Higher wages for employees 
• Increased competitiveness for UK business 
• An 8% to 10% boost to 2017 GVA, which is equivalent to a £150bn to £190bn uplift by 2030. 

However, only 33% of adults say they have participated in learning over the past three years (by October 2020), the lowest in over two decades.  

Digitisation, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has only widened the skills gap, making reskilling more urgent, yet harder for businesses to achieve. 

The Department for Digital, Cultural, Media and Sport (DCMS) found that 48% of 1,045 businesses are recruiting for roles that need data skills, but 46% of these businesses have struggled to recruit for the past two years.  

Additionally, half of the 5,000 workers they surveyed reported that they haven’t received data skills training over the last two years, despite there be