While skills have always been a fundamental focal point of every CV, they are now at the core of most employers’ skill-first hiring strategy. So how does a jobseeker develop the skills employers are seeking and future-proof their career?
The answer is by upskilling and reskilling.
“We’ve started some reskilling programs in areas where we have high demand, such as data and analytics, risk and business banking. So far, we’ve had 200 of our employees go through that program and 100 of them got jobs in the area they reskilled for,” says Sian Lewis, Group Executive Human Resources at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
With over 850 million members, LinkedIn has an unparalleled insight into this market.
In 2021 alone, 286 million skills were added to LinkedIn Learning profiles globally. Plus, nearly half of recruiters are using skills data to fill roles, a practice that is increasing year-on-year.
LinkedIn’s new Skills Evolution report unpacks how skills have changed since 2015 based on the skills that members are adding to their LinkedIn profiles. LinkedIn has learning courses to help with these skill sets, which you can access for free until 30 September 2022.
Here are the top skills in 2021 and the LinkedIn Learning courses that can help with upskilling and reskilling:
- Customer Service – Serving Customers in a Continuously Changing World with David Brownlee
- Time Management – Leadership Tips, Tactics, and Advice with Elizabeth Lotardo & Lisa Earle McLeod
- Communication – Unlocking Authentic Communication in a Culturally-Diverse Workplace with Jonathan Wilson
- Sales – Asking Great Sales Questions with Jeff Bloomfield
- Business Development – Business Development: Strategic Planning with Meridith Powell
- Problem Solving – The Secret to Better Decisions: Stop Hoarding Chips with Seth Godin
- Interpersonal Skills – Be the Manager People Won’t Leave with Laurie Ruettimann
- Business Strategy – Business Analysis for Busy Professionals with Christina Charenkova
- Marketing – Marketing Foundations: The Marketing Funnel with Brad Batesole
- Leadership – Time Management Fundamentals with Dave Crenshaw
What are the current skills that employers are seeking?
There will always be a demand for hard skills, but soft skills are on the rise due to their transferability across industries. Soft skills include, but are by no means limited to, leadership, problem-solving, communication, critical thinking and time management.
To further understand how skills across different industries are changing, LinkedIn examined specific industries worldwide and the top skills that employees in these industries are prioritising in order to future-proof their careers.
They include:
Marketing
With our ever-shortening attention spans, it is unsurprising that the top three skills the marketing sphere is crying out for are digital marketing, social media marketing and SEO (search engine optimisation).
Project Management
In these times of rapid change, an agile project manager could not be more crucial. Understandably, the top skills sought in project management are centred around pivoting, planning and coordination. This industry has seen a 70 per cent change in its requirements since 2015.
IT
No stranger to change, this industry is very agile. However, even the IT sphere has experienced massive disruption,and like project management, has seen a 70 per cent change in requirements since 2015. There is significant demand for cyber-security knowledge, network and system administration.
Engineering
New technologies dominate when it comes to in-demand skills for engineers. The top three of these skills are AutoCAD, JavaScript and Java.
Finance and Accounting
This industry recorded the same three top skills as the engineering field. Bank reconciliation, journal entering, and financial planning are also recommended.
As we ride the waves of change, now is an opportune time to upskill and future-proof your career.
Click here to uncover more detail on the top 10 skills across industries globally and access the free LinkedIn Learning courses to get started on your skills journey.
Request a free demo to learn how LinkedIn Learning can keep your team learning and benefit your business.