A checklist for selecting the right upskilling platform to fit your needs
Upskilling programs are not typically one-size-fits-all. You should choose a platform that’s holistic, scalable, customizable and can adapt to your organization’s needs over time.
The right upskilling platform should also align your business’s growth objectives with the goals of workers across every skill, function and role. Since 69% of CEOs agree that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) will require most of their workforce to develop new skills in the next three years, choosing an effective upskilling platform is imperative.
The more effective upskilling platforms should:
Align learning so that skills acquisition can support both business and individual goals.
Identify skills gaps in your company and compare them with industry peers.
Formulate customized learning pathways to close skill gaps and integrate with current learning management (LMS) and human resource management systems (HRMS).
Offer scenario-based opportunities to practice and apply skills, so workers can earn function-specific credentials through experiential learning.
Support scale across teams to help deliver ROI.
These five key features and capabilities can help you get started quickly, scale on your own timeline and advance your company’s journey toward digital transformation. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
1. Align learning so skills acquisition can help support both business and individual goals
When learning programs operate in a silo, it’s a missed opportunity to align individual and personal goals with the business’s growth objectives.
Upskilling should allow people to build on their existing strengths, future skills needs and their role and function within the company.
To help align individual learning with organizational goals, look for a platform that:
Automatically generates learning pathways relevant to an employee’s role and function.
Can be tailored to everyone's current skill set and upskilling needs.
Adapts as your company engages with the platform and makes progress on digital transformation.
Has easy-to-use reporting and dashboarding features that show progress by individual and function, and for your organization.
Offers curated content and courseware that’s considered to be interesting, topical and authoritative.
Demonstrates a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) through authorship and perspectives from people with a wide range of life experiences.
Includes accessible formats for learners with hearing, visual and other impairments.
Complements on-the-go lifestyles and consumption preferences through a broad mix of formats such as articles, videos, podcasts and infographics.
Offers short- and long-form learning experiences so they can match individual preferences.
Updates regularly to include relevant information on emerging technologies and trends.
Introduces self-paced GenAI courses to upskill the workforce on the latest technology. Employees can learn at their own pace and stay up to speed with the latest advancements in GenAI.
2. Identify skills gaps in your company, and compare them with industry peers
Choose a platform that can pull data from numerous internal and external sources, and then use it to conduct workforce skills gap analyses and future skills diagnostics. Leadership teams and human capital administrators can use those findings to help develop stronger, forward-looking plans that can consider the needs of individuals, teams, functions and the organization. The upskilling platform you choose should be able to:
Access internal employee skills data.
Access labor and market data on roles in your industry.
Incorporate data from human capital management (HCM) systems and learning management systems (LMS)
Leverage internal and external data to run gap analyses and compare your workforce’s skills against industry trends.
Provide easy-to-use dashboard views and show progress as gaps are closed.
3. Formulate customized learning pathways to help close skills gaps
Consider a solution that creates workforce profiles and customized learning pathways for across various roles, skill levels and functions. The upskilling solution should:
Let employees update their own skills profile.
Provide experiential learning in modes that adhere to up-to-date research in adult learning.
Automatically generate personalized learning pathways for everyone to help close their skills gaps based on where they sit within your organization.
Integrate with your current LMS and HRMS.
Include courses on skill-gaps on technologies of the future such as GenAI.
4. Offer opportunities to practice skills and earn function-specific credentials
An effective upskilling platform should include opportunities to practice new skills in a scenario-based environment. This can help people gain confidence and prepare to apply those skills directly to their jobs. It should have:
Real-world scenarios specific to their job function.
Project-based experiential learning evaluated by a subject matter specialist.
Feedback on areas where they are not yet proficient.
Opportunities to earn credentials that can apply to the business.
Enable employees to practice and apply GenAI skills though hands-on projects and simulations.
ProEdge, a PwC product, is a holistic upskilling platform that can offer credentials in over 20 functional areas that are often critical for corporate growth and performance.
5. Be scalable, repeatable and adaptive
As you evaluate upskilling programs, consider the holistic capabilities of each platform. ProEdge can help identify skill gaps — create custom learning pathways to close them — and align individual and corporate goals. It offers scenario-based projects for practical skills application as well as function-specific credentials.
Our team of specialists have designed and curated learning experiences according to current adult learning leading practices. And it’s customizable. The platform and its content offerings can be tailored to your organization’s needs. ProEdge can also integrate with LMS and other enterprise technologies.
Invest in an upskilling solution that’s designed to be scalable, repeatable and adaptive across the organization and can meet employees at the intersection of skill, role and function.
Invest in Tomorrow
Accelerate your employees’ learning and help drive scalable impact for your business with ProEdge, a PwC product — an intuitive, AI-powered learning platform that leverages hands-on experience and aggregated content to prepare your learners for real business challenges.