Upskilling is not the key to bridging widening skills gap: Deloitte

A report showed nearly 75% of employers are unable to find skilled workers.

The widening skills gap across the globe will not be answered by another upskilling program, but by building a workforce development ecosystem, Deloitte Insights reported. 

Data from the 2022 Global Talent Shortage report showed that nearly 75% of employers globally have difficulty in finding skilled workers–the highest rate in over a decade. 

“State policymakers should deploy tools that enhance the way different participants work together; these participants include educators, employers, and those committed to workforce upskilling,” the report read. 

“Instead of focusing solely on helping one individual at a time, strengthening workforce development as an ecosystem can provide enhanced economic opportunity for much of the population and drive economic growth.”

Deloitte noted governments need to rethink their approach in their workforce development ecosystem by treating it as an ecosystem, instead of a process.

“A process is designed, engineered, and managed. It is linear and addresses problems to be solved,” whilst an ecosystem is “naturally occurring set of related activities. It may have multiple participants with different goals, varied relationships, feedback loops, and constant evolution. An ecosystem has no start or finish.”

In this way, governments may be able to strengthen their skilled worker pipeline.