With new technological advances being discovered every day, employee training and development is becoming an essential part of business growth. Offering the opportunity for staff to train provides organisations with invaluable benefits, including; increased employee loyalty, productivity and helps to boost morale.
With such a large skills gap in the IT industry, retraining has become the new recruiting. According to research from PayScale, they found that 33% of companies worldwide had positions that have been open for six months or more. When they asked HR and business leaders why these positions remained vacant, 67% of them said it’s because they could not find qualified applicants.
Plugging the Skills Gap in IT
It’s no surprise the UK has been left with a skills shortage with technology evolving at such a rapid rate. Research shows that 89% of companies in the UK are expecting a shortage of skilled technology professionals over the next 12 months. But how can this be changed?
According to the recent Salary Survey from ComputerWeekly, 60% of IT workers agree women could help close the skills gap in IT, with experts saying women are an ‘untapped resource’. Employing women in IT would bring a lot to the industry including; improved communication skills, cooperation between team members and boosted morale. Big tech companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google and Intel are already making headway on this issue. They have since pledged to improve the recruitment, training and retention of women in IT roles.
Offering training to current employees will also help plug the skills gap, minimise staff turnover and create assets to organisations. Due to the rise of the digital age, companies being cyber attacked and new technology being invented every day, the number of jobs in IT has increased drastically. A search on Adzuna shows that there are almost 200,000 IT jobs available in the UK alone.
What is Retraining, Reskilling & Upskilling?
There are many different types of training available for people looking to better their skills or refresh their knowledge. In a survey by Computer Weekly, one third of IT workers said they need more training to move forward in their career.
Here are a few different terminologies typically associated with training.
Retraining is the process of refreshing your knowledge on a regular basis to keep up to date with technological changes and recent industry advances.
Reskilling is training people from one field to gain the skills and knowledge to move into another department or role.
Upskilling is training those in their current job role and providing them with additional skills to make their job easier and help them progress in their career by giving them more responsibilities.
The Unprecedented Savings of Development
When it comes to developing the knowledge and skillset of employees, the benefits to the organisation are invaluable. Well trained employees have been proven to show improvements in efficiency and productivity.
According to a recent study by Clutch, 70% of employees would participate in job retraining if it was available. Job retraining provides so much more than simply boosting an employee’s performance, it also boosts morale. Having the opportunity to retrain provides employee’s with job security and satisfaction. 70% of employees with job retraining opportunities at work are satisfied with their company’s offerings, according to Clutch.
Organisations investing in staff training can expect lower recruitment costs and less wasted time. This is due to the fact the employee already knows and understands the company. There would also be no need for supervision as the necessary skills would have already been acquired during training. Therefore, minimising the chance for errors.
Reskilling & Retraining Solutions
Here at ITonlinelearning not only do we provide individuals with recognised training courses and sought-after certifications, but we create bespoke solutions for organisations looking to retrain their existing employees.
We have worked with Amazon Career Choice for over three years, providing them with three specially designed course packages that enable eligible employees to learn the skills necessary to progress within the organisation. Through these solutions we have helped train on average 150 Amazon students each year in IT, administration and project support.
If you are looking for a solution tailored to your organisation and specific course packages that will help retrain your employees in areas that have a skills shortage, we can build a package that works for your company.
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