From School to Work: Bridging the Skills Gap

About This Project

Bridging the Growing Skills Gap

The growing skills gap is one of the biggest challenges to the future of the global economy. Both higher education and talent development must take responsibility for closing the skills gap. Learning is transitioning from a 20th century approach heavily reliant on rote learning to a 21st century curriculum focused on communication, collaboration, critical reasoning and creative problem solving. Lynda.com aims to provide today’s learners with a mix of “soft” skills alongside “hard” skills that are industry-specific and technical. Filling this critical gap ensures the ability to obtain the jobs that are and will be vs. the jobs that once were. Lynda.com partnered with LinkedIn is posed for the first time to connect the graduate (or student) to opportunity.

Successfully bridging the skills gap is reliant on continuum of activities that begin in school and transfer to the workplace:

• Career awareness and exploration skills – integrating soft skills into the college’s general curriculum
• Career preparation skills – resume-building, interviewing, job searches, and salary negotiations
• Career pathway skills – identifying subject expertise skills as well as core competencies for any given position or career path; developing individualized career ladders/paths
• Career training skills – experiencing internships, work-based learning, alumni speakers, and field trips
• Talent development skills – classifying skillsets critical to hiring decisions, making job requirements more transparent, assessing skillsets, and creating organizational learning that supports current and future skill sets

VIDEO: Top 10 LinkedIn Free Tools for Higher Education

On-demand webcast: https://learning.linkedin.com/webinars/17/02/on-demand-from-school-to-work-bridging-the-skills-gap-registration