Discover whether upskilling or reskilling suits your career goals. Learn strategies to boost skills, pivot roles, and advance professionally.
Mass layoffs across IT companies have been making the headlines lately. The rise of AI is making many traditional job roles obsolete, putting livelihoods at risk. Others are changing in ways that make upskilling mandatory. These trends have re-ignited the debate over the need for upskilling vs reskilling. As AI automates more jobs, one thing is amply clear: doing neither is not an option.
You may ask, “How do I choose between upskilling vs reskilling in my career?”.
The answer is simple: During the course of your career, you may need to apply for lateral positions or switch to a completely new industry. This means you may have to upskill and reskill at different points in your career. Learning and applying new skills constantly will be crucial for both.
However, making the right choice requires a nuanced approach—you need to consider your long-term goals, career stage, and in-demand skills.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to choose the best possible career development path. We’ll discuss:
- Upskilling benefits
- Reskilling benefits
- Skill gap analysis
- Proven skill transformation strategies
Understanding Upskilling vs Reskilling
Let’s break down the concept of upskilling and reskilling:
What is Upskilling?
Upskilling means acquiring new skills to perform better in your existing role or industry. Upskilling allows you to take on more responsibilities and progress to the next role faster. Upskilling essentially helps you develop your skillset further and makes you more effective both as an individual contributor as well as a mentor or coach for other team members. You could even take up projects to analyze existing processes and come up with suggestions for improvement.
For example, a content marketer learning data analytics could collaborate with sales to understand how marketing leads convert into sales.
Key objectives:
- Stay current with emerging skills and technologies
- Adapt to changing job roles and expectations
- Preparing for promotions or lateral movements
What is Reskilling?
Reskilling involves learning a completely new set of skills to pursue a career in a new industry or business vertical. This is often necessitated by layoffs or changing business needs.
For example, a computer engineer becoming an author or a business analyst turning into a sustainability engineer.
Key objectives:
- Learning new job-specific skills
- Getting licenses or certifications to meet industry standards
Key Differences: Upskilling vs Reskilling
You may wonder which is better: Upskilling or reskilling. To find out, let’s compare the two side-by-side.
Skill Gap Analysis: Choosing Between Upskilling vs Reskilling
Often, the best course of action depends on your career goals and aspirations. A skill gap analysis enables you to identify the skills you may be currently lacking based on your career goals. It makes it easier for you to decide whether to upskill or reskill.
Ask yourself what you want to achieve in your career
The first step is to define your long-term carer goals.
- Do you want to make more money?
- Get into a senior management role?
- Become a consultant or industry expert?
- Transition to a new industry or career?
List job requirements
Whether you are a fresh graduate or an experienced professional, the role you desire would require a specific skill set. Learn about these job requirements by reading relevant job postings across company websites, job boards, and social media. Make a list of the core job responsibilities, skills, and educational qualifications. Research shows that hiring managers give as much importance to soft skills as technical skills when hiring. You should therefore highlight any soft skills mentioned in the job description and include them in your list of job requirements.
Do a skills audit
Next, it is time to compare your current skills with the respective job requirements. This can be achieved through a skill gap matrix—a grid-based model where you rate your competency in each technical or soft skill on your list on a scale of 1 to 5. Create a spreadsheet and list the top job skills and the scores you’ve assigned to each. This will give you a clear, actionable picture of your skills and competencies. You’ll quickly know which areas to upskill in and become job-ready.
Upskilling Benefits: Why Develop Existing Skills?
Research shows that 46% of Indian professionals are upskilling on their own. This is because of:
Career growth
As traditional job roles change due to automation, working professionals are upgrading themselves via online courses and certificate programmes to boost career growth. In the short term, upskilling can boost performance at work and earn you recognition as a top performer.
Over a period of time, it contributes to salary increments, promotions, and facilitates lateral movements to new verticals or business areas—even within the same company. Upskilling can help mid-career professionals branch out into new directions.
Reskilling Benefits: How Career Pivots Help You Grow
Reskilling is crucial if you have been laid off or are considering a career change. With reskilling, you can find jobs in emerging sectors such as Data Science, AI, Green Energy, or Sustainability. These domains are experiencing a huge skills gap.
Acquiring the right skills allows you to move from a dead-end career to exciting new ones. You can build a stable career and increase your earning potential. You align better with market needs and often experience personal fulfillment as new career paths open up.
Creating Career Development Strategies
The right career development strategy depends on your existing goals and where you aspire to be in the future. Here are a few development paths to consider, based on your needs:
Digital skills upskilling
If you are a fresher, start with the basics:
- Master applications like Excel, PowerPoint, and data analysis fundamentals.
- Set aside time to take online courses on in-demand topics like digital marketing, prompt engineering, and cloud computing.
- Learn programming languages like Python and C++.
- Leverage free courses on Google Digital Garage, Udemy, or Coursera to build up your knowledge.
- Share your learnings on LinkedIn and/or develop a portfolio to showcase your skills. This can help you attract job opportunities faster.
Continuous learning at work
Actively seek out on-the-job learning opportunities. This includes:
- Computer-based or in-person training programs on various technical and soft skills.
- Participate in job-enrichment or secondment programs where you can apply your skills to real-world problems. This exposure will help you fill your knowledge gaps and get more visibility.
Professional skills training
Professional skills are mainly soft skills like active listening, collaboration, problem-solving, and conflict management. If you’ve received feedback regarding these skills during one-on-one coaching sessions with your manager, you’ll need to find the best resources to bridge these gaps.
While online courses can help, consider corporate training programs offered by institutions like Dale Carnegie or Toastmasters International. These programs offer tailored exercises, real-time guidance, mock sessions, and peer support that online courses usually lack.
Pro-tip: Check with your manager if your company can sponsor your training or reimburse your expenses.
Employee training and development
Learning and Development teams often publish a learning calendar for the year, outlining topics, scheduled timings, facilitators’ names, and other details.
- Sign up for training sessions that are most useful to you.
- Volunteer for cross-functional projects, mentorship programs, and other learning opportunities. These sessions are often conducted by senior management—an excellent opportunity to network and learn about upcoming growth opportunities.
Skill Enhancement for Professionals
If you are a team leader or line manager, keep an eye on new promotion opportunities or lateral movements. Compare the skills mentioned in the job description and update your skills gap matrix. Upskilling is an ongoing process that requires commitment and structured learning.
- Ask for feedback on your biggest strengths and weaknesses,
- Find mentors or accountability partners to help you develop new skills
- Read books written by credentialed experts and listen to podcasts
- Block time on your calendar for skill-building
- Track your progress using Asana, Trello, or other project management tools
Reskilling for career change
If you are a team leader or line manager, keep an eye on new promotion opportunities or lateral movements. Compare the skills mentioned in the job description and update your skills gap matrix. Upskilling is an ongoing process that requires commitment and structured learning.
- Determine how many of your existing skills are transferable.
- Focus on the skills that you may lack. LinkedIn is an excellent tool to network with recruiters and professionals working in that industry to learn the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of reskilling for career change.
- Prioritize hands-on experience, which is often a key requirement among employers.
- Leverage non-traditional channels like recruitment marketplaces to find the right opportunities. These new-age platforms offer personalized job recommendations and a host of value-added skill transformation strategies.
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Your career path is often determined by the opportunities you pursue and the skills you develop. Making the wrong move can mean wasted time and effort, besides reduced income.
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