Skillsoft Launches New Digital Learning Journeys for Key Technology Roles

Skillsoft, a global leader in corporate learning, unveiled plans for Skillsoft Aspire, a new series of digital learning journeys. Skillsoft Aspire will provide enterprise technologists and developers with curated learning paths to rapidly advance their proficiency in critical technology roles. Skillsoft used industry trends and data, anonymized user data and input from clients worldwide to identify the most in-demand technology career paths, including roles related to data analysis, security, programming and machine learning. Skillsoft Aspire will help organizations address the growing skills gap and the dearth of talent in these key technology roles by prescribing instruction and credentials to help, for instance, a Data Analyst become a Data Scientist.

Continual learning is an incredibly powerful tool that every organization can utilize to promote talent agility and career development in today’s rapidly evolving workplace – where new roles are being created and new skill sets are being required to support the convergence of the business and technology functions within every business. Plotting a career path is critical for technology professionals to address specialization, certification requirements and the speed of change and disruption. Organizations need help to map the latest career development paths based on future technology roles, cloud operations, security and much more.

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Skillsoft is developing a solution of sequenced instruction that methodically helps learners progress toward an aspirational role. The four stages of a Skillsoft Aspire journey deliver roughly 40-50 hours of content comprised of multi-modal learning courses. Each Aspire journey will also include 10-12 hours of practice labs, assessments and a Capstone.

Skillsoft Aspire is setting a new standard for technical skills attainment. With Skillsoft Aspire, the ability to succeed in a role is measured using criterion-based assessments and demonstrated hands-on experience within practice labs. Skillsoft Aspire addresses targeted expertise levels that are required to succeed within their career track and ensures that role-definition and capabilities remain consistent across the organization, resulting in a more transparent, rewarding and effective talent development experience for employees, teams and the business.

“There are certain functions, tasks and activities that a person does in their current role and there are other tasks that are part of an aspirational role. For instance, you can’t promote a Data Analyst to Data Scientist just because they have been in an organization for a long time. They need an enhanced skill set that builds on their current knowledge, role and capabilities,” commented Mike Hendrickson, vice president of Technology & Developer Products, Skillsoft. “Skillsoft Aspire delivers learning journeys that provide a clear and detailed roadmap for enterprise technologists and developers to advance their careers while also adding value to their organizations struggling to acquire talent to fill many business-critical technology roles.”

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Skillsoft’s unique solution has been developed in conjunction with industry-leading experts who carefully curate multimodal resources into hundreds of learning channels. These channels incorporate several learning modalities including video learning, hands-on practice labs, virtual mentoring and access to a comprehensive library of leading books and audiobooks for certification preparation. Discussing aspirational roles helps to inspire and incentivize technology staff while supporting professional development and improving retention.

According to IDC’s “FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2019 Predictions,” organizations and their CIOs are under intense pressure to empower IT product teams to enable digital disruption and innovation. “IT is competing for talent with all organizations, from startups to global enterprises,” said Joe Puccarelli, Group Vice President & IT Executive Advisor for IDC. “Through 2022, the talent pool for emerging technologies will be inadequate to fill at least 30 percent of global demand, and effective skills development and retention will become differentiating strategies.”

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The first set of Skillsoft Aspire journeys planned for Skillsoft’s Percipio intelligent learning experience platform will be “Data Analyst to Data Scientist” and “Machine Learning Engineer to Machine Learning Architect.” Details with respect to upcoming Aspire journeys will be announced throughout 2019.

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