Skills Gap Widening on Two Fronts, Deloitte Team Concludes

One interpretation of the skills gap is that the knowledge acquired to earn a college degree is becoming obsolete faster than ever before. But, according to research by William D. Eggers, John Hagel, and Owen Sanderson of Deloitte, workers in fields that require a college education aren’t the only ones whose career opportunities are becoming harder to define. So-called blue-collar workers now also have to keep up with rapidly evolving technology, as new jobs require skills like fluency in CAD blueprints or LEED certification requirements. The takeaway? Today’s workers can’t just earn a degree or learn a skill and expect a stable, unswerving career path. Instead, they have to constantly burnish and expand their skill sets to keep up with the job market, especially as the fastest growing industries, according to Deloitte’s team, are the ones that require the most preparation and specialized skills. Among the remedies Eggers, Hagel, and Sanderson propose in an article in the Harvard Business Review are “peer-to-peer” learning (think Khan and Code Academies), more certification courses, and reforms to the allocation of unemployment benefits.