Everyone has gaps in their knowledge. As careers, jobs and education have become so specialised, so has our knowledge. We might have a great deal of knowledge about horticulture or photography or psychology, but there may be gaps in our knowledge and skills that need to be filled for us to get the jobs we want.
A simple example – a wedding or events photographer may be great at taking portraits and photos of the event, but their competitor also uses a drone to get overhead shots of the event from above. They get more business as a result. Being a drone expert doesn’t necessarily sound like something a wedding or events photographer needs to know, but there is so much competition in the modern world that we do need to develop skills to put us head and shoulders above the rest.
This is not just for people who are self-employed or run their own business. Anyone who wants to do well in their career will need to have the skills they need to do their job well, and perhaps just those extra skills that make them that bit more special in the eyes of their employer.
Skills Gap
A skills gap is –
- The gap between the skills that a person has and the skills that an employer wants.
- Or the gap between the skills a person has and the skills they want to improve their job and career prospects.
- Or the gap between the skills a person has and the skills they need to improve their own business.
The importance of lifelong learning is something that we have touched on in previous blogs, you can read more here.
Skills Gaps
Skills gaps are common. It is unlikely that anyone knows everything and has all the skills that they need. There will always be times when people need to update their knowledge and skills by taking courses and gaining new knowledge. What we learn today isn’t necessarily going to be relevant or current in two years’ time. It is therefore important that people are able and willing to continue studying throughout their working lives.
Common skills gaps include –
- good and effective communication
- critical thinking
- good analytical skills
- database management
- using data analysis tools
- good team working
- knowledge of AI and other IT
Why is it important to identify skills gaps?
- If organisations identify their skills gap, it means that they go into the recruitment process with more knowledge of what they are looking for, the skills they need from their future employees.
- It is important for an organisation to identify skills gaps as they can see where their employers have knowledge, and where they don’t. They can then provide relevant and appropriate training, rather than providing a one-size-fits-all approach to training that is simply not relevant and cost effective. For example, Company A has some staff who are consistently late and have poor time management skills, so they decide to offer training to all of their staff. Only 10% of their staff have time management issues, so for 90% of the staff, the training is not necessary and the organisation is paying for unnecessary training. By identifying specific skills gaps for individual employees, the company can provide relevant, individualised training.
- This is also time effective. It means that time is spent on training that is necessary, rather than training in areas where staff are already successful.
- A company might also identify overall skills gaps. For example, a company might realise that they are not selling well online, so decide that all of their sales staff should under take training in ecommerce and online sales techniques.
- Training existing staff also shows that an organisation is investing in their staff and wants to keep them. This is important as shows staff they are needed and wanted.
Knowing what areas they have a skills gap in can also help businesses to gain advantage of their competitors in a number of ways –
- Spending less on training, which keeps costs down.
- More efficient recruitment as they know exactly what they are looking for.
- Reduced costs on training as training is specific to what is required.
- The company will also be more efficient and effective as they are working towards filling their skills gaps.
Why is this relevant to education businesses?
As businesses recognise the importance of identifying their skills gaps, they will be looking for specific training to meet the needs of their staff.
This may be for individual staff or for groups of staff.
As people want to expand their knowledge and skills, they are undertaking more and more training in a range of areas.
- They may take courses to update and improve their knowledge in their existing field. For example, a psychologist might decide to take a course in neurodiversity to update their knowledge.
- They might take courses to expand their knowledge and broaden their opportunities within their existing field. For example, a horticulturalist might take a course in horticultural therapy to expand what they can offer.
- They might also take a course that is not specifically related to their chosen subject, but is relevant for their job. For example, they might take courses in management, supervision, marketing, managing remote workers, bookkeeping etc.
Therefore, for an education provider, this offers the ideal opportunity to provide students with the courses they need to update and improve their knowledge of their subject area, but also to expand and develop new skills to give them that extra boost in their career and business. This offers education providers the opportunity to fill in the gaps in their skills.
Working with Us To Fill the Skills Gap
Providing online courses that are flexible, self-paced and online means that individuals and businesses can train their staff and fill their skills gaps. As we have already seen, this is essential for healthy careers and businesses.
At ACS Distance Education, we provide over 700 courses in specific topics, such as horticulture, agriculture, permaculture, psychology, writing, marketing and more. But we also supply courses in soft skills, such as time management, managing remote workers, emotional intelligence, personnel, training, management, supervision and a lot more.
This means that we most likely have a course available that helps an organisation or business to fill their skills gap.
- We offer you the opportunity to resell our courses. There is a large gap in the market to provide skills and training to organisations and individuals.
- The online education market is a massive growth industry and growing all of the time.
- We offer white label courses that you can rebrand and market to businesses, organisations and individuals to help them to fill their skills gap.
In a short summary,
- Businesses employ people.
- People may need to update their skills or expand their skills to meet the needs of the changing job and business market.
- Businesses need courses that are flexible, efficient and up to date to train their staff.
- The online education market is growing rapidly.
- We offer over 700 courses that can be studied online, that are self-paced and are updated regularly.
- We offer you the opportunity to rebrand and resell our courses.
Why not contact us to find out more about how you can help businesses to fill their skills gap?
And in doing so, start your own education business or expand your existing business?