It’s been over a year since the first cases of COVID-19 were first reported around the world, and in that time the world of work has changed in ways we couldn’t have previously imagined. Some industry sectors have been completely upended. Entire companies have shifted to remote models, some on a permanent basis. Calls for greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace have taken on new urgency and spurred organizations to examine outdated, biased hiring practices. An increasing number of employers such as Google, IBM, and Apple no longer require that employees hold a college degree and instead focus on job-specific skills when making hiring decisions.  Organizations are reassessing the stagnant proxies that used to determine qualifications to find out what’s really needed to succeed in a job.

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With so much emphasis on skills, effective learning and development programs are no longer considered an additional perk; they are a necessity to long-term success. One way to future-proof your business is ensuring transferable skills play a central part in your L&D initiatives.

What are transferable skills?

Every role requires some combination of skills. What sets transferable skills apart is that they can be deployed across multiple job functions, and even across seemingly disparate industries. Some transferable skills are technical competencies like data security or cloud computing while others, like time management and teamwork, would be classified as human skills.

Today’s workplace is fueled by adaptability— and the need has drastically increased since this time last year. Transferable skills keep professionals competitive in an ever-changing job market. They allow them to pivot to different roles or completely change fields without having to start over.

Not only does this make individuals more marketable to potential employers, but it also increases their value to their current companies. As noted in PwC’s Talent Trends 2020 report, “For some organisations, surviving the impact of COVID-19 will require redeploying workers to critical roles. Rapidly reskilling and supporting workers to take on different roles — ones which they’ve never been trained for in many instances — will be the difference between success and failure.”