Upskilling: A Key factor for a successful career

"When it comes to skills, your mantra should be 'Skilling,' 'Reskilling' and 'Upskilling.'"

- Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India

Upskilling is advancing one's career by adding to the existing skills required for a particular profile and upgrading to the new changes that might have been in place for a while. As per the Harvard Business Review, "Upskilling is a longer-term investment in augmenting the knowledge, skills, and competencies..." Instead of getting stuck to the constancy of work, it is necessary that one also focuses on improving their overall efficiency by understanding and learning new topics significant for growth. Upskilling also allows higher satisfaction among individuals, improving their future prospects.

Significance of upskilling in current scenario:

1. Upgradation: Adding to the existing skill set gives a lot of space for upgrading. Just like the operating system in a mobile phone has to be upgraded with the latest version. Similarly, our system of functioning and understanding different skills needs upskilling with time.

2. Ensures customer satisfaction: As an entrepreneur or Intrapreneur, it is necessary to take care of the fact that the product or solution developed by you solves the pain point of a customer. Upskilling is an excellent help in this regard as it ensures that one has a better understanding of the customer demand and develops a solution around it.

3. Enhances productivity: Upskilling helps people come up with fresh ideas every time, and they can do the task efficiently and quickly, improving overall productivity in the work environment. This is also beneficial for the performance of the person, as they can keep up with emerging trends and suggest ideas accordingly.

4. Keep one at par: Upskilling helps you attain recognition more than anyone else as you develop an understanding of the same thing with a fresh and innovative perspective compared to the people around you. It ensures that "you are the best" in whatever model you adopt to solve a problem.

5. Instill positivity: Many people try to upskill with their passions, hobbies, and much more and find themselves more satisfied and capable of doing things around them differently. They develop a more positive approach towards people and problems in their surroundings instead of witnessing them with a "laid-back" attitude.

Learning new resources to upgrade oneself helps to develop a multipronged strategy with regard to any business or start-up venture and emerge as a successful entrepreneur. To be on terms with the latest market demands and trends, upskilling is a must to get oneself at par with evolving technology.

Government initiatives and recommendations from international organisations:

- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0: The program launched by the Government of India to promote skill development has explicitly focussed on upskilling based on future needs (Industry 4.0). The digital training mode has helped the cause by covering a wider group population for upskilling and reskilling under the program.

- States like Andhra Pradesh have been conducting upskilling program courses for the students to excel further in their careers.

- As per the "Upskilling for shared prosperity" Report by World Economic Forum, upskilling is needed to create inclusive economies and societies worldwide. In this process, no one is left behind, and the process remains more sustainable.

- PwC's (PricewaterhouseCoopers) model for net economic impact suggests that if India upskills its workforce with OECD best industry practices, it can witness a GDP boost of Rs 629.97 billion by 2030 alone.

How can upskilling be achieved?

The upskilling process has to be an interconnected web formed by the government, private and public organisations, business leaders, individuals, and education providers. The main focus here should be to commit to a "comprehensive upskilling agenda." The current programs and initiatives in India by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship under the aegis of the Government of India are applaudable as it undertakes a substantial demographic dividend at its disposal for upskilling and reskilling them too from time to time.

Educational institutions should embrace the concept of "lifelong learning" instead of focusing on traditional rot learning. Everyone, including teachers, students, parents, and institution staff, should be exposed to upskilling to make them better in what they do and prepare for a better tomorrow. Skilling, upskilling, and reskilling will be the critical necessity for growth and the need to sustain as the best in whatever one does.

How is Skilleit helping in upskilling?

Team Skilleit endeavours to provide younger minds with quality programs, and courses to upskill as per the latest need for 21st-century skills. In a world moving rapidly, we have seen how students and faculties are left behind if they are not brought to par with emerging opportunities. Skilleit acts as a bridge and helps them nurture the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation, and 21st-century skills.

Skilleit programs not only help students to have a successful career as an entrepreneur but also as an intrapreneur in a corporate setup.

The objective of intrapreneurship is to develop the infrastructure and entrepreneurial mindset required to support growth. It views growth as a system. It serves as a framework for change. Intrapreneurs make ideas a reality. Intrapreneurial leaders have unique ways of thinking and behaving, as well as different goals and motivations.The intrapreneur fights to change the system from within and challenges the status quo. New estimates are made, opportunities are fully exploited and transformed into advantageous new realities, change is supported, and innovative responses are developed within the organization by intrapreneurs.

Skillet's program for colleges and schools targets students, faculties, and other participants through its game-based entrepreneurship program, Heuristic, the world's first start-up game. It takes them through a deep understanding of start-ups, working business models, terminologies attached to them, and experience problems and solutions start-ups face using gameplay mechanisms. At Skilleit, we understand the value of entrepreneurship and regular upskilling in today's generation. In this regard, our program emphasises the aspect of offering innovative training tools for future skilling.

Many business leaders, teachers, students, and faculties who have been part of our skill-based program find the sessions interactive and immersive. Despite their previous hand knowledge, they develop a way of practical fun-based learning like never before and interact using models used in real life. Heuristic (world's first start-up game) comprises:

- 13-series card games having different start-up roles and business models

- Crosswords containing terms learned throughout the game

- Trick cards teaching participants about negotiation and collaboration

- Double trouble cards are about challenges that start-up faces during the working

- Catch the Match cards counter the challenges by providing an innovative solution

- Brainstorming cards containing different role plays that are attached to a start-up environment

- Innovation cards help one unravel the role of the innovator and understand human-centric and empathic designs.

The need for 21st-century skills and upskilling in the modern world is unparalleled if one wants to grow as an entrepreneur and a leader, necessitating the importance of good guidance to function properly. If you are looking for exciting programs, sessions, and courses for your students and faculty, feel free to reach us at: https://www.skilleit.com/connectwithus.

If you know someone to whom our program can come as a great help, do not hesitate to refer us.