Online learning environments that focus on foundational skills are key to future-proofing graduates in the digital age
The digital transformation of the 21st-century workplace poses a formidable challenge for higher education. Credible forecasts maintain that reskilling and upskilling will be regular staging posts for the professional career path.
At a Digital Universities Week session, hosted by Times Higher Education in partnership with LinkedIn, Lesley Taylor, Graduate+ programme lead at Birmingham City University, and Charles Hardy, higher education client partner at LinkedIn, explored some of the resources and approaches universities can use to prepare their students for the job market.
Hardy quoted the World Economic Forum’s findings that 40 per cent of people will need reskilling or upskilling by 2025. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated current trends, he said, and LinkedIn can help institutions adapt by offering insights from the world’s largest source of real-time workforce data. “We can use this data to connect the dots from education to employment,” he said. “With over 750 million members, 50 million companies, and 15 million-plus jobs on LinkedIn, we have a wealth of big data.”
Resources such as the LinkedIn Learning Library use data insights to provide state-of-the-art learning experiences. Identifying skills shortages in real time, LinkedIn courses are co-created with hand-picked experts to help users develop industry-relevant skills. “We pride ourselves on having the most relevant and up-to-date skills training available,” said Hardy. More than 60 universities and 75 per cent of top-20 UK universities use LinkedIn’s learning platforms. Among them is Birmingham University, where the Graduate+ programme offers online skills-based education to its students.
Graduate+ uses a variety of resources, some internal, others external – such as LinkedIn Learning, Rosetta Stone and JobFit – to provide a bespoke online learning environment that teaches skills. “Students love it,” said Taylor. “They are proud of what they have achieved. It emulates real life because we are talking about long-term personal and professional development. The beauty of all of this – and what LinkedIn Learning gives us – is that opportunity to dip into a variety of e-learning packages, but also dovetailing to complement what we have got.”
This variety is key. Creating a bespoke learning programme such as Graduate+ involved integrating an array of platforms and resources to test students’ competencies, eschewing theoretical learning for the practical. “We are preparing people to fly the nest and be wonderful in life,” said Taylor.
Watch the session on demand above or on the THE Connect YouTube channel.
