Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022 - 66

CLOSING
DEALS
PLURALSIGHT AND GO1 PARTNER TO ADDRESS THE
GROWING GLOBAL TECH SKILLS SHORTAGE
BY SARAH GALLO, CPTM
The global tech skills shortage is
anticipated to affect more than 85
million people, representing an
estimated $8.5 trillion in lost annual
revenue by 2030, according to the
International Monetary Fund.
While tech skills have been in demand
for some time now, the demand for a
digitally fluent workforce has spiked
due to recent shifts in how we work
and learn. Pluralsight's 2021 State
of Upskilling Report found that the
COVID-19 pandemic, The Great
Resignation and the rise of remote work
have " exacerbated the global workforce
challenge to adapt to a landscape that
relies on digital-enabled solutions, "
says Ken Leonard, senior vice president
of global ecosystem solutions at
Pluralsight. " While many organizations
had to undergo tech transformations
at great speeds to survive, individuals
were impacted by the growing tech
skills gap that continues today to affect
their ability to do their jobs. "
The need for technical training and
development is something that Go1,
one of the largest eLearning libraries on
the market, has seen firsthand. " We've
repeatedly heard from our customers
of the impact of the global tech skills
shortage on their businesses, " says
Basem Emera, vice president of
partnerships and alliances at Go1.
It was clear that Go1 - which partners
with top training providers to provide
a curated suite of courses across
topic areas - needed to partner with
a technical training expert to tackle
what has become a pressing, global
business challenge.
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TEAMING UP
When looking for a technical training
partner, Emera says that Pluralsight " stood
out amongst the rest. " It's easy to see why:
Pluralsight has one of the best-perceived
technical training catalogs on the market,
with courses fit for learners across levels,
on nearly all technical training topics,
from data analytics and coding languages
to machine learning (ML) and even
specific courses on cloud concepts for
cloud hosting platforms like Amazon Web
Services (AWS) and Azure.
The partnership will play a key role in
helping Pluralsight execute its strategy,
which is " to be relevant to those who see
solving [the technical skills shortage] as a
priority directly aligned to their capacity
to deliver on key business outcomes, "
Leonard says. Partnering with Go1 aligns
" with this strategic thinking. "
DEMOCRATIZING TECHNICAL
TRAINING
With the partnership, which was
announced in February of this year, all
of Go1's roughly 3.5 million corporate
learners (including learners in nontechnical
roles) have access to quality
video courses through Pluralsight's
technology skills platform, Pluralsight
Skills. Historically, technical training
has primarily been accessible only to
learners in technology roles, Emera says.
Therefore, the partnership is bringing
technical training " to areas of the market
that may not have seen this before. "
By democratizing technical training,
more learners can access the courses
they need to improve their ability to use
innovative technologies and improve their
performance in today's digital business
environment. And with a more technically
adept workforce, businesses will be able
to remain competitive in the age of digital
transformation.
While making technical training accessible
to all learners is a great first step in closing
the growing tech skills gap, the training
also needs to be personalized to be
effective. Pluralsight's curated learning
journeys help " stagger " learning based
on
the
learner's
existing
knowledge
and desired career path, Emera says.
After all, the role of a software engineer
is vastly different from that of a security
professional and, therefore, targeted
training is " of the utmost importance. "
TECHNICAL TRAINING, SIMPLIFIED
Tackling the global tech skills shortage
is no easy task, and learning leaders
are struggling to roll out timely, highquality
training that can help. By making
personalized technical training available
through the Go1 platform, learners can
access all the technical courses they
need on demand, all in one place. As
a result, learning leaders will have
more bandwidth to roll out other types
of training and to continue acting as a
strategic business partners.
The global tech skills shortage won't
solve itself, but strategic partnerships like
this will help pave the way forward - no
matter what digital disruptions lie ahead.
Sarah Gallo, CPTM, is a senior editor
at Training Industry, Inc., and co-host of
" The Business of Learning, " the Training
Industry podcast. Email Sarah.

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/03/global-competition-for-technology-workers-costa.htm https://trainingindustry.com/glossary/machine-learning/ https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/state-of-upskilling https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/state-of-upskilling https://trainingindustry.com/training-industry-podcast/

Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2022

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