Reskilling Revolution

Case studies 

How partners are driving systemic change through the Reskilling Revolution

To accelerate the Reskilling Revolution, three complementary case‑study series  turn strategy into on‑the‑ground outcomes. Together, the New Economy Skills, Innovative Skills Funding Models, and Global Skills Taxonomy Adoption case studies show how to build work‑relevant capabilities, scale sustainable financing, and align stakeholders around a shared skills framework.

New Economy Skills 

 

Real‑world examples of governments, employers and educators aligning skill-building with market demand and credentialing five critical skill families using skills-first practices and shared standards:

- Human‑Centric

- AI, Data & Digital

- Maker

- Energy and Sustainability (Coming - 2026)

- Business and Entrepreneurship (Coming - 2027)

Innovative Skills Funding Models

 

Members of the World Economic Forum Future Skills Alliance identified global initiatives that adopt collaborative and innovative approaches to funding skills development, upskilling and reskilling in a wide range of contexts. 

These innovative public–private approaches explore continuous learning affordability by fairly sharing costs across individuals, employers and governments through sustainable financing models.


Global Skills Taxonomy Adoption 

The Global Skills Taxonomy Adoption Toolkit equips leaders across sectors—businesses, governments, and education providers—with actionable steps, evidence-based insights, and real-world case studies to adopt a common skills language and embed skills-first approaches into talent management strategies. 

Actionable guidance and cases showing how organizations map roles and learning to a common skills taxonomy and apply it across hiring, development and workforce planning.

Featured Case Studies

Ernst & Young (EY), a global professional services leader, has placed skills development at the core of its growth strategy. Recognizing that 70% of employees cite learning opportunities as a key reason for joining the company, EY sought to align workforce skills with future business needs. To achieve this, EY developed a robust skills taxonomy, building on an industry framework to suit its unique organizational context. Linking its taxonomy to industry standards enabled EY to maintain relevance, reduce maintenance effort, and ensure interoperability. This strategic approach balanced the company's unique requirements with industry-wide benchmarks, creating a scalable foundation for skills-driven workforce management.Approach and ActionsTo transform its workforce into a skills-driven organization, EY adopted a comprehensive strategy to integrate skills across its learning, Human Resources (HR), and business functions. Central to this transformation was the concept of a "skills operating system," a framework that unified technology, processes, and data around a shared skills taxonomy. This system leverage tools such as a learning management system (LMS), a talent marketplace, and a learning experience platform. Together, these tools facilitate consistent skills data collection, actionable insights, and informed decision-making.A critical step in this journey was the collection and organization of skills data. EY encouraged employees to self-assess their skills and update their profiles, creating a comprehensive skills repository. This initiative enabled employees to have meaningful career conversations and access learning recommendations tailored to their aspirations and roles.Stakeholder engagement is critical in implementing the skills approach. EY demonstrated the value of skills-based practices to employees, highlighting how skills profiles could unlock learning opportunities, improve development conversations and enhance career growth. The organization also collaborated with business units to map roles to skills, a manual but essential process that built trust and ensured alignment between the taxonomy and business needs.Looking forward, EY plans to leverage AI to enhance efficiency. AI tools are being explored to automate tasks like extracting skills from CVs and job descriptions and inferring skills based on work activities. These technologies will enable more granular and accurate career development and learning recommendations, as well as improved insights into workforce capabilities, while reducing the manual workload.EY’s skills taxonomy also supports broader workforce planning by linking skills data to various talent functions, such as hiring, career development, and project scheduling. For example, understanding workforce skills enables EY to assign employees to projects that best match their expertise and address future skills gaps to meet evolving business demands. This integrated approach aligns employees’ capabilities with EY’s strategic goals, driving both individual and organizational growth.Key Lessons LearnedEY’s journey in building a skills-driven workforce has yielded the following key insights:Alignment of Skills Taxonomies to Industry Standards: Aligning with established frameworks ensures interoperability, reduces maintenance efforts, and allows organizations to benefit from updates made to industry standards.Leverage AI for Efficiency: AI offers the potential to automate skills mapping, extract insights from CVs and job descriptions, and assess proficiency. This allows for more granular and accurate understanding of workforce capabilities.  Secure Stakeholder Buy-In: Clearly communicate the value of a skills-based approach to employees and senior leadership. Demonstrate how skills data enhances career development, workforce agility, and strategic decision-making. Prioritize Governance and Collaboration: A successful skills strategy requires cross-functional collaboration. Ensure that technology and process decisions align with the broader vision of an interconnected skills ecosystem that enables workforce transformation. 
Global
EY – Skills‑first Talent Strategy
EY
Skillsoft, is a leading provider of transformative learning experiences for both organizations and learners worldwide. Skillsoft partners with public and private sector organizations to provide customized talent development solutions that propel organizations and their people to grow together. These include skills-based assessments, in-depth analytics, coding practice labs, conversational AI simulations and curated learning content delivered through an integrated learning experience platform, that is designed to target strategic skills and talent priorities crucial to driving growth. By adopting a skills-driven approach, Skillsoft ensures that the workforce is aligned with talent development priorities that match their roles and career aspirations, accelerating business transformation and driving organizational growth at scale.Approach and ActionsAt the core of Skillsoft's learning solutions is a robust skill dictionary that encapsulates over 200 job roles, and 12,000 essential skills that span leadership, technology, and regulatory and compliance skills. This taxonomy serves as the foundation for AI-driven role, and skill-based curation across the diverse range of multimodal learning experiences (courses, books, labs, live learning, etc.) that are tailored to strategic talent development priorities, such as AI transformation, front-line leadership development, code-of-conduct, to name a few. This skill dictionary can be further mapped to organizational career frameworks and taxonomies to accelerate career mobility across the talent ecosystem. The skill assessments that Skillsoft offers are designed to evaluate specific competencies and proficiencies through innovative assessment methodologies that index enterprise talent readiness.A common challenge organizations face is bridging the gap between the skills and knowledge learners acquire and their practical application on the job. Skillsoft tackles this challenge by aligning its skills assessments and learning opportunities with real-world demands. Leveraging its robust taxonomy and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven insights, Skillsoft empowers organizations to tailor learning solutions to address skill gaps, enabling them to identify the right talent and support employees in their career development.Skill Benchmarks represent one of Skillsoft’s core assessment tools for measuring skill proficiency. These benchmarks utilize structured question sets to evaluate learners’ skills on a five-point scale, providing clear and actionable insights into their capabilities. These assessments go beyond traditional multiple-choice format, Interactive Skill Benchmarks immerse learners in realistic coding scenarios, requiring them to complete code blocks or solve technical problems in a simulated environment. Performance in these exercises is rigorously evaluated against skill-based objectives, ensuring an accurate and practical measure of technical acumen. Similarly, hands-on challenges in real-world cloud environments test learners' abilities to execute tasks such as configuration and optimization, offering organizations a reliable way to assess technical skills in applied settings.Skillsoft extends its assessments beyond technical skills to include interpersonal and leadership skills. Using advanced technologies such as AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), Skillsoft delivers conversational simulations and assessments. Learners engage in scenario-based dialogues with virtual characters simulating coworkers, managers, or clients. These interactions are evaluated on key metrics such as sentiment, clarity, and effectiveness, providing organizations with a nuanced understanding of interpersonal and communication skills that are often difficult to quantify at scale.Key Lessons Learned Through its work, Skillsoft has gained valuable insights into the evolving landscape of skills assessment and development:Skills are the Foundation for Workforce Management: Skills are now a cornerstone of workforce management, elevated by advances in AI and large language models. Establishing a common language of skills enables organizations to align workforce planning with employee aspirations, driving both agility and career development.Technology Facilitates Precise Skill Measurement: Advances in AI allow for the accurate assessment of behavioral and cognitive skills through realistic workplace simulations, enabling organizations to quantify and develop these critical capabilities at scale.
Global | Education
Skillsoft – Skills‑based Development & Analytics
Skillsoft
Singapore, a small island nation with limited natural resources. The country faced a critical challenge: how to ensure its workforce remained competitive and adaptable in a rapidly changing global economy. Traditional national qualification frameworks were proving inadequate, as they often led to rigid, siloed systems that struggled to keep pace with evolving skill demands. The key challenges included ensuring skills transferability across sectors, rapidly adapting to economic changes, creating a system that prioritized skills over rigid qualifications, and developing clear career mobility pathways.Approach and ActionsTo address these challenges, Singapore adopted a unique strategy, focusing on skills as a common language rather than implementing a traditional national qualification framework. SkillsFuture Singapore is positioned as a "convener," bringing together multiple stakeholders to create a comprehensive and flexible skills ecosystem. This approach involved developing a national skills framework, which included streamlining skills from 20,000 to a trimmed set of "unique skills fingerprints".Cross-sector collaboration was a crucial component of Singapore's strategy. The government established sector-specific committees, such as the Green Skills Committee, involving government agencies, private sector representatives, labour unions, and educational institutions. This collaborative approach ensured that the skills framework remained relevant and responsive to the needs of various industries.Data-driven decision making played a significant role in Singapore's approach. Singapore has established a comprehensive national jobs-skills database. SkillsFuture Singapore Agency (SSG) uses multiple data sources to inform skills-related decisions: job posting data, training data, and employer demand data. This database serves as the foundation for their skills recognition system and is continuously updated to reflect the latest skills demands in the economy.SSG utilized data science to validate skill similarities and inform policy decisions. The data-centric approach allowed for more accurate identification of transferable skills across sectors and helped in rapidly updating the skills framework as economic needs evolved. This multi-faceted approach ensures that the skills framework remains aligned with real-world needs.Singapore also implemented several national-level policy changes including promoting lifelong learning initiatives to support its skills-based approach. In 2017, under the ministry of education mandate, all 12 institutions of higher education, university, and polytechnic institutions were mandated to become "Institutes of Continuous Learning," expanding their role beyond training fresh graduates to training people for life. They became institutes that train people throughout 40 years of working life, beyond the pre-employment education, this changed the whole perspective of all the Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) in Singapore. The change in mandate allowed IHL to implementing fastest way to understand what industry needs.The second policy change was giving the decision-making power to the citizens. The government introduced SkillsFuture credits, providing financial incentives for citizens to engage in continuous learning. These credits included $500 for 25-year-olds annually and $4,000 for those over 40 years old for serious career transitions, with a focus on strategic skill areas in digital economy, green economy, and care economy.To ensure widespread adoption of skills framework, Singapore allowed companies to use their own taxonomies while providing a national reference point. This flexibility helped increase buy-in from multinational corporations while maintaining a consistent national framework.Key Lessons LearnedInvesting in Robust Data Systems: Data systems are used to monitor the pace of change in occupations and skills requirements. This allows for rapid updates to the skills framework and quick dissemination of information to relevant parties. Skills Transferability: Data analysis is used to identify skills that are transferable across sectors. For example, cybersecurity skills were recognized as being applicable across multiple industries, from finance to healthcare and manufacturing. Cosine similarity calculations are used to determine skill similarities, helping to streamline and deduplicate skills. This data-driven approach helps resolve disagreements about skill classifications, with a 90% similarity threshold often used to combine similar skills. Sector-Specific Monitoring: Specialized committees, such as the Green Skills Committee, use data to track emerging skill needs in specific sectors. These committees have access to international datasets and foundational data to inform their decisions and validation by the employers in their respective sector. Policy Implementation and Evaluation: SkillsFuture Credits: The distribution and usage of SkillsFuture credits (financial incentives for upskilling) are tracked through data systems. This data helps in evaluating the effectiveness of the policy and informing future top-ups or adjustments. Course Approval System: Data on skills demand is used to approve courses eligible for SkillsFuture credits, ensuring alignment with economic needs and strategic priorities. By leveraging data and advanced data systems, Singapore has created a flexible, responsive, and evidence-based approach to skills development. This data-centric strategy allows for rapid adaptation to changing economic needs, ensures the relevance of training programs, and empowers individuals and employers to make informed decisions about skills development.
Singapore | Government
Singapore – National Skills Framework (Skills‑first)
Skills and Workforce Development Agency (SWDA)
Australia is recognizing the importance of adapting to rapidly changing workforce needs, and has embarked on developing a National Skills Taxonomy (NST). This initiative, led by Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA), aims to create a comprehensive framework for understanding and categorizing skills across various industries and occupations. The project builds upon the Australian Skills Classification (ASC) established in 2020, which focused on occupations listed in the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO).The existing ASC system was primarily task-oriented. Additionally, ensuring interoperability with existing frameworks such as the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and the National VET Training Database was limited in the ASC, and they wanted to ensure that they can map what is being taught in the university to the occupations that students were obtaining. Furthermore, creating a system that is tailored to Australian needs while remaining compatible with global standards like ESCO and O*NET is essential to the new government. Finally, maintaining data quality and accountability posed additional hurdle.Approach and ActionsIn response to these challenges, JSA has adopted a multi-faceted approach. The organization is reconceptualizing skills by moving from a task-based to a skills-first perspective, recognizing that skills are broader and more transferable than specific tasks. One of JSA’s early finding was that while understanding tasks is really important, when you're looking at an occupation what is central to a person is their skill set and understanding that skills can be a bit more broad than what a specialist task is, and a task is compilation of multiple skills being used to achieve an outcome, so they wanted to develop a skills-first taxonomy.Comprehensive stakeholder engagement is central to this process, involving extensive consultation with over 443 stakeholder representatives across federal and state government, education, industry, unions and wider skills ecosystem to explore challenges and identify opportunities for NST.International benchmarking plays a significant role in this initiative as well. The team is contextualizing the taxonomy for the Australian market using tools like Lightcast, and qualitative research. The design of the taxonomy aims to be both machine-readable and human-readable, incorporating APIs and crosswalks to facilitate integration with other systems. For instance, JSA has engaged with professional services organizations to explore how their corporate skills taxonomy can align with national efforts, ensuring that Australian context is incorporated into a global company framework. Integration with career planning tools and education guidance information is important; this includes helping universities develop courses that address skill shortages or assisting individuals in making informed decisions about their careers.A tripartite governance model is being considered for overseeing validation and publication processes, involving employers, employees, and government representatives from federal and state-level. The team is also adopting an agile approach, piloting and iterating on the taxonomy before finalizing it as a controlled language model. Additionally, JSA is exploring how Gen AI can enhance the development process without replacing existing methodologies.Key Lessons Learned The key critical takeaway that the Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) emphasized is the dual purpose of the national skills taxonomy. JSA articulates this vision by stating that the taxonomy aims "to ensure that we have people who are able to do the work that Australia requires" from an educational standpoint. Additionally, from an occupational perspective, it seeks "to ensure the smoothest transitions to vulnerable workforces or to drive growth in areas of skill shortage." This approach underscores the taxonomy's role in aligning education with industry needs while also facilitating workforce adaptability and addressing critical skill gaps in the Australian economy.
Australia | Government
Building a Skills-First Future: Australia’s Journey Towards a National Skills Taxonomy
Jobs and Skills Australia
Oman’s Vision 2040 places a strong emphasis on employment and labour market development as key national priorities. At the heart of this vision is the goal of cultivating a highly skilled, innovative, and productive workforce. To achieve this, Oman is concentrating on aligning skills with labour market needs by prioritizing the development of soft skills, enhancing digital literacy among youth, and building job-specific expertise.The National Framework for Future Skills published in (2021) and developed to support this mission, providing a comprehensive roadmap for equipping Oman’s workforce with the necessary skills for global competitiveness. Through this initiative, Oman aims to develop a shared and unified language and stronger alignment between education and the job market.. As part of this framework, Oman introduced Khuta, a national career guidance platform launched in 2023. Khuta offers students and job seekers access to many services such as career advice, CV tools, entrepreneurial traits and career interests assessment tests, and free courses align with the Future Skills Framework. These efforts highlight Oman’s commitment to fostering a culture of lifelong learning and bridging gaps between education and labour market readiness. Approach and Actions The development of Oman’s National Framework for Future Skills reflects dedicated effort and collaboration between all stakeholders. Initiated in 2013, the framework serves as a national reference for embedding future and essential skills into educational and training systems, spanning early education, higher education, and the labour market. Its development involved a comprehensive analysis of established frameworks from many countries such as Canada, Finland, and Singapore, leading to a skills taxonomy tailored to Oman’s needs. This taxonomy is organized into three broad categories—basic, applied, and technical skills—further broken down into 14 specific competencies, including foundational skills like reading, writing, and mathematics, alongside skills such as creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, data management, among others.Collaboration with diverse stakeholders has been integral to the framework's development. A national team, comprising government representatives (e.g., Ministries of Education and Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation), industry representatives (e.g., the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry), educational institutions, and some Professional Associations led its development. Through ongoing consultations, the team ensured the framework aligns with both local and global skill requirements while fostering cross-sector collaboration. Oman plans a comprehensive review of the framework in consultation with stakeholders in 2025 to maintain its relevance.Educational institutions across Oman are tasked with implementing the framework by embedding its principles into curricula and activities. While national guidelines provide a structured approach, institutions retain the flexibility to adapt skill acquisition practices to their specific needs. For instance, critical thinking skills are introduced at the elementary level and progressively developed through middle school, high school, and higher education, ensuring a seamless and practical application of this skill throughout a learner’s academic journey.A key enabler of the framework's objectives is Khuta, an interactive platform designed to bridge the gap between education and employment. Khuta offers tools such as professional consultations, a CV generator, and access to free, high-quality training programs aligned with the Future Skills Framework. With over 1,500 academic and vocational programs, as well as a special emphasis on professional certifications, Khuta addresses the increasing demand for targeted qualifications in Oman’s dynamic job market. Also, to ensure inclusivity, the latest version of the Khuta platform includes services for individuals with special needs.By integrating the skills framework into textbooks, curricula, academic programs, and professional development initiatives, Oman is embedding the principles of lifelong learning into its education and workforce systems, paving the way for a future-ready and competitive labour market.Key Lessons Learned Clear and Simple Skills Language: Creating a straightforward and universally comprehensible taxonomy fosters seamless adoption across all levels of education and employment. A clear framework ensures consistency and accessibility, making it easier for institutions, educators, and employers to align efforts and achieve shared goals.  Strategic Partnerships with the Education Industry: Through partnerships with education industry, Oman provides access to high-quality, industry-relevant training resources aligned with future skills demands. Offering free and accessible courses linked to the national framework enhances inclusivity, enabling individuals across diverse backgrounds to develop essential skills and participate in the labour market. Ongoing Stakeholder Engagement: Regular consultation with a diverse range of stakeholders ensures the framework remains dynamic, adaptable, and responsive to emerging trends and workforce needs. This collaborative approach fosters shared ownership and sustained relevance in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Oman | Government
Fostering a Culture of Lifelong Learning: Oman’s National Framework for Future Skills
Oman Government
Based in Germany, SAP is an Information Technology and Digital Communication company with 107 thousand employees and $31 billion in revenue. As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. SAP's skills transformation journey shows a step-function improvement of SAP’s operations, competitiveness, employee engagement, and customer success. Combining strategies for gaining buy-in from complex stakeholder groups, and efforts to sustain and maintain the skills taxonomy are central to SAP’s Skills Transformation journey.Approach and ActionsSAP’s skills taxonomy governance model is built on three pillars: leveraging data, streamlining maintenance processes, and executing change management. A data-driven approach played a critical role in eliminating biases toward existing taxonomies within individual business units. This involved rationalizing over 6,000 skills to fewer than 2,000 by removing inactive and low-utilization skills, unifying three proficiency scales into one, benchmarking against industry standards, and using Generative AI to identify overlaps and similarities. For instance, project management skills across teams were consolidated using similarity scores derived from Large Language Models.To streamline maintenance, ensure consistency and maintain a skills based-focus, SAP established a centralized process for maintaining a unified skills taxonomy and modernizing the global job architecture. For instance, a global program team was set up to spearhead the transformation at organization level. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this team included representatives from major business lines to ensure alignment on a centralized skills taxonomy.Gaining buy-in was equally critical and involved early engagement and demonstrating value. A program team comprising of ‘skills library owners’ from each major business line was initially tasked to create a unified vision and ensure active contribution. SAP also emphasized the individual and organizational benefits of maintaining skills in its Human Capital Management system. Using market and internal examples, organizational leaders were shown how a robust skills taxonomy could enhance competitiveness and customer success, while employees were shown its impact on their learning, growth, and compensation. SAP avoided overly defining a skills-first experience, recognizing the skills-first approaches thrive when employees are open to explore how skills transparency affects their learning opportunities and career development.The sustained adoption of the skills taxonomy relies on two key areas: pilot projects and robust technology infrastructure. SAP initially focused on driving adoption through a specific use case, such as learning plans for workers and organizations, before scaling to broader applications. To maintain relevance, SAP built an intelligent framework that updates the taxonomy two to four times a year. Broad adoption across business units is crucial to ensuring sustainability. Furthermore, SAP acknowledged the need to maintain and continuously evolve its skills and associated systems and transitioned the skills taxonomy from a program within HR to a permanent function with a dedicated team that continuously evolves it as a product or solution.Key Lessons Learned SAP's approach to skills transformation highlights the importance of organization-wide transformation and change management. This includes proving the value of skills transparency initially via learning recommendations, while planning to expand to other use cases such as strategic workforce planning and talent acquisition etc. A key driver of success for change management was championing the vision through a network of champions representing each major line of business.
Germany | Technology
From Vision to Execution: How SAP Revolutionized Skills Governance 
SAP
ETS is a global education and talent solutions organization enabling lifelong learners to be future ready. The organization advances the science of measurement to build the benchmarks for fair and valid skill assessment - committed to powering human progress by promoting skill proficiency, empowering upward mobility and unlocking more opportunities for everyone, everywhere. With operations in more than 200 countries and territories across the globe, ETS helps more than 50 million people each year to clarify their strengths and find opportunities for growth in education, work and beyond – continuing to make a transformative impact.In response to the rising demand for skills-based hiring and workforce readiness, ETS developed a comprehensive skills framework aimed at bridging skill gaps across primary and secondary education (K-12), higher education, and the workforce. This work aims to help individuals identify their skills and better position themselves for long-term educational and career success.Approach and ActionsETS’s skills framework is built with the goal of aligning educational outcomes with workforce requirements through a shared language of skills that spans primary education through career development. This skills-first framework shifts the emphasis from traditional, school-based academic knowledge alone to recognizing competencies developed across varied educational, occupational, and life experiences.The journey to create the ETS skills framework began with an extensive analysis of established skills frameworks, such as the World Economic Forum’s Global Skills Taxonomy and the OECD Learning Framework, alongside national frameworks. This crosswalk analysis enabled ETS to pinpoint and define core skills essential for students' transition from high school to career, as well as the skills needed for continued career success. ETS’s findings identified 30 "meta-dimensions" of skills that span multiple frameworks and educational levels, resulting in a unified, adaptable framework designed to serve both academic and workforce needs.One of the primary challenges in developing the ETS skills framework was reconciling the diversity of skill definitions across skills taxonomies, each of which often uses distinct terminologies and targets unique audiences. ETS addressed this by engaging stakeholders from diverse geographies, cultures, and demographics in extensive discussions, ultimately refining the language to ensure neutrality and adaptability across contexts.Key Lessons LearnedETS identified two key success drivers that were essential to the development of their skills taxonomy:Accessible Language: To ensure that the ETS skills framework is accessible and applicable across K-12, higher education, and the workforce, ETS prioritized the use of simplified, standardized language. This inclusive approach enhances the framework's versatility across contexts, enabling ETS to provide comprehensive tools for skills-based hiring, career development, and performance assessment. Clear and accessible terminology promotes greater engagement among educators, employers, and students, allowing the framework to meet the needs of a broad audience effectively. Continuous Stakeholder Feedback: ETS emphasizes the importance of ongoing feedback from stakeholders to continuously refine skill definitions and ensure alignment with both academic and workforce needs. This iterative design and testing process validates the framework’s effectiveness in real-world applications. Early and ongoing engagement with stakeholders allows for adaptable definitions based on feedback, ensuring that the framework remains relevant, comprehensive, and responsive to changing needs. Through the skills framework, ETS is advancing a unified model for skills development that aligns with strategic educational and workforce goals while remaining flexible for future needs. This initiative is set to evolve further, with upcoming pilots aimed at enhancing predictive skill assessments, underscoring ETS’s commitment to a sustainable, skills-based educational framework. ETS will be incorporating this skills framework across new and in-progress offerings that will be providing skills insights for both education and talent solutions.
Global | Education
ETS – Skills Framework and Assessment
ETS
In 2021, HSBC, a leading global financial services organization operating in over 60 countries and territories, embarked on a transformative journey to align workforce skills with its long-term strategic goals. The company focused on identifying and nurturing the critical skills needed for future success. With strong support from senior leadership, HSBC has positioned skills as a core focus of personal and professional growth, ensuring its workforce is prepared for future challenges.Approach and ActionsThe alignment of workforce skills with strategic objectives allowed HSBC to take a proactive approach to workforce development. HSBC began its journey by using the Global Skills Taxonomy as the basis of their taxonomy. This common language is enabling HSBC to gain clearer visibility into critical skills, making it easier to map existing capabilities, identify gaps, and prioritize development. Over time, HSBC refined this taxonomy with added specificity to meet unique business needs.Using skills data, HSBC can monitor skill shifts and proficiency levels across various businesses and markets. These insights allowed the company to personalise learning opportunities, ensuring employees could adapt to changing market demands. This data-driven approach enhances HSBC’s ability to forecast future skill needs, supporting more informed talent and development decisions.This holistic skills-based approach has prepared HSBC to remain agile and competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.Key Lessons LearnedHSBC’s move towards a skills-based approach can be attributed to several critical drivers:Executive Buy-In: Senior leadership played an essential role defining future state workforce requirements in the medium-term, providing direction and ensuring alignment with HSBC’s strategic vision.Signal the Skills that Matter the Most: Signaling skills that are most important in driving business strategy helps focus development across all levels, driving participation and understanding. Clear communication on upskilling and reskilling opportunities motivates employees to actively engage.Data Integration: Multiple data sources are inevitable, and integration is key to leveraging multiple data sources to develop a comprehensive view of workforce capabilities.
Global | Financial services
HSBC – Skills Taxonomy & Workforce Alignment
HSBC
With over 160 million learners, Coursera is one of the world’s largest online learning platforms, partnering with over 350 top universities and companies to offer an extensive catalogue of courses, specializations, professional certificates, guided projects, and degree programs. Coursera partners with thousands of businesses, governments, and academic institutions to upskill and reskill workforces and students in high-demand areas like data science, technology, and business. At the heart of Coursera’s success is its granular skills taxonomy, a language of skills that precisely tags assessments in learning content to enable course recommendations, and learner skill progress tracking. This granular approach ensures learners are matched with the most relevant content for their skill level, driving engagement and effective learning. Approach and Actions  Coursera’s skills taxonomy plays a pivotal role in tailoring learning experiences. Machine learning models are employed to tag content, such as courses and assessments, with specific skills and skill levels. Similarly, skill-scoring models assess learners’ abilities based on their performance, creating a dynamic system that aligns content with learner needs. The platform’s taxonomy is granular by design, allowing it to address complex use cases such as internal mobility and upskilling initiatives. For instance, technical skills can be broken down to a highly detailed level, enabling precise learning program design. Annual revisions of the taxonomy ensure it stays relevant to evolving labour market demands and emerging technologies. Coursera also emphasizes interoperability by using APIs to integrate with customer HR systems. These APIs enable organizations to map skills to specific job roles, curate targeted learning programs, and link skill data to job performance metrics. The platform’s flexibility accommodates both basic and advanced use cases, empowering customers to leverage skills data in ways that align with their organizational goals. Large language models are another key component, automating the process of mapping skills to content accurately. Combined with the APIs, this infrastructure supports seamless data integration and efficient program implementation. Key Lessons Learned The success of Coursera’s skills infrastructure is underpinned by three key factors that drive its effectiveness and adaptability:Flexibility and Agility of the Skills Taxonomy: Coursera's technical infrastructure is built for flexibility and scalability. Its internal toolset and skills database enable seamless updates and versioning, ensuring the taxonomy evolves in step with changing skills demands. Major revisions incorporating the latest updates from other taxonomies and the content landscape are conducted annually, led by content strategy experts who collaborate with industry and university partners. This iterative approach ensures the taxonomy remains current and relevant across industries. Interoperability: Interoperability is a cornerstone of Coursera’s platform, driven by the granular structure of its skills taxonomy. By utilizing APIs, the platform integrates smoothly with external systems, enabling organizations to align Coursera’s taxonomy with their own. This enables effective mapping with other frameworks, such as the World Economic Forum’s Global Skills Taxonomy, which provides a common language for tracking labour market trends and informing learning initiatives.Data Integration: Robust data integration is critical to Coursera’s ability to deliver impactful learning outcomes. APIs allow organizations to access skill data and map it to job roles, enabling informed decisions about skill gaps, career progression, and workforce planning. Coursera’s ability to link content and learner data via automated pipelines exemplifies the importance of seamless data integration in driving impactful learning initiatives.
Global | Education
Coursera – Skills‑based Learning at Scale
Coursera
Pearson, a global leader in education and lifelong learning, empowers individuals to achieve their aspirations through impactful learning experiences. Central to its strategy is a robust skills ontology that helps individuals build clear career pathways while enabling organizations to adapt to evolving market demands. This mission is supported by Credly, the world’s largest credentialing marketplace, and Faethm, an AI-driven platform aligning learning with future workforce needs. Pearson’s skills-based initiatives showcase how a common skills language can transform learning and career pathways to drive organizational growth and adaptability.Approach and ActionsPearson's skills ontology serves as a cornerstone for tailoring learning experiences, support career progression, and enable strategic workforce planning. Its development began with a comprehensive analysis of established frameworks, including ONET, ESCO, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Skills Taxonomy. By cross-walking these frameworks, Pearson created a proprietary ontology encompassing over 9,050 skills. Structured into a five-level hierarchy and a five-level proficiency framework, it enables detailed skill mapping and cross-referencing across occupations, learning materials, and career pathways.Pearson’s experience in supporting workforce development strategies has highlighted the importance of determining the appropriate level of granularity in a skills taxonomy. A well-designed taxonomy must strike a balance—detailed enough to provide actionable insights and contextual relevance but not so complex as to create redundancies or overwhelm users. The required level of granularity often depends on the specific use case. For example, hiring processes may focus on broader skill categories, such as AI or big data, to identify talent, whereas tailored learning programs necessitate a more granular breakdown into specific skills like machine learning, deep learning, or AI ethics. Moreover, linking the taxonomy to specific job roles and incorporating proficiency levels enhances its practical application. Clearly defining the proficiency levels required for each role enables more precise workforce planning, targeted learning programs, and effective skills development.Interoperability is essential for maximizing the value of a skills taxonomy. A common challenge for organizations is the use of diverse technological solutions or platforms for various functions, such as hiring, talent management, and learning and development. Establishing a unified skills language that links learning, tasks, and career pathways allows organizations to enhance workforce agility and align educational initiatives with strategic objectives. Pearson addresses this challenge with API-driven solutions and advanced AI models that ensure both adaptability and interoperability. These technologies consolidate and structure unstructured data from diverse sources—such as job descriptions, resumes, and course materials—aligning it seamlessly with the taxonomy to create cohesive and actionable insights.A common skills language offers transformative advantages. It helps organizations better understand workforce capabilities, maximize training investments, and establish clear skills-based pathways for employees. This approach reduces time-to-hire, enhances employee engagement, and boosts productivity. By embedding skills into all aspects of its solutions, Pearson ensures its taxonomy supports workforce growth, adaptability, and alignment with the evolving demands of a dynamic global market.Key Lessons LearnedPearson identified several critical success factors in developing and implementing skills taxonomies:Adapting the Skills Taxonomy Granularity to Strategic Needs: Organizations must align the level of granularity with strategic needs, such as workforce planning, skills based hiring or targeted learning. An effective skills taxonomy balance granularity and usability. Too much detail can result in an overwhelming volume of unstructured data, while insufficient detail limits actionable insights.Interoperability and Technology Integration: Interoperability unlocks the full potential of a skills taxonomy. APIs and AI tools enable efficient mapping of skills to learning content, and career pathways. These technologies streamline the extraction, normalization, and analysis of skills data, ensuring scalability and actionable insights. Demonstrate Return on Investment for Skills Investment: Demonstrating the tangible benefits of for skills initiatives is crucial for sustaining engagement and momentum. Tangible benefits such as reduced hiring times, improved retention, enhanced internal mobility, and higher training completion rates demonstrate the value and impact of a skills-based initiatives.Establish the Right Frameworks and Processes to Sustain Skills-Based Practices: Adopting a common skills language is just the starting point. Organizations must also establish clear roles and responsibilities, robust frameworks that directly link skills to measurable business outcomes—such as productivity gains, innovation, or employee retention—and operational processes that support effective implementation of skills-based practices. Without these foundational elements, many organizations face challenges in driving the adoption and long-term success of skills-based practices.
Global | Education
Pearson & Credly – Skills Ontology and Digital Credentials
Pearson
Context and ChallengeAs industries across Germany face increasing skills shortages, particularly in technical fields, companies are pressured to find sustainable ways to upskill and reskill their workforces. This demand is intensified by digitalization, decarbonization, and demographic shifts.Siemens, a global manufacturing and technology company, launched SiTecSkills Academy in 2022 to address these challenges and bridge the gap between industry needs and available skillsets. Targeting employees in production, service, and sales, SiTecSkills Academy aims to enhance future competencies in areas like IoT, AI, robotics, and sustainability, supporting Siemens and its external partners in becoming more digitally and environmentally sustainable.Solution and Overall Approach SiTecSkills Academy is more than an internal training academy; with an open ecosystem approach, the academy enables accessibility of technical training to Siemens workforce and its external partners. Siemens benefits from existing knowledge and many years of experience in vocational education learning. They partly re-package the content from their vocational education to up- and reskill the workforce in digitalization and sustainability. The academy offers upskilling and reskilling services to partners including qualification consultation to match training programs to industry standards, develop learning packages, and provide customized trainings. The portfolio provides varied formats of training options such as e-learning, virtual instructor-led training, hybrid, fully on-site, and competency-based application modules, from brief 15-minute digital “nuggets” to extended certification programs.To effectively upskill and reskill the workforce, Siemens SiTecSkills Academy leverages a diverse and innovative financing mechanism that integrates public funding, private investment, and flexible cost-sharing arrangements.Funding for Reskilling Models: SiTecSkills Academy’s core funding strategy involves collaboration with Germany’s Federal Employment Agency under the Qualification Opportunities Act (Qualifizierungschancengesetz). This act provides companies with access to co-financing for reskilling through AZAV (Akkreditierungs- und Zulassungsverordnung Arbeitsförderung) accreditation, which certifies training providers and trainings eligible for government subsidies. Through this framework, Siemens receives financial support from local employment agencies to cover a share of reskilling program cost. Due to the company size, co-funding is limited to 25%. In some cases, Siemens can also offset between 25-100% of base wages for specific positions at risk of unemployment. Collaborations with universities, chambers of commerce (IHK), and certification bodies ensure that the Academy's programs align with industry standards, allowing Siemens to provide training that meets specific sectoral demands.Employer co-investment and cost-sharing for upskilling programs: For upskilling programs targeted at current employees, Siemens directly finances the entirety of these training costs. For academic and advanced vocational training, however, sometimes a cost-sharing approach is used where costs are divided among employers, individual learners, and sometimes government support. This tiered financing model enables Siemens to maintain the affordability of programs while engaging learners and employers in shared responsibility for skill development.Digital Learning and Free Modules: SiTecSkills offers "digital learning nuggets" to improve digital literacy among entry-level and blue-collar workers. Many of these modules are available free of charge on the Siemens website, offering accessible skill-building opportunities also for those outside the organization. This open-access component allows Siemens to promote skill development in digital literacy widely, helping address industry skill shortages by reaching an audience beyond Siemens' immediate workforce.Siemens is able to demonstrate the outcomes of SiTecSkills Academy’s investment in skills training through:1. Workforce Transformation and Skill DevelopmentSince its launch in 2022, the SiTecSkills Academy has reached over 24,000 participations, with a focus on building digital and green skills essential for Siemens and its partners. The program’s success is reflected in the substantial skills uplift observed among employees, equipping them with capabilities in IoT, AI, robotics, edge computing, and green technologies, where they can transfer their knowledge into practice. For instance, reskilling initiatives at the academy have led to the training over 100 participants in entirely new skill areas, of which approximately 90% of the participants were co-funded by the Employment Agency. This has enabled career transitions for workers such as René Grosse, who moved from electronics technician to a Charger Systems Specialist for Siemens’ e-mobility infrastructure. Such career shifts underscore the academy’s ability to bridge skills gaps and meet emerging industry needs.2. High Retention and Reintegration RatesSiTecSkills’ training model is designed not only to develop skills but also to support long-term employee retention and employability. Six-month post-training reviews reveal close to 100% success rate in reskilling programs, assessing both skill acquisition and job placement within social insurance-covered employment. This high reintegration rate highlights the academy’s impact in creating sustainable employment opportunities and retaining talent within Siemens and the broader labour market.3. Equitable access to training for allSiTecSkills Academy promotes inclusivity by catering to diverse learner backgrounds and career stages, with flexible learning formats (digital, self-paced, and in-person) and financial support mechanisms that reduce barriers for participants from varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Approximately 40% of participants in the academy’s initiatives are women, reflecting a commitment to gender inclusivity in technical fields traditionally dominated by men.With 18 training centers across Germany and an extensive partner network including universities, external training partners and business partners, the academy maintains strong regional ties and proximity to learners, enhancing its reach and engagement. By aligning its offering with local industry demand while partnering with the local employment agencies, Siemens ensures that the programs are accessible to learners with diverse education from professional backgrounds, helping to address regional skills shortages effectively.Critical Lessons LearnedBy developing strong partnering relationships with governmental bodies under Germany’s Qualification Opportunities Act, Siemens benefits from a structured co-financing model. This approach reduces Siemens' direct costs while making high-quality training accessible to participants across different backgrounds. Additionally, SiTecSkills Academy’s close collaboration with academic and private sector entities ensures that training is relevant, certified, validated, and widely accessible. 
Germany | Technology
Siemens SiTecSkills Academy: Building Tomorrow’s Workforce Today
Siemens
Context and ChallengeDigitalization and Information Technology (IT) enterprises drive economic growth and employment, but the workforce’s technology skills lag behind technological advancements. 60% of businesses report that local skills gaps hinder their digital transformation[1]. The AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliance is a global coalition that addresses the technology skills gap by collaborating across employers, government agencies, workforce development organizations, and education leaders. Tech Alliances aim to modernize education, enhance employability, and enrich curriculums with industry insights. Launched in June 2023, AWS Skills to Jobs Tech Alliances are currently active in Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, and the United States. Within the U.S., Tech Alliances are in five states: Illinois, New York, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. Since launch, Tech Alliances have connected 57,000+ learners to 650+ employers and integrated industry expertise into 1,050 education providers’ programs.Tech Alliances help enable educators to embed cloud and emerging technology, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), training into existing curriculum, and Tech Alliances offer students the opportunity to participate in applied learning activities. As learners move through this technology and AI-enhanced curriculum, they engage with employers to explore career opportunities. Employers are AWS customers and partners with a need for entry level tech talent. Employers evaluate technical skills of learners through applied learning activities (such as AWS Jams, AWS GameDay, and others); job fairs; and employability workshops. Applied learning activities enable learners to expand their learning beyond the classroom, learning analytical and problem-solving skills with the context of industry problems.Spain Tech Alliance: Overall ApproachLaunched in June 2023, the Spain Tech Alliance is a comprehensive skilling program developed by AWS in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Education, regional governments, educational institutions, and employers to prepare Spanish learners for the future of work. AWS works with customers to identify skills gaps, then collaborates with regional governments and local educational institutions to address these needs. This strategic approach aligns academic programs with industry demands, enhancing student employability and fostering development of a technically skilled workforce. Through this process, the Spain Tech Alliance is comprised of 55 employers, over 660 educational institutions, and 5 regional governments (Andalusia, Aragon, Basque Country, Murcia, and Valencia). The Tech Alliance collaborates with regional governments through support letters and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The Spain Tech Alliance focuses on vocational training institutions and universities, with most learners between 18 and 25 years old. Tech Alliances leverage AWS Academy courses, learner labs, and the learning platform AWS Skill Builder to support learners in developing skills in cloud and emerging technologies. In 2023 alone, over 35,000 learners gained access to AWS content and curriculum, with 6,200+ learners participating in applied learning activities.The Spain Tech Alliance employs a collaborative funding model with co-investment from AWS customers and partners. AWS invests in Tech Alliances in multiple ways. First, AWS invests cloud credits in providing content at no cost to learners through programs like AWS Academy and AWS Educate, ensuring access to high-quality learning materials. Credits provide access to AWS usage. Second, AWS offers applied learning activities enabled by technical resources, and cloud credits, to extend learning opportunities beyond the classroom, allowing learners to gain hands-on experience with cloud. Applied learning activities (such as AWS Jams, AWS GameDay, and others) can run into several days, or even weeks, providing opportunities for hundreds of students to engage. Third, regional governments offer additional educator enablement that further supports educators as they bring new content into the classroom. Regional governments have dedicated budget for professional development, which they allocate towards the most effective enablement programs for educators. AWS employs a train-the-trainer model to help educators adopt the new curriculum. Further, AWS makes in-country investments to further support the program's growth, and adoption of digital technology, in Spain.In Spain, the Tech Alliance has had strong collaboration with regional governments. For example, in Andalusia, AWS partnered with the Regional Ministry of Education and Sports to introduce AWS-aligned curriculum in vocational schools. By 2023, this program reached 6,000 learners across 105 schools in the region, with 700 educators receiving cloud training. In 2024, Valencia joined the Tech Alliance, aiming to enhance vocational training by providing AWS cloud technology access to over 300 centers, 4,000 teachers, and 100,000 learners across various industries, meeting high labor demand. For vocational training, there is one single curriculum for the program. The vocational training curriculum is managed centrally by the government, and this makes the government’s engagement central to the Tech Alliance.Critical Lessons LearnedTech Alliances address skills gaps through three key strategies: building holistic networks of educators, industry partners, and government agencies; focusing on employability through cost-free content provision and hands-on applied learning activities; and investing in-kind contributions from all organizations involved. The AWS Tech Alliance team has learned that building relationships with educational institutions and government authorities is crucial. By earning their trust, the team can support work that shapes curricula to better align with employment opportunities. Shaping the curriculum is one part of the equation though, and ensuring proper preparation and adoption by faculty members promotes effective delivery of the curriculum. These approaches, exemplified by initiatives like the Spain Tech Alliance, offer a blueprint for global implementation, accelerating tech sector skills development worldwide.
Spain | Technology
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Tech Alliance
AWS
Context and ChallengesThe United States faces a significant shortage of diesel technicians, with the transportation industry in critical need of skilled workers to support freight, logistics, and other essential services. Traditional training programs for diesel mechanics are expensive and lengthy, making it difficult for many Americans—particularly those from underrepresented or economically disadvantaged backgrounds—to access these career paths. Since ADTC’s founding in 2017, its mission has been to provide a more accessible route into the diesel industry by offering a condensed, five-week training program that meets the industry’s skill demands at a fraction of the typical cost.However, even with a more affordable program, many potential students still face barriers to enrolment due to lack of time and limited career services to facilitate job placement. For populations with criminal justice involvement, low incomes, or uncertain immigration statuses, these barriers are even more pronounced. To address these needs, Social Finance partnered with ADTC in 2020 to design and implement a Career Impact Bond (CIB) model that would eliminate upfront costs and enable underemployed and unemployed individuals to access training and secure stable, well-paying jobs.Approach and SolutionSocial Finance and ADTC developed the ADTC Career Impact Bond, a nearly $9 million fund, to enable students to enroll without upfront costs. The project was financed through Social Finance’s UP Fund, a $50 million catalytic capital pool, which provided two investments to ADTC over the course of the project. The model also involved employers in the repayment process: major companies hiring ADTC graduates would pay training costs on behalf of the learners they hired, relieving graduates from any repayment obligations while employed by those firms.This flat-fee repayment model, a departure from income-share agreements used in other CIBs, was tailored to the unique wage structure of the diesel mechanic profession. Diesel mechanics typically earn hourly wages that fluctuate based on overtime and specific job bonuses, making an income-based repayment model impractical. Instead, the CIB required flat monthly payments of $150 (or $187 with a toolset) for those earning between $30,000-$40,000 and $280 (or $317 with a toolset) for those earning over $40,000. This predictable structure suited learners who found it easier to budget a fixed repayment amount.In addition to financial support, the CIB provided participants with a 193-piece diesel mechanic toolset and access to essential services such as career coaching, resume building, interview preparation, and financial literacy training. These resources helped participants not only secure jobs but also thrive in their new roles.ADTC’s existing relationships with prominent employers in the transportation industry—such as Penske Truck Leasing, Aim Transportation Solutions, and National Fleet Management—played a crucial role in the project’s success. These employers recognized the value of investing in the workforce pipeline and began covering the monthly payments for graduates they hired. This approach was piloted in the first investment with over 50% of graduates whose repayment obligations were fully covered by their employers, a figure that reached 83% among those funded through the second UP Fund investment. This arrangement not only reduced financial burdens on students but also helped employers improve retention rates and secure a reliable talent pool.The ADTC Career Impact Bond exemplifies a sustainable, impactful model that leverages cross-sector collaboration to meet both economic and social goals. Key results of the program included:Increased Access and Representation: Over 1,100 participants enrolled, with significant representation from underserved communities. Around 25% of graduates were Black, and 5% were women—both considerably higher than industry averages. Over 95% of participants lacked a bachelor’s degree, underscoring the program’s appeal to individuals seeking vocational, non-college career paths. High Graduation, Placement Rates and Economic Mobility: The program boasted a 100% graduation rate and a 92% job placement rate, with graduates seeing a median income increase of over 60% (approximately $16,000 annually).Critical Lessons Learned The ADTC Career Impact Bond offers valuable insights into how skill-based training initiatives can align with workforce needs and help underserved communities achieve economic mobility. Key recommendations based on the success of this model include:Design Financial Models Aligned with Workforce Realities: Programs in skilled trades with fluctuating hourly pay may benefit from flat-fee repayment models over income-share agreements. Flat fees offer simplicity and predictability, helping graduates manage their finances effectively. Leverage Employer-led Repayment Options for Mutual Benefits: Employer-sponsored repayments incentivize businesses to invest in talent pipelines, while reducing students’ financial obligations. This mutually beneficial model can help employers improve recruitment and retention rates, while enabling students to enter the workforce debt-free. Expand Access to Support Services: Beyond technical training, services like career coaching, financial literacy training, and job placement support are critical to ensuring learners’ success and long-term career growth. Comprehensive support services can empower participants to thrive post-training. Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion in Vocational Training: Programs that serve diverse populations—including people with criminal justice involvement or from low-income backgrounds—can help reduce industry disparities and build a workforce that reflects the diversity of society. ADTC’s success demonstrates that prioritizing diversity expands the talent pool to fill acute gaps, benefits participants, and also enriches industries traditionally lacking such representation. As the program continues through its repayment phase until 2026, its legacy and learnings are likely to shape future initiatives that bridge educational access and workforce development.
USA | Transportation
American Diesel Training Centers – Career Impact Bond (US)
Social Finance
Context and ChallengeThe D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University launched the Onward to Opportunity (O2O) program in 2015, targeting a key challenge: easing the transition of veterans and their families into technology careers and other careers in the private sector, after their tenure in the United States’ Armed Forces. With over 200,000 transitioning service members entering the civilian workforce each year, gaps in skills, confidence, and employer connections can hinder veterans’ success. The Onward to Opportunity program offers reskilling programs to returning servicemen and women and their spouse of all age groups for in-demand technology certifications in cloud, cybersecurity, networking and project management.Approach and SolutionIVMF’s funding model is an innovative blend of corporate sponsorships, federal grants, and private donations, creating a sustainable funding base while aligning with mission-driven partnerships. The IVMF received $18.9M in funding in FY23, in the combination of $10M grants and $8.9M gifts. Key funding partners of O2O’s programs are JP Morgan Chase, Walmart, Google, USAA, Fiserv, and others. These funding partners, in many cases, are also employment partners that seek to place graduates of the program for positions within their organization upon completion of Skillsoft curriculum and achievement of the related certifications.Skillsoft partners with IVMF to deliver industry-specific training curricula focused on high-demand certifications in areas such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, networking, and project management. The training is offered at no cost to veterans, service members, and their families, helping them achieve marketable skills for today’s job market. Further, IVMF collaborates with government agencies and employers to ensure that training aligns with industry standards and certification requirements.IVMF supports veterans of all ages and backgrounds, including military spouses, and aims to reach underrepresented groups. Female learners, who make up 31% of the program, benefit from certifications and targeted career coaching, and O2O tracks employment outcomes to ensure equitable impact across demographic groups.O2O has served 100,000 veterans and military family members, with high participant satisfaction driven by tailored learning and mentorship. Over 60% of O2O learners receive a verified employment outcome of either a new hire or enhanced employment through upskilling. O2O graduates experience a 2x job mobility rate within the first six months and, on average, earn starting salaries $7,000 higher than their peers, demonstrating enhanced employability and confidence in the job market. Veterans at the E-6 pay grade and below who complete O2O training enjoy an average increase of $13,000 in annual earnings.Critical Lessons Learned There are four key lessons learned to deliver this skills development fund1. Diversify Funding Sources: A robust funding model mitigates reliance on single-source funding. By combining multiple sources of funding from corporate sponsorships, government grants, gifts from educational institutions and donors, and philanthropic donations, IVMF reduces funding risks while ensuring long-term stability. The funding breakdown is 40% from employers, 8% governments, 26% educational institutions, and 26% donor agencies and/or philanthropic organizations.2. Foster Strong Stakeholder Relationships: Building partnerships with employment-focused organizations, funders, and training providers enhances program reach and ensures alignment with market demands, creating pathways to meaningful careers.3. Prioritize Measurable Impact: IVMF’s commitment to tracking engagement, job placements, and salary increases provides evidence of program effectiveness, attracting ongoing support and helping adapt programs to meet emerging needs.4. Align Program with In-Demand Skills – IVMF continually analyzes the evolving workforce needs for skills with its partners and through its partnership with Skillsoft. This provides real-time insights on skilling and talent development themes across the enterprise landscape.5. Adapt and Innovate: Regularly updating programs to align with industry requirements and veteran needs keeps offerings relevant and valuable. As new skill demands emerge, IVMF’s adaptability is crucial to maintaining its impact.
USA | Education, Technology
Onward to Opportunity (IVMF & Skillsoft) – US Veterans
Skillsoft
Context and Challenges Aramco and Saudi government entities formed a unique, innovative partnership to address the need for a pipeline of skilled labour by establishing 12 National Training Centers (NTC) across the Kingdom to build a robust and scalable skills development ecosystem.The NTCs address skills gaps in key industries such as energy, technology, inspection, maintenance, marine, construction, tourism, and finance by offering apprenticeship, upskilling, and certification programs as well as workers seeking continuing education and career advancement. The program aligns with Aramco’s strategic objectives as well as the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 of localization, growing and diversifying the economy, and increasing employment in order to create a thriving economyApproach and solution Launched in 2008, the NTCs utilized an innovative financing mechanism where government entities provide training facilities and subsidize a portion of tuition fees and stipends, while the private sector contribute to tuition fees. Aramco provide oversight to the centres, maintaining alignment of training programs with industry needs and program quality. Aramco also collaborate with international educational partners and accreditors to establish high training standards.Aramco effectively tapped into government funding to build a sustainable pipeline of Saudi talent that is available to fuel economic growth of the Kingdom. The NTC funding model incentivizes companies to sponsor graduates by offsetting training costs while allowing graduates to be treated as employees from day one.Aramco’s support goes beyond the role of a founding stakeholder and providing the financial supporter. It extends into a package of advisory, technical, and professional services that all NTCs benefit from. By overseeing NTCs operations, Aramco ensures there is always a high degree of synergy amongst them and continuously reviews their operations and the effectiveness of their offerings. Another important part of Saudi Aramco’s support to the NTCs is procurement and in-kind provision of a wide-range of modern training equipment, including large scale integrated simulators and training platforms, that allow for exhaustive practical training for large groups of trainees simultaneously.The success of the NTCs depends on strong partnerships with employers across the Kingdom who directly sponsor students, provide mentorship, and employ graduates. Aramco engages with over 100 government and private stakeholders to co-develop curricula, ensuring that training aligns with real-world job requirements.The NTCs’ innovative financing partnership has allowed the program to provide training for more than 70,000 Saudi men and women. This model opens enrolment to all eligible high school graduates, inclusive of students throughout the kingdom in urban and rural areas.Critical Lessons LearnedThere are critical lessons learned from engaging with government funding to deliver workforce development for Aramco and other industry partners. This includes:The importance of aligning government objectives with private sector capabilities. The need for continuous engagement with stakeholders to adapt funding mechanisms to evolving labour market demands. The value of maintaining transparency and accountability to build trust and ensure long-term sustainability. Providing incentives such as subsidized wages, tax breaks, or reduced training costs encourages more employers to participate in hiring and training locals. Investments in training programs should focus on building sustainable talent pipelines rather than one-off projects.
Saudi Arabia | Oil & Gas
Aramco – National Training Centers (Saudi Arabia)
Saudi Aramco
Context and ChallengesThe Kingdom of Bahrain has embarked on a journey to enhance its competitiveness as a nation, a key pillar in its Vision 2023. A significant challenge to achieving this is the potential impact of automation on the workforce, particularly as 46% of work in Bahrain is vulnerable to automation, according to the Future of Jobs report.Today, Bahrain faces a dual need to both upskill its existing workforce, and attract new entrants with relevant tech skills to foster innovation, economic diversification, and sustainable growth.The Kingdom’s Labour Fund (Tamkeen) was established in 2006 to contribute to sustainable economic growth. Tamkeen does this by upskilling and preparing Bahraini talent to lead and enable the private sector to become the key economic driver in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Since its establishment Tamkeen has recognized that traditional funding model-based support structures have often been constrained by high costs and accessibility issues, especially for emerging technology and digital skills training.   The Approach To achieve its goals Tamkeen invested 5.3 billion USD in direct and indirect support to enhance funding opportunities for the private sector, specifically SMEs, and support the training and employment of Bahraini individuals. As part of this, Tamkeen sought to create a skills development program specifically designed for Bahraini nationals. In July 2022, Tamkeen partnered with General Assembly to offer fully funded programs to teach in-demand skills.This model makes 420 hours of in-person tech bootcamps financially accessible, enables residents 18 years and above to pursue skills training and development in areas such as information technology (software engineering, data analytics, and Java) and digital communication (UX design), removing financial barriers and encouraging widespread adoption.The program is offered to Bahrainis at any stage of their career given they meet the admission criteria and is open to university graduates, job seekers, employees who are upskilling for their current or emerging jobs, and for individuals looking to break into startups.General Assembly works closely with Tamkeen and key employers in the industry to ensure course content is aligned with the skills currently demanded by employers. This includes input from over 100 corporate partners and insights into Bahrain's job market needs, enhancing the program’s relevance and attractiveness for hiring companies. The program also helps candidates develop interview skills and provides other wraparound support services that help with accessing jobs.The collaboration between Tamkeen and the General Assembly exemplifies the power of public-private partnership; by combining public funding with private-sector expertise in tech education, the initiative leverages both parties’ strengths and aligns educational outcomes with economic needs. If there are any job vacancies that can be filled by individuals graduating from these programs, the government subsidizes the salary, which makes it easier for companies to hire Bahrainis ensuring sustainability of jobs. The program has seen success with over 1,000 Bahraini graduates and a positive outcomes rate of 73%, out of which 66% of the total graduates are employed full-time. Notably, around 40% of participants from non-tech backgrounds have successfully transitioned to technology roles, and over 100 corporate partners have hired graduates. The critical elements associated with a high placement rate involves the 1:1 coaching that helps cater the individual goals into actions for the job search. Additionally, General Assembly has developed strong relationship with hiring partners to emphasize the benefits of hiring General Assembly graduates who are notably good at demonstrating their ability to learn new skills in a short period of time. The focus on portfolio projects aligned to curriculum enables learners to get hands-on experience immediately applicable to jobs.Critical Lessons LearnedThe power of government funding through the Tamkeen and General Assembly partnership, combined with their shared commitment to fund skills development is highlighted through their joint ethos that they are not just opening doors for Bahraini talent but creating opportunities for families to generate and continue to have a sustainable income.Some of the key lessons learned are highlighted as:1. The importance of outcome-based funding: Funding models should prioritize measurable outcomes, such as employment rates, career transitions, and skill development. Tamkeen’s success shows that a focus on outcomes enhances both program effectiveness and relevance, making the investment more attractive to both participants and employers. 2. Provision of flexible and inclusive learning options: To reach a broad range of students including working professionals and women, and to achieve the intended outcomes, it’s crucial to offer flexible schedules and multiple learning formats, such as part-time and full-time options. General Assembly provides these options, ensuring the program meets the varying needs of participants and encourages a diverse learner base. 3. Continuous curriculum updates: Given the rapid pace of technological advancement, training providers should regularly update their curriculum to stay aligned with industry needs. By continuously refining its offerings, General Assembly helps future-proof Bahrain’s workforce, ensuring it can keep pace with emerging trends in the technology sector.
Bahrain | Government
Bahrain Workforce Upskilling/Reskilling – Adecco & Partners
Adecco Group
This pilot project tests the “AI Assessment Scale,” which helps teachers and students understand when and how to use AI in learning.The goal is to reduce confusion and inconsistency in how AI is used in classrooms. The project will create clear guidelines for teachers, supervisors, and students, and develop practical training materials on responsible AI use.
Saudi Arabia | Education, Technology, IT and Communications (ICT)
Responsible AI in Education

Reskilling Revolution

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