10 reasons why an upskilling marketplace is the future of training and development

For training and development to be successful and sustainable as organizations head into the future, it’s imperative to find efficient, employee-centric solutions that can deliver tangible business impact, whatever changes and technology advancements the economic landscape may bring. 

In this article created in partnership with the team at Hacking HR, we explain why upskilling marketplaces are well-suited to guide workforces into the future, offering a comprehensive approach that addresses the evolving needs of both employees and organizations. 

Here are ten reasons why these platforms are set to transform the learning landscape.

1. Endlessly scalable: The all-in-one capabilities of an upskilling marketplace – combining an LXP, LMS, and benefits manager – provide streamlined, centralized administration that allows it to be managed by even the smallest HR teams and makes it easily scalable as businesses grow.
2. Time-efficient: An upskilling marketplace can save time for employers and employees. While companies can save time on administrative tasks, employees can focus on learning opportunities that are tailored to their needs instead of one-size-fits-all training.
3. Employee-centric: The employee-centric experience that an upskilling marketplace provides can help put employees in direct control of their learning with a variety of targeted, flexible learning opportunities that can be convenient for any employee in any time zone. Upskilling marketplaces also offer individual learning budgets, which gives employees the freedom to find the resources they desire. Employees can monitor their own spending, which gives them a sense of personal agency over their own growth and allows them to keep track of their progress, helping to demonstrate the value of learning and upskilling. Simply put, upskilling marketplaces align with the current reality and future expectations of how employees want to learn.
4. Budget-optimized: Although it may seem that offering a wealth of resources might be more expensive than a one-size-fits-all program, it can actually be the opposite. The best upskilling marketplaces operate by only charging for the content consumed, rather than a per-employee subscription fee, eliminating traditional costs of learning programs, like unused employee subscriptions. Instead, organizations only have to pay when actual learning happens, which can help demonstrate the ROI of learning investments to leadership. In an era of lean budgets and looming fears of recession and other business disruptions, upskilling marketplaces become an easy-to-justify, uncuttable investment.
5. Crowd-smart: Crowd-smart marketplaces like OneRange allow employees to find and add external upskilling resources to the platform so that all employees can benefit from them. Additionally, peers and managers can pick and share specific resources, helping employees fill skill gaps and get targeted training for specific organizational needs. At a time when the skills needed to succeed are constantly evolving, a crowd-smart platform will dynamically adjust, benefitting from the wisdom of the crowd to stay ahead of the latest trends and developments.
6.  Skills-based: Upskilling marketplaces are more skills-based than traditional platforms. AI-powered tags allow organizations to focus on specific skills such as strategic planning, decision-making, data analysis, presentation skills, emotional intelligence, and many more. In a world where jobs are increasingly being defined by skills more than roles, this allows employees to quickly gain the skills needed to take on new projects and pivot as necessary to succeed.
7. Future-proof: Instead of the fixed content that a traditional platform provides, an open marketplace is constantly being updated with new resources that can help employees evolve to changing needs and eliminate the possibility of training becoming out-of-date. AI-powered curation and expert content vetting enable users to find only the best subscriptions and training for hot skills and tools focused on emerging technology like prompt engineering, building LLMs, ChatGPT, Claude AI, Merlin AI, and more.
8. Performance-driven: Dashboards in an upskilling marketplace give employees and employers the opportunity to track engagement and apply it to specific outcomes such as job performance. Plus, marketplaces can partner with performance management platforms to further develop performance-driven skills and enhance overall employee lifetime value (ELTV).
9. Retention-boosting: Employees routinely cite upskilling as one of the top benefits they demand, making a robust upskilling marketplace a key factor for retention and overall employer loyalty in an increasingly competitive talent landscape. OneRange has seen a 5-10X increase in engagement with the introduction of an upskilling marketplace, bringing it from an average of just 10% to upwards of 90%.
10. Career-focused: Long gone are the days when individuals will complete their career training with a terminal degree or professional certification. In a changing world, workers will need to become lifelong learners and continuously build skills as technology evolves and business needs shift. The skills-based content and learning pathways an upskilling marketplace provides empower employees to take control of their career journey and develop the skills they need to capitalize on new opportunities – long after they have completed their last degree.