企业界正经历前所未有的变化速度。虽然CEO任期、持股时间和产品库存水平等核心指标走稳或放缓，但是我们获取大量数据的途径——从社交媒体、在线浏览和越来越多的移动设备——让人感觉仿佛事务进展加快。我们获取的信息越多，我们能够做出的反应、转化和改进就越快。如此行事的企业往往会赢得市场优势，反过来，保持优势的压力也会增加。

The business world is undergoing an unprecedented rate of change. While core metrics like CEO tenure, shareholding periods, and product inventory levels are stable or slowing, our access to an extensive amount of data — from social media, online browsing, and an increasing number of mobile devices — makes it feel as though things are moving faster. The more information we gain access to, the faster we are able to react, transform, and improve. Companies that do so tend to gain a market advantage, and in turn, the pressure to keep up grows.

这在很大程度上是数字化的结果。今天，一家企业的系统、工序和产品都有技术层的支持。麦肯锡公司最近报告称：“大胆、紧凑的数字战略将是获胜企业和未获胜企业之间最大的区别，而最大的回报将属于那些发起数字颠覆的企业。”简而言之，在数字化方面进行迅速大胆投资的企业会获得巨大收益。

This is largely the result of digitization. Today, a company’s systems, processes, and products are underpinned by a layer of technology. McKinsey & Co. recently reported: “Bold, tightly integrated digital strategies will be the biggest differentiator between companies that win and companies that don’t, and the biggest payouts will go to those that initiate digital disruptions.” In short, businesses that make fast and bold investments in digitization will see outsize gains.

那么，成功实现数字化需要什么呢？归根结底是人才。任何企业都可以投资先进技术，可是创建一支随时可以使用那些技术的员工队伍却困难得多。它要求员工能够理解数据、跨虚拟和物理交互点为客户服务，并跟上快速变化的软件语言。不幸的是，传统的教育体系通常不教授这些技能。大多数教授缺乏真正的行业经验，而课程开发周期可能长达7年之久。这样的时间轴是个问题。一项对全球4300名经理和高管所做的调查显示，90%的员工觉得他们需要每年更新他们的技能才能与人竞争。

So what does it take to successfully digitize? It comes down to talent. Any business can invest in advanced technologies, but creating a workforce that’s ready to use them is much harder. It requires workers who can understand data, serve customers across virtual and physical interaction points, and keep up with fast-changing software languages. Unfortunately, traditional education systems often don’t teach these skills. Most university professors lack real industry experience, and curriculum development cycles can be as long as seven years. This timeline is a problem. A global survey of 4,300 managers and executives shows that 90% of workers feel they need to update their skills annually just to contend.

为了填补教育停滞与21世纪需求之间的差距，一些企业和政府开始亲自着手处理问题。2019年7月，亚马逊宣布，它将投资7亿美元提升10万员工的技能（每人7000美元）。他们并非孤独无伴。我的雇主，General Assembly公司，就与500多家全球企业——包括沃尔玛、欧莱雅和法国巴黎银行(BNP Paribas)——以及正在寻求教育新途径的各个政府合作。

To close the gap between where education leaves off and the needs of the 21st century begin, some companies and governments are starting to take matters into their own hands. In July 2019, Amazon announced it was investing $700 million to upskill 100,000 employees ($7,000 per person). They’re not alone. My employer, General Assembly, works with over 500 global organizations — including Adobe, L’Oréal, and BNP Paribas — and a variety of international governments that are pursuing fresh approaches to education.

以下是三个努力打造受教育程度更高的员工队伍的战略实例及其结果，企业和政府视之为他们努力的成果。

Below are three examples of strategies that are working to create a more educated workforce, and the results companies and governments are seeing as a result of their efforts.

一、提升技能

1) Upskilling

提升技能是教员工如何使用新工具和工作法，帮助他们更好或更快完成工作。由于大型企业仅2019年一年在IT方面的开支就预计高达3.8万亿美元，提升员工技能至关重要。根据德勤(Deloitte)最近的一份报告，“技术实施的失败很少是因为技术无效，而是因为人们不愿意使用技术，或者使用技术太难。”一些企业对此听得一清二楚，并且已经开始进行相应的投资了。

Upskilling is the practice of teaching employees how to use new tools and practices that will help them do their jobs better or faster. With large organizations forecasted to spend as much as $3.8 trillion on IT in 2019 alone, upskilling employees is critical. According to a recent report from Deloitte, “technology implementations fail rarely because the technology did not work but rather because people are not willing, or find it too difficult, to use them.” Some companies hear this loud and clear, and have already begun investing accordingly.

微软就是其中之一。在CEO萨蒂亚·纳德拉(Satya Nadella)的领导下，该公司已经实现了我们这个时代最成功的企业转型之一。该公司的云计算平台Azure是一个主要的推动因素。可是微软承认，虽然Azure支持航空航天和制造业等领域的企业，但其客户企业的许多员工并不知道如何利用它的功能。这就是为何微软在今年早些时候与GA签署合作协议的一个重大原因。到2022年为止，要为1.5万名员工提升技能，并建立推动云计算的技能标准。他们相信，一支懂得如何使用Azure及其潜在技术的员工队伍更有可能利用它的潜力，从而巩固公司的市场地位，也更有可能利用据以衡量纳德拉及其团队的极其重要的“能力指标”。

Microsoft is one of them. Under CEO Satya Nadella, the organization has made one of the most successful corporate turnarounds of our time. Azure, the company’s cloud computing platform, is a major driver. But Microsoft admits that while Azure supports companies in sectors like aerospace and manufacturing, many of their customers’ employees don’t know how to take advantage of its capabilities. This is a big reason why, earlier this year, Microsoft signed a partnership with GA  to upskill 15,000 workers by 2022, and to establish standards for the skills that power cloud computing. They are betting that a workforce that understands how to use Azure and its underlying technology will be more inclined to leverage its potential, thereby strengthening the company’s market position, and the all-important “power metrics” on which Nadella and his team are measured.

随着新工具和技术在前沿出现，提升技能还可以帮助确保员工的专业知识得到充分利用。卫士人寿保险公司(Guardian Life Insurance Company)CEO迪安娜·马利根(Deanna Mulligan)认为，提升精算师技能对于这家160年历史的企业的成功至关重要。像所有的保险公司一样，卫士人寿的业务取决于它对大量数据中发现的模式进行清楚表达并遵照执行的能力。历史上，这项工作大部分是由精算师——使用诸多变量计算保险风险和保费的训练有素的统计学家——完成的。然而，现如今，诸如Fitbit监视器、汽车传感器以及其他新技术都在生成有关健康风险、驾驶习惯以及大量可以帮助公司更加精确计算个人或企业保险风险的重要数据。这些来源产生的信息量之大，相比过去简单的精算表和人口统计指标而言简直令人瞠目结舌。

Upskilling can also help ensure that employees’ expertise are being put to the best use as new tools and technologies come to the forefront. Deanna Mulligan, CEO of the Guardian Life Insurance Company, believes upskilling actuaries is crucial to the success of her 160-year-old firm. Like all insurance companies, Guardian’s business depends on its ability to articulate and act on patterns found in vast quantities of data. Historically, the bulk of this work has been done by actuaries — highly trained statisticians who calculate insurance risks and premiums using a number of variables. Today, however, new technologies like Fitbit monitors, car sensors, and others are generating important data about health risks, driving habits, and a plethora of data that can help companies calculate the risk of insuring a person or a business more precisely. These sources churn out an astonishingly higher volume of information than simple actuarial tables and demographic metrics had in the past.

这就是技能差距开始出现的地方。为了让保险公司更好地进行计算并保持竞争力，精算师需要新的工具来理解他们掌握的所有数据。购买这些工具是一回事，而培训员工使用这些工具是另一回事。

This is where the skills gap begins. For insurance companies to make better calculations and stay competitive, actuaries need new tools to make sense of all the data at their disposal. Purchasing these tools is one thing, but training employees to use them is another.

在首席信息官(CIO)迪安·德尔·韦基奥(Dean Del Vecchio)和战略主管鲍勃·汤普森(Bob Thompson)的带领下，卫士人寿制定了一个人才战略来弥补这一差距。他们对GA进行了战略投资，通过短期研讨会和强化训练营的方式来提升精算师和其他员工的技能并教授新技能。这些课程的目标不是完全改变员工的技能，而是在他们的核心专业知识的基础之上进一步发展。按一名学生的话说：“‘这门课程’开阔了我的思路，使我对数据有了更多的思考。我认为某项任务可能是多余或者重复或者单调的，于是我寻思可以使用Python语言或自动化技术来腾出时间从事其他活动。”

Led by CIO Dean Del Vecchio and Head of Strategy Bob Thompson, Guardian Life developed a talent strategy to close this gap. They made a strategic investment in GA to upskill and reskill actuaries, and other workers, through short workshops and intensive bootcamps. The goal of such courses is not to change employees’ skills entirely, but rather, to build upon their core expertise. In the words of one student, “[The course] opened my mind to thinking more about data. I see a task that may be redundant or repetitive or monotonous, and I explore ideas where I could use Python or automation to free up my time to work on other activities.”

二、重新培训新技能

2) Reskilling

重新培训新技能是一种专注于帮助员工实现职业转变的教育形式。那些投入新技能培训的人可以学会新的工具和工作法，努力获得能够让他们彻底改变工作的能力。对于人才供应无法满足需求的领域，重新培训新技能是一种有吸引力的选择。如果利用得当，相较于遣散费、招聘和新员工入职培训费用，这一战略可以大大节省开支。

Reskilling is a form of education focused on helping employees make career transformations. Those who invest in reskilling learn new tools and practices in an effort to gain abilities that will allow them to change their jobs entirely. For fields in which the supply of talent doesn’t meet the demand, reskilling is an attractive option. If deployed well, this strategy can be a significant cost savings, when compared with the price of severance, recruiting, and onboarding new employees.

大约两年前，第一资本金融公司(Capital One)开始开办一所“技术学院”来对其员工和候职者重新培训新技能。“这个行业的赢家是那些真正打算想办法利用技术并像最佳科技公司那样利用技术的企业。”首席信息官罗布·亚历山大表示。技术学院是一项数百万美元的投资，它提供250门以上的课程，主题范围从人工智能到云计算都有。这些课程是免费的，对第一资本金融公司的全体员工开放，面授和在线课程均可以提供。

Capital One began developing a “Tech College” to reskill its employees and candidates around two years ago. “The winners in this industry are the ones who are really going to figure out how to leverage technology and harness it in ways that the best technology companies do,” Chief Information Officer Rob Alexander said. Tech College is a multi-million dollar investment. It offers over 250 courses in topics ranging from artificial intelligence to cloud computing. The courses are free and open to all Capital One employees, and are offered both in person and online.

他们最有效的课程项目之一是“第一资本开发员学院”(Capital One Developer Academy)，它让没有计算机科学(CS)背景的新近大学毕业生经受为期六个月的强化培训，培养他们的软件工程技能。该项目包括课堂培训和在职学习，它为第一资本提供了获得一个全新人才渠道的途径。他们没有去争夺数量相对较少的计算机科学专业毕业生，而是在教文科专业学生如何在他们需要履职的岗位上取得成功。“当你开创了一条可行的在职培训途径时，你可以释放（或利用）‘非传统’候职者的激情和潜力。”技术副总裁德温·利帕夫斯基(Devin Lipawsky)表示。

One of their most effective programs, Capital One Developer Academy, puts recent college graduates without computer science (CS) backgrounds through an intensive six-month experience to develop their software engineering skills. The program, which includes both classroom training and on-the-job learning, grants Capital One access to an entirely new pipeline of talent. Instead of competing over the relatively small number of CS graduates, they are teaching liberal arts majors how to succeed in the roles they need filled. “When you create a viable path for on-the-job training, you can unlock (or leverage) the passion and potential of ‘non-traditional’ candidates,” said Devin Lipawsky, VP Technology.

沃尔特·迪士尼公司(The Walt Disney Company)也采取了类似方式来重新培训新技能。为了增加其技术部门的多元化，迪士尼启动了“代号：罗茜”(CODE: Rosie)项目，这是一个培训女性员工从事软件工程的强化训练营。这个为期15个月的项目对各个部门的女性开放，其中包括一次为期3个月的正式培训以及两次为期6个月的内部学徒期，之后毕业生就被转到公司的技术岗位。最初由迪士尼技术副总裁尼基·卡茨(Nikki Katz)牵头的这个项目肩负着强大的使命。“我们打算录取大批候职者，教他们许多软件工程技能组合，然后希望能让这些候职者探索一条新的职业道路。”她表示。

The Walt Disney Company has taken a similar approach to reskilling. In a bid to increase diversity in its technology sector, Disney launched CODE: Rosie, an intensive bootcamp that trains female employees in software engineering. The 15-month program is open to women across divisions, and includes a three-month formal training and two six-month internal apprenticeships, after which graduates transition into technical roles at the company. Spearheaded initially by Disney VP of Technology, Nikki Katz, the program has a powerful mission. “We’re going to take a lot of candidates, teach them a lot of software engineering skill sets, and then hopefully let these candidates explore a new career path,” she said.

这项计划开始时的规模很小，但已经取得了成功。在完成了艰苦的申请程序的169名员工中，112人学成毕业。迪士尼只挑选了其中20名员工填补第一批岗位。如今，在“代号：罗茜”项目启动三年之后，该项目已经成为迪士尼人才战略的核心部分，被认为是增加多元化以及填补关键人才缺口的有效又划算的方式。

The initiative started small, but has already seen success. Of 169 employees who completed a grueling application process, 112 completed it. Disney selected just 20 of those employees to fill the first cohort. Now, three years after CODE: Rosie’s initial launch, the program is a core part of Disney’s talent strategy, and is seen as an impactful and cost-effective way to both increase diversity and fill critical talent gaps.

三、政府投资

3) Government Investments

虽然企业界在构建未来的员工队伍方面扮演了重要角色，但它不可能单独获得成功。我们需要一个致力于终生学习和教育的多层面的基础设施，员工、雇主、政府和教育提供者都可以在其间发挥作用。

While the corporate world has an important role to play in building the workforce of the future, it can’t succeed alone. We need a multifaceted infrastructure for lifelong learning and education, where employees, employers, government, and education providers all have a role to play.

一些政府已经开始站出来带头。在新加坡，所有25岁以上的公民都可以获得360美元的“未来技能培训补助”(Skills Future Credit)，用于投资教育。人们可以利用这个机会来提高网络安全和先进制造一类的技术技能以及领导力和会计一类的核心技能。这项计划非常成功，每10名参与者中就有8名报告说，培训对他们的工作产生了积极的影响。该计划本身就是经济发展的强有力的加速器，该国有近10%的人口参与其中。

Some governments are already stepping up to take the lead. In Singapore, all citizens over the age of 25 receive a $360 “Skills Future Credit” that they can invest in education. People can use this opportunity to improve their technical skills, like cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing, as well as core skills, such as leadership and accounting. The program has been highly successful. Eight in every 10 participants report that the training has had a positive impact on their work. The program itself is a powerful accelerator of economic progress, with almost 10% of the country’s entire population participating.

新加坡仅是一例而已。法国通过向企业家提供税收抵免的方式鼓励对员工培训投资，抵免额等于培训时数乘以最低工资。在英国，学徒税要求雇主留出资金雇用学徒。

But Singapore is just one example. France incentivizes investments in worker training by providing entrepreneurs with a tax credit equal to the number of training hours multiplied by the minimum wage. And in the UK, the Apprenticeship Levy requires employers to set aside funds for hiring apprentices.

这些投资远远超出了正常的学习和发展的支出。总体而言，它们代表了企业界的转变。企业和国家越来越意识到，教育是纠正实质为劳动力市场效率低下的有效工具。在General Assembly，我们始终认为，为了与雇主的需求保持同步，教育不可以仅仅是发生在你开始工作之前的事。教育必须是在你的整个职业生涯中多次发生的事情。我强调过的例子和故事以及企业界最近的新闻都表明，全球最大的雇主们已经取得一致意见。

These investments go far beyond standard learning and development spending. Collectively, they represent a shift in the world of business. Companies and countries are realizing that education is an effective tool to correct what is essentially a labor market inefficiency. At General Assembly, we’ve always believed that to keep pace with the needs of employers, education cannot be something that only happens before you begin work. Education has to be something that takes place multiple times throughout your career. The examples and stories I’ve highlighted, as well as recent news from the business community, show that the world’s largest employers are in agreement.

阿南德·乔普拉-麦高恩是General Assembly公司的首批雇员，现任副总裁、董事总经理，负责该公司事业部的国际扩张。在该公司，他就如何让员工队伍为未来做好准备向大公司提供咨询。阿南德正在撰写一本关于首批雇员的专著。

阿南德·乔普拉-麦高恩（Anand Chopra-McGowan）

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