The Penn Foster Blog

You know that training and developing your employees is vital to the success of your business. The question is, what kind of upskilling do your employees need? Should you provide workforce development or job training? What exactly is the difference? Some websites and even some experts use these terms as though they’re interchangeable. However, workforce development and job training actually describe two parts of the upskilling process. Your employees will likely need both over the course of their career. It’s important that you choose the right one at the right time.

People are staying in the workforce longer, some into their 70’s and beyond. For businesses, this longevity can be a valuable asset. Providing jobs for people over 50, means you retain their wisdom, experience, and industry knowledge. You can reap the full benefits of a multi-generational workforce by supporting older workers with training opportunities.

As we approach a new year and a new decade, smart employers are already looking to the future. They’re considering what skills employees will need to meet changing industry demands. Healthcare, skilled trades, and many other industries are in a state of change and growth. Your employees should be too.  It is true that each industry requires specific technical or clinical capabilities. Yet, there are some soft skills that every employee will need in 2020. These seven workplace skills can equip employees for success now and into the future.

The hospitality industry is growing. It’s also feeling the pinch of the record-low unemployment rate and high workforce non-participation rates. To find and keep qualified workers, hospitality industry leaders must embrace training as a solution. Dara Warn, Chief Operating Officer at Penn Foster, shares some advice for what to look for in a training partner and how to help hospitality employees meet training goals.

Is the skills gap real? Whether you believe it’s a business boogeyman that lurks in the dark imaginations of overworked hiring managers, or you see it as a problem for your LinkedIn connections, you might agree on this one thing: it won’t affect your industry. After all, roles at your company are in demand and you have more applicants than positions to fill. For now. In reality, it’s not some big, ominous thing. Rather, the skills gap is simply the gap between what employers want or need their employees to be able to do, and what they can actually do.

Spotify’s Wrapped has been shared across Instagram and social platforms like wildfire, sending premium users into a music-fueled trip down memory lane, reliving their band obsessions over the last year--and decade. This sent us down our own rabbit hole, slightly less musical but equally as capable of inspiring an emotional response to our learner’s ability to prepare for their next best career. Here’s a few of our favorite moments of 2019!

The demand for healthcare employees has been growing for years with no signs of slowing down. To fill open positions and plan for the future, smart healthcare providers are building talent pipelines that will help them meet their staffing needs, which will be critical as the organization grows or as specialized services need to be offered.

As a business leader, you expect your employees to have certain foundational skills. Some of these competencies vary by industry. For example, if you're running a contracting company you might expect all employees to have the math skills to be able to accurately calculate space and distance. If you're the HR manager at a hospital, you might expect that all employees know how to use your medical records management system. Other skills, like communication, ethics, and problem solving, are so universal that they go without saying. Or do they?

Make no mistake, healthcare is a service industry. In most cases, patients and their families are facing difficult and emotional challenges. They’re away from home, ill, and feeling vulnerable. What might seem like a small irritation under normal circumstances can escalate to a catastrophic event under these conditions. Which is why training employees to interact with patients, families, and visitors is critically important.

For decades, the word on the factory floor has been that robots would replace manufacturing workers any day now. That day, if it ever comes, is still far in the future. In the meantime, manufacturing still needs people to do what robots can’t do, or can’t do well.  For leaders in the manufacturing industry, the knowledge that they need employees is offset by the awareness that finding those people isn’t easy. A survey by SCORE  found that 89% of manufacturers struggle to fill open positions, exacerbated by an ever-present skills gap that some expect to cost the U.S. up to $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years across all industries.