Five Skills That Will Help You Land Your Dream Job For 2023 (And Beyond)

HOBOKEN, N.J., Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Job hunters need to level up their soft skills in order to qualify for many of today's hottest jobs, according to new research by Pearson, the world's leading learning company. In one of the most extensive reviews of job listings to date, Pearson analyzed 21 million job ads around the globe and found that human skills top the list of what employers want in their candidates. 

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Pearson used its proprietary AI workforce analytics tool to review job ads across major employment markets to find out which skills are showing up most frequently and which are predicted to need the most improvement by 2026. Pearson found that even though technical skills remain important, employers now are prioritizing human skills such as collaboration, communication and leadership.

The Pearson Skills Outlook shows that job ads are dominated by five "Power Skills", now the most sought-after capabilities for workers:

1. Communication
2. Customer Service
3. Leadership
4. Collaboration
5. Problem Solving

Looking ahead to 2026, Pearson's predictive AI modelling tool suggests that the top five power skills that will be most in-demand to meet economic need are also human skills:

1. Collaboration
2. Customer Focus
3. Personal Learning
4. Achievement Focus
5. Cultural and Social Intelligence

Mike Howells, President, Pearson Workforce Skills, said:

"Technical skills remain necessary for success in many jobs but people in those roles will need to retrain frequently to ensure they keep pace with technology. Now, employers are realizing that human skills are the power skills that really help people stay relevant and adaptable for the long term. Businesses need to act now to help employees upskill as a strong foundation of human skills is essential for success for employers and employees both today and in the future."

Although demand for technical skills is increasing, technology evolves so quickly that these capabilities often have a short shelf-life and can be unique to specific industries or jobs. People in tech roles need human skills to be agile and adaptable in their learning. The research findings provide guidance to employers on where they should focus their training and education programs. 

The Pearson Skills Outlook is the first in a series of reports looking at workplace skill trends. Skills Outlook data uses Pearson's AI and predictive analytics to look at census, workforce and recruitment data in four major economies – the US, UK, Australia and Canada – and model how job requirements are evolving as a result of technological change. With nearly 1,400 enterprise clients, Pearson has a strong foundation and unique expertise in the workforce skilling market. The company's growing enterprise business now comprises about 20% of its revenue across divisions.

Notes to Editors

Contact
Joe Wiggins, [email protected]

Using its AI and predictive analytics platform, Faethm, Pearson assessed the current market for skills using job ad data and modelled the future market for skills using its Future Capability Framework:

2022 skills: 
To identify the current in-demand and trending skills, a total of 21.8M job ads from January to March 2022 were analyzed, comprised of 17.7M US ads, 1.86M Canadian ads, 1.80M UK ads and 0.51M Australian ads. The job ads were analyzed using Natural Language Processing models which are pre-trained on a language model containing 2.7 billion articles, followed by further training on labelled job ads and data on implicit skills. The final output of the models is a set of matched skills present in each job ad. In-demand skills are identified from those appearing in the highest percentage of ads, while trending skills are those with the fastest climbing trajectory of mentions in ads.

2026 skills:
To model the future state of work, Faethm's Future Capability Framework applies a prediction of automation and augmentation to work tasks to model changes to the future workforce and identify the work skills and abilities required in the future. The framework was developed by simulating the impact of emerging technology on work tasks up to 15 years in the future, then identifying all attributes (skills, knowledge and personal behaviors) which will remain important in the future of work. The future capabilities were derived by grouping the future-essential work attributes into relevant human and work capabilities drawn from evidence-based research. Finally, to determine future capability maturity a standardized levelling of capability for all occupations was determined, from which was extrapolated the future development need for individual occupations. The level of maturity for each occupation, now and in the future, was then used in conjunction with the best available workforce data for the countries analyzed to produce a whole country view.

• Achievement Focus: The ability to take on responsibilities and challenges with little or no supervision, develop one's own way of doing things, and depend on oneself to get things done. 
• Collaboration: The ability to develop constructive and cooperative working relationships with others.
• Communication: The ability to express thoughts and ideas clearly, and to listen to, understand, and respond to others' ideas
• Cultural and Social Intelligence: Have awareness and understanding of other's reactions.
• Customer Focus: Actively look for ways to assist customers and clients.
• Customer Service: The provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase. Leadership: The ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations 
• Personal Learning: The ability to acquire knowledge or skills through one's study or experience.
• Problem Solving: Using generic or ad-hoc methods in an orderly manner to find solutions to difficulties.

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to add life to a lifetime of learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That's why our c.20,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world's leading learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. Visit us pearsonplc.com. 

SOURCE Pearson