AbilityMap

Could Australia take a lesson from India? AI is changing the world, and placing an unexpected focus on human skills in the employability conversation, and this is starting to have implications for the education sector. Sharon Barnhardt, Director at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University shares her views in the article below. Barnhardt writes: “The India Skills Report (2024) reveals that only 51.25% of 18-29-year-olds across India are deemed employable. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report identifies creative problem-solving, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence as essential for technology, finance, marketing, and commerce jobs. “In this evolving landscape, the real game changer will be 'soft skills'. These uniquely human capabilities are irreplaceable by machines, making them the new foundation for employability in the 21st century. It is imperative to prioritise soft skills over traditional qualifications to meet the demands of the modern job market. Integrating soft skills into development programs, … is an educational enhancement and a critical strategy for economic empowerment in an AI-driven world.” This last point is particularly of interest and raises the question of how educational institutions can provide these development programs given the significant demands already placed on their finite resources. The answer lies further down the article – technology. Barnhardt continues, “The Nimaya Foundation recently launched a program for 1000 'Smart Naaris' in Uttar Pradesh, ... The initiative uses simulations, games, and learning-on-demand to create immersive learning environments that help young women develop the soft skills necessary for success in the modern workplace.” Virtual reality is also referenced as part of this strategy. The next step then becomes evaluating what soft skills industry partners need in their critical roles and skills in demand and aligning those with individuals who possess the relevant human skills to perform well in their environment. AbilityMap’s technology has been bridging this human skill ‘gap’ for our clients and the clients of our recruitment partners since 2017. If this gap exists in your organisation, we welcome the opportunity to share how our technology might help. #india #australia #softskills #technology #notcricket

Military Veterans transitioning into civilian work have long been misunderstood and in many cases undervalued by those doing the hiring and, in some cases, underestimated by Veterans themselves. Stewart Sharman, global head of ex-forces at FDM Group, a global business and technology consultancy, believes that “It’s important for both ex-service personnel and businesses to recognise both the hard and soft skills that the military equips people with, and how they can impact certain roles. Understanding that value, recognising aptitude and mapping out clear training pathways can support the transition from the armed forces to the workforce. The tech sector, in particular, stands out as a great option for ex-forces. Not only do the skills match well, but working in the tech sector can be hugely rewarding, being at the forefront of innovation across high-impact areas of the business world and wider society.” While this article refers to the UK, the same can be said for Australian Veterans. AbilityMap has partnered with Solve Transition which aims to “empower military veterans to seamlessly transition into dynamic cybersecurity careers”. By leveraging our research in cybersecurity and the AbilityMap capability evaluation technology, focusing on the human skills of individuals, it provides Veterans and civilian organisations with a common language when talking about skills. We are very proud and humbled to contribute to such a valuable program that provides a path into civilian workplaces in an area of high skill demand in this country. To find out more about Solve Transition head to their LinkedIn page, and to find out more about our research in the cybersecurity space, reach out to AbilityMap. #cybersecurity #veterans #thankyou #skills

Calling all candidates who have ever done an AbilityMap Imprint assessment. Have you ever considered a career in Data Science? It’s time to dust off your personal feedback report that highlights your top 8 capabilities and review what Laura Varley from Silicon Republic has to say. If it’s been a while, head over to our website to download your copy: https://lnkd.in/gCxiXdin. In addition to technical skills which can be learned, Laura says “while practical skills will always get you the interview and your foot in the door, soft skills are what keep you there. Strong ability in communication, organisation, critical thinking, adaptability and flexibility, are just some of the skills that can help a data scientist progress. Gone are the days in which tech employees are considered an isolated group who operate independently. Nowadays, data science requires a high degree of teamwork to collaborate on cross-functional projects, meaning soft skills that focus on networking, interpersonal skills and cognitive diversity are of great use.” If these soft skills are reflected in your top capabilities, you could be a perfect fit for a Data Scientist. If you already have some of the required technical skills, what are you waiting for? Share your AbilityMap Feedback Report alongside your CV and put your application ahead of the rest. #datascience #communication #teamwork

It's so good to see schools recognising the importance of soft skill development in students and fostering their career advice based on their personal strengths and interests. Maria Sarina, Coordinator of Counselling at Australian Christian College Marsden Park, says soft skills, such as problem-solving, communication and critical thinking are crucial for achieving success in the professional realm. Sarina said that as young people transition from school to the professional world, soft skills will be essential in driving their adaptability to varied and ever-changing work settings. This is reminiscent of one of AbilityMap's programs, Our Bright Future, which partnered local high schools with local businesses to pair students' strengths with career opportunities across multiple industries. Understanding their personal strengths and what options the students had upon leaving school was well-received by students, teachers and parents, and is a service many of us would have no doubt appreciated when we were at school. #futureskills #futureofwork #planningahead

Are you excited? We're excited. Our clients are excited! Yes, it's product release time! AbilityMap has been hard at work to bring our clients a product upgrade that improves the user experience and adds new features making managing candidates easier than ever before. As a stepping stone release to new reports available soon, we're proud to release the latest upgrade. What makes it even better is that 90% of the updates were based on client feedback - winner-winner. #geekingout #havingfun #loveourclients

Jonathan White, founder and director of Number Fifteen Recruitment has an interesting perspective on hiring people from outside your industry. While it may seem like a good idea to hire people with experience in your industry or with your competitors, it can backfire when the environment they previously worked in differs from yours. "What's increasingly crucial is the concept of fit – the impact of workplace culture on performance outweighs any specific skill set...After all, an 'industry expert' who doesn't fit with the team or environment is more likely to unsettle a business. Conversely, an individual with less experience but who seamlessly integrates into the team is more motivated to learn and contribute." With AbilityMap, hiring managers can go beyond experience and focus on the human skills that predict performance in a role when evaluating candidates. This concept is more aligned with skills-based hiring which is growing in popularity in the face of recurring and growing skills shortages. #environment #workplaceculture #diversity #softskills

AbilityMap would like to wish you a Diwali filled with peace, health, and happiness.

From teacher to cybersecurity professional - Sara Snell proves the power of transferrable skills. Sara went from being a school teacher to a state government cyber professional. "Cybersecurity requires critical thinking, attention to detail, problem-solving and communication skills to be effective". AbilityMap's latest research supports and expands upon this list of transferrable skills for effectiveness in cyber. Our insights have helped organisations identify employees most suited to a career in cyber and this is also having a positive impact for our military veterans transitioning into civilian work. Our findings will be released soon, but if you're interested in learning more, get in touch with us. #cybersecurity #transferrableskills #careertransition #womenincyber

Yesterday we shared a post highlighting that workforce diversity could be the key to offset the entrenched skill shortages in Australia. There is even reason to believe that it could set us on a path towards gender pay equity, according to some. As Greg Jericho writes, "Fortunately, the data reveals that a key solution to the skills shortage is one that delivers higher wages and also reduces the gender pay gap. There is strong evidence that when more men work in traditionally women-dominated jobs, the average pay goes up, and that when more women work in traditionally male-dominated jobs their average pay also rises." For lovers of a good chart, this article is for you. It's encouraging that the data supports accessing non-traditional talent pools to address skills shortages supporting the findings of AbilityMap's recent research that indicates Australia doesn't have a labour shortage issue, but a skill identification challenge. Perhaps a 3-year training program might not seem like such a long-term solution when compared with the recurring, entrenched shortages that have plagued some occupations for the best part of a decade. #skillshortages #cybersecurity #diversity

The annual occupational shortage list from Jobs and Skills Australia is out, and it's the jobs not in the list that's caught the headlines. The good news is that, for the most part, ICT jobs have dropped off the list, and for most states of Australia (sorry NSW and Victoria) cybersecurity professionals have also moved out of shortage. Although this is a welcome relief, these are not the key statistics grabbing headlines: It's the accompanying analysis of workforce diversity and prevalence of skills shortages that has tongues wagging. Workforces with a large gender imbalance (i.e. over 80% male or over 80% female) experience more shortages than those with a more balanced workforce. Similarly, occupations with higher proportions of older workers tend not to experience shortages to the same degree either. It makes sense. If the majority of your workforce comes from half of the population, your opportunity to find the people you need is reduced. The biggest barrier organisations face to balancing their workforce diversity is the time required to teach the technical skills required to transition into new occupations. Instead, organisations prefer to look to migration to solve their problem, a problem which JSA refers to as "entrenched shortage". What it highlights, though, is something that AbilityMap has been finding in its research, that Australia is facing a skills identification problem, not a skills shortage. There are workers out there who want to work, we just haven't identified who might be suited to transition careers - yet. #skillsidentification #cybersecurity #diversity