These roles typically exist in fields like cyber security, data analytics and digital marketing, however despite the growing demand for new collar talent, many organisations struggle to find individuals to fill these roles.
In the US, the need for new collar workers even prompted the US Congress to draft legislation to support and provide tax credits for education and training in areas like cyber security. While the bill died in congress, it continues to generate significant attention across the country – and around the world.
What’s needed to address this growing need for workers with new collar skills, is a sector-wide shift towards a skills-first hiring model, where individuals are matched to roles based on their capabilities, rather than their university or past work credentials.
At WithYouWithMe (WYWM), we saw this shift coming and set to work helping individuals develop in-demand skills to fill the critical workforce gaps currently being faced by organisations.
In particular, WYWM seeks to develop skills amongst individuals in traditionally overlooked and underserved areas of society including veterans, neurodivergent, Indigenous peoples, refugees, women, youth and military spouses, many of whom lack a university education or the 'right’ previous job titles. What they do have – in droves – is transferrable skills and a drive and willingness to learn new ones.
WYWM's proprietary platform, Potential helps these individuals identify their natural aptitude and existing capabilities, matches them with in-demand roles that require new collar skills and provides them with free, accredited digital training.
The goal of Potential is to create a more inclusive labour market by helping people from marginalised backgrounds find meaningful employment. This not only benefits the individuals and their families, but also helps to address gaps in the new collar workforces of governments and enterprises that partner with us.
A shift in focus to skills-led hiring over traditional credentials can expand available talent pools by 10x according to a study recently conducted by LinkedIn.
And the benefits don’t stop there...
By democratising access to opportunity, organisations see a diverse range of individuals join their ranks, people whose backgrounds enable diversity of thought and more creative problem-solving.
In a world characterised by near constant technological change, the injection of new talent helps collectively build the digital workforces we all need for the future.
This focus on skills-first doesn’t only apply to external talent pools, but also those within existing workforces. Potential can be used to assess individuals who are already part of your team and identify those with a propensity to succeed in new collar roles. The reskilling and redeployment of existing talent into high demand areas means a more mobile workforce and one that can grow with your organisation.
