Millennials are up-skilling! Why is X-gen still hesitant?

India’s total IT workforce spans approximately to 30 lakh with mid-level managers amounting to 15% at tier-1 companies. Recent studies state that cutting of employees in the top-tier companies has augmented due to the lack of the desired skill-set among the experienced employees. The Simplilearn Customer Insight Survey recently reported that a negligible percentage of IT workers in the age brackets 30–55 received an increment in 2017 indicating the gap between industry requirements and the employee’s lack of new-age skills.

On the other hand, Millennials are consistently up-skilling to stay relevant and employable. In Hay’s survey, it was found that 5% said “upskilling leads to a salary hike while 54% believed it will bring financial benefits on a long-term basis,” whereas only 56% of Gen X and 40% of Baby Boomers were open for a transition and career-shifts.

Regardless of the statistics, it is in the need of the hour to take a personal initiative for a career-shift to stay relevant in the rapid workspace developments. Organizations developed a keen interest in training facilities and building in-house talent rather than external hiring. Given the increasing importance given for the demonstrable new-age skills, the mid-level managers are threatened with their job security. Leveraging past experiences to get to a new place by reskilling in your career can open up wide avenues.

A Harvard Business School professor Howard H. Stevenson indicated that “There’s a difference between 20 years of experience, and one year of experience 20 times,” and further added, “People do the same thing and they don’t grow. They don’t face new challenges.”