Blue Eskimo outlines ‘past, present, future’ of learning skills, at Learning Technologies
Statistics from the past, combined with unique experience of the present and insights for the future underpin an informative session to be hosted by Blue Eskimo, leading recruitment provider to the learning sector.
In the session, at Learning Technologies 2017, directors from Blue Eskimo will outline the primary ways in which skills in the learning sector are changing – and how learning professionals should respond rapidly or risk being left behind. The session will also cover key results from Blue Eskimo’s annual work and salary survey, which is published this month.
Entitled ‘skills, salaries and sentiments in L&D’, the session combines the unique data gathered during Blue Eskimo’s annual survey with its extensive experience of skills in the learning sector.
“We’re opening the session with the results of our annual survey,” says Blue Eskimo director Nick Jones. “Pay and benefits are important topics for employers and employees alike. But our survey digs deeper than that – into how happy people are at work, whether they work too many unpaid hours and if they’re thinking of moving jobs.” This year’s survey is the company’s ninth – Blue Eskimo started the survey back in 2008.
The results of the survey lead into the key part of the session: how skills are changing in learning and development; how the sector has evolved over time and, perhaps of most interest, the skills most in demand – or for which demand is building. “This knowledge comes from our unique position in the sector,” says Jones. “We were the first company in the UK to specialise in learning recruitment and it remains our sole focus. We almost certainly engage with more employers, candidates and employees in the sector than any other company.”
Jones says that Blue Eskimo has, over the last decade, witnessed significant shifts in the skills needed by learning professionals. He also believes that bigger changes are to come. “Substantial skills changes are coming to all sectors,” says Jones. “The World Economic Forum says that around a third of people aren’t equipped for changes expected in the next five years – and the learning sector is no exception.”
The session is intended to help companies and learning professionals keep skills strategies ahead of the game. “There are lots of opportunities for learning professionals,” says Jones, “but there are numerous pitfalls too. Our session aims to cover both. Anyone serious about their career really should be there.”
The session runs at the Learning Technologies conference, at 12:20pm on 1 Feb 2017. Blue Eskimo is also exhibiting at Learning Technologies, on stand M13.