Training to bridge the skills gap is growing ever more important. The types of training provided by staffing firms can range from online courses that offer an introduction to a skill to courses that aim to get workers ready to be placed. And there are the standalone organizations that offer skills training as well.

Take General Assembly, a reskilling and upskilling organization based in New York, where a beginner can train in an IT skill and be job-ready in about three months.

General Assembly, which was acquired by The Adecco Group in 2018, has two sides to its business — a B2C offering that provides training directly to consumers and an enterprise side that works with companies to upskill their workers.

“We’re seeing more and more organizations turning to reskilling and upskilling,” says Carly Weiss, enterprise sales director, North America, noting that General Assembly provided 33,000 hours of subsidized train in 2020 alone.

And then there’s the recruit-train-deploy model offered by Quintrix Solutions, a division of staffing firm Mindlance, which also aims to get workers job-ready with the right IT skills in three months for assignments at client firms.

Mindlance co-founder and Managing Director Vik Kalra says the recruit-train-deploy model can reduce risk for the client companies. The staffing firm does the heavy lifting of training and takes away risk of failure because workers are also screened during the training. In addition, clients still have the ability to interview candidates before training.

Quintrix training is all online coupled with interaction on weekends. A benefit of this is workers can keep their day jobs and train at night, Kalra says. It also enables Quintrix to bring in IT professionals who have day jobs to provide the training; the professionals are already working with the technology and have a deep understanding of how it works.

Recruit-train-deploy is also ideal for bringing in talent that is under the radar — those from historically excluded communities or others who face barriers to employment — but can still acquire the skills in order to be successful. Graduates from tier 1 universities are already being recruited by corporate America.

Identifying Recruits

One key to training program is also finding the right people who will be successful in the program.

“You’re looking for underlying skills, you’re looking for soft skills — grit is one that comes to mind,” says Dave McGonegal, VP, strategy, enablement and advisory, ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions. “People that have strong resilience — that have grit — to see things through. You’re trying to quantify those things in addition to technical aptitude.”

Per Scholas, a nonprofit that provides tuition-free technology training at 17 sites in the US, also has a vetting process for potential students to ensure they will be able to succeed, says Damien Howard, executive VP, social ventures.

“We’re making sure the program is right for the individual entering the door,” Howard says. Training can range from two- to three-week introductory courses to eight- to 16-weeks for fully immersive training. Courses were all done in-person prior to Covid-19. Since then, Per Scholas has transitioned 500 student and 200 staff members to remote work. The organization suspects a minimum of 40% of its classes will remain remote moving forward, Howard says.

When it comes to newly trained talent, Howard also has advice for firms:

  • Sell candidates on job meaningfulness. Discuss the importance of the job as well as be authentic and transparent about the challenges.
  • “Lose the one-size-fits-all pitch.” Be intentional and innovative and smart when it comes to recruiting, especially for diverse talent.
  • Focus on elevating career growth opportunities. You can explain what growth looks like and what the opportunities are for workers to build their careers.

The need for training to upskill workers will likely continue through the foreseeable future amid the constant changes in technology.

Shaun McAlmont, president, career learning, at education firm Stride Inc., notes the pandemic wiped out a lot of jobs that paid under $40,000 per year and the same thing happened during the 2008-2009 downturn as well. Training is needed at whatever stage in a career a worker may be in.

“It’s never too late to gain skills to improve your career position,” says McAlmont, who holds an educational doctorate, higher education management. However, traditional schools are not set up for returning adults.

Stride’s offerings for adults focus on tech and healthcare. Its adult training divisions include Galvanize, which offers coding and data science training; Tech Elevator, a coding boot camp; and MedCerts, which provides training and certification prep in healthcare fields.

A worker who joins a full-time training program at Stride’s subsidiaries Galvanize or Tech Elevator could land a new job in three to six months making $60,000 per year. Galvanize offers a higher level of tech training, workers in that program can earn $100,000 after they go through its six-month program.

Enterprise firms can put workers through Stride’s programs, though students can also go through the programs on their own.

Weighing the Expense

Training is an expense if a firm is providing it to workers, but some argue it’s a worthwhile investment given the scarcity of IT and other skills as well as the ability to bring in historically excluded workers.

ManpowerGroup’s McGonegal notes the length of time that roles remain open also has a cost in terms of companies being able to deliver product and create value for customers and shareholders.

“On the surface, training costs money, but when you dive deeper and do more detailed analysis, you can quickly come to a point where it works,” he says.