Micro-upskilling may just be the solution to address the widening skills gaps across the tech and creative sectors in the UK.

To address the widening skills gap, the Data and Marketing Association (DMA UK) has worked with 16 international brands, charities, SMEs and agencies to understand how micro-upskilling can better address the growing skills gap.

Following the critical report released by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee detailing the dangers to the creative sector due to the skills gap, new approaches were trailed to see how effective they were in upskilling.

Now, the DMA UK is calling on senior management teams across the UK to introduce continuous learning cultures within their organisation following their pilot in micro-upskilling.

The pilot found that micro-upskilling offers additional learner benefits compared to traditional training methods, but it must be spearheaded from the very tip to reach its full potential.

“Direction, support and structure are essential building blocks of a learning culture yet are also the main barriers to professional development,” said Rachel Aldighieri, MD of the DMA.

The DMA’s pilot served as an integral part of its wider campaign to move the marketing industry a step closer towards reducing industry-wide skills gaps and talent shortages – to fuel future growth in the UK’s digital economy through continuous staff development.

Micro-skilling essentially is training in bite-sized installements – participants committed as little as one hour a week to flexible e-learning and professional development.

Learners then took part in survey so the DMA could better understand the effect of the alternative learning approach.

Findings were largely positive, with 52% saying they felt more engaged with upskilling due to the micro-upskilling pilot.

46% also identified new skills they learned through the pilot programme they otherwise would not have been able to without the micro-skilling layout.

While only 36% said they found micro-upskilling better than previous learning experiences, 67% found the method made their organisation more engaged with their skills development.

“Our micro-upskilling pilot findings are really encouraging – demonstrating to businesses how they can develop these building blocks to supercharge skills acquisition in the short term, while instilling long-term learning habits across their organisation that benefits the employee and employer,” Aldighieri said.

Shifting the Culture of Learning 

90% of pilot participants said they would like to continue micro-upskilling with their organisations.

This success means a shift in the culture of learning is likley necessary to keep employees engaged in upskilling efforts to address the skills gap.

A key challenge among participants (60%) was finding the time to upskill, with 55% also saying they had too many competing priorities.

If companies are worried about the skills shortage as well as employee retention, making their priorities clear and enabling their workers to upskill will be vital.

Despite employees overwhelmingly wanting to continue micro-skilling, only 35% managed to do micro-upskilling ‘most weeks’ during the pilot, with 39% only able to do it ‘some weeks’.

26% sad they were unable to ‘do it very often.’

Aldighieri explains: “In the current economic climate, financial and time constraints mean that traditional training approaches are harder to implement, yet it is critical that our industry doesn’t neglect skills development and the growth of our teams. Micro-upskilling provides an effective and productive way of investing in our people and, in turn, plugging skills gaps to drive business growth.”

Committing to Continuous Learning 

63% of learners stated they would feel more confident and positive about their career if micro-upskilling was permanent at their organisation – 33% would be more likely to stay with them.

Aldighieri added: “The fact that the majority of participating talent mentioned that if micro-upskilling became permanent it would boost their career confidence as well as their organisational loyalty, suggests it has a huge role to play as an alternative learning method in our industry – supporting traditional approaches such as training days.”

The DMA has recognised micro-upskilling as a clearly important step in the right direction for facilitating meaningful change, so they will now expand their commitment to it.

“The DMA will now work with our wider community to introduce micro-upskilling as a key element of membership. A pledge will be introduced requesting member organisations to commit an hour a week to all staff’s L&D in our new People Pillar of the DMA Code. We aim to make continuous learning synonymous with the DMA community, so our marketers are regularly enhancing their skillsets and helping to drive responsible business growth,” concluded Aldighieri.