Navigating Change

With an L&D Strategy

That Works
Table of contents

Introduction 3 Identify 5 Conclusion 16

The opportunity for talent development today 4 Account for your skills needs 6 Drive business outcomes 17

Assess 7 Endnotes 18
Evaluate your existing skill capabilities 8

Deploy 9
Offer content for every kind of learner 10
Essential skills map for AI 11

Benchmark 12
Demonstrate the value of your L&D strategy 13

Match 14
Bridge skill gaps with existing talent 15

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 2

Introduction
The opportunity for talent Designing a learning program for a successful talent strategy

development today Leaders must build programs that set their organization up for success from start to finish, addressing any
lingering reservations on behalf of employees or senior stakeholders. The best way to do this is to ensure a
clear, end-to-end approach to skills development. Here’s what this could look like in action.

The way we work has changed since the pandemic. While employees
The first step to building a successful L&D program should be
return to hybrid workplaces or continue doing business remotely, Identify identifying what skills you need in your organization and how you
economic shifts1 and new technologies like generative AI2 continue to want to secure them.
shape the job market. Experts predict that more than 60% of workers
will require retraining between now and 2027, but only half currently Once you know what skills you want to target, finding ways to
Assess calibrate content recommendations to your employees’ skill
have access to training opportunities3.
levels enables you to reach learning goals fast.

Recruiting talent isn’t easy and it’s expensive.4 That’s why learning
and development (L&D) is critical, especially during seasons of Every employee has different learning needs, but you can address
Deploy
change. As leaders in L&D, now is a unique opportunity to transform them by mixing different content types.
talent and achieve lasting impact for your organizations.
Tracking the ROI of learning by measuring actual skills developed
To do this, you need a learning strategy that works. At Coursera, we Benchmark and informing spend for future upskilling is a must-have to
partner with more than 3,500 businesses globally to transform talent evaluate the success of your program.
with access to world-class learning. Drawing upon these experiences,
we’ve found that an effective learning strategy follows five simple Upskilling is an ongoing process. By continuing to match the right
Match individuals with your organization’s needs through a methodical,
steps: identify skills, assess skills, deploy learning, measure progress,
visual, and data-supported approach, a higher-performing
and match talent. By following this strategy, we can develop business and workforce is within reach.
essential skills, nurture talent, and use resources effectively.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 4

Identify
Account for your skills needs Global
Fastest Growing Job Skills for 2023

Rank Skill name Rank Change*

As a learning leader, it’s crucial to identify your organization’s skill needs. It is key to 1 Storytelling +49
Human Skills
driving positive learning and organizational outcomes. In fact, organizations that
2 Change Management +45
prioritize skills are 107% more likely to place talent effectively and 98% more likely
to retain high-performers.5 3 Organizational Development +23
Data-driven validation is essential to identify skill priorities. For instance, Coursera 4 Influencing +20
research found that digital skills are the fastest growing in 2023. Management skills 5 People Management +19
to guide teams through change are also among the fastest growing.6
By leveraging data-driven insights like these, learning leaders will be better Digital Skills 1 Scrum Software Development +86
equipped to build a successful learning strategy.
2 Data Visualization +75
3 Customer Success Tools +67
4 E-Commerce +63
5 CRM Software +61

*Number of ranks this skill moved up from 2021 to 2022, based on the skill’s share of enterprise learner enrollments

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 6

Assess
Evaluate your existing skill capabilities

To identify the skill needs of your employees, it’s also important to evaluate
their current skill level. This helps you guide them to learning content that
suits their proficiency and enables them to achieve their learning goals.
Coursera offers short assessments called LevelSets that take only 15-20
minutes to complete. They help learners choose suitable content for their
current skill level. Completing LevelSets generates data on your organization’s
skill profile, which can help you identify areas for improvement, measure the
effectiveness of learning programs, and guide future talent investments.
Once again, skill insights can help you make informed decisions about your
learning strategy.

Did you know?

Comparing learners in your industry against their peers can also help you identify
skill needs. Get specific industry insights using Coursera’s Skills Benchmarking Tool.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 8

Deploy
Offer content for every
kind of learner Content types for continuous learning

Encourage continuous learning with 5-10 minute videos and short

Short-form lessons. Each of over 200,000 Clips on Coursera leads to a related
course for further skill development.
Successful L&D programs are job-relevant,
engaging, and measurable. That’s why it’s critical
Task- or tool-based learning and tutorials, such as Guided Projects, build
that your learning content feels cohesive and builds Hands-on learning job-relevant skills in under 2 hours, and feature step-by-step instruction from
upon each preceding piece in your employees’ skill industry experts.

development journey.
Courses help employees strengthen the critical skills your business needs,
For example, PwC used modular learning programs Courses such as technology, data, and leadership. On Coursera, they can learn from
top instructors with graded assignments, videos, and discussion forums.
like SkillSets, Guided Projects, and Clips to increase
employee engagement by 20%, improve productivity
Your team members can complete a series of courses and projects to gain in-
through strategic upskilling, and support their goal to Specializations depth knowledge of a subject, such as machine learning, project management,
increase their revenue 2.5x by 2027. or data analytics.

To achieve similar success in your L&D program, Employees can earn career credentials, like Professional Certificates from industry
your material must be well-structured, adaptable, Professional Certificates leaders, to prepare for digital roles. This can also help employees whose roles are
and guide users toward skill mastery. This leads to being impacted by emerging technologies gain new skills your business needs.

deeper, more meaningful learning experiences that

positively impact your employees’ careers. With an online degree program, your employees can earn their Bachelor’s
Degrees
or Master’s degree online for a fraction of the cost of in-person learning.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 10

Essential skills
map for AI Examples:

Clips
Teach a lesson • Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) by IBM (Beginner)
5-10 minutes • Computer Vision with IBM Watson Visual Recognition by IBM (Advanced)
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)
tools like ChatGPT are becoming
Teach a tool • NEW ChatGPT for Beginners: SciFi Writing with Dall-e (Beginner)
essential in business. According to Guided Projects
< 2 hours • NEW Machine Learning with ChatGPT: Image Classification Model (Intermediate)
Deloitte, 94% of tech leaders see AI as
critical to future success.7 Empower
your employees with AI skills for Teach a topic • AI For Everyone by DeepLearning.AI (Beginner)
Courses
organizational mastery with a skills 4-6 weeks • Artificial Intelligence Ethics in Action by LearnQuest (Intermediate)
map. Here’s how your employees can
gain AI skills on Coursera: • NEW AI for Good from DeepLearning.AI (Beginner)
Advance a skill
Specializations • Creativity and AI by Parsons School of Design, The New School (Intermediate)
3-6 months
• IBM AI Enterprise Workflow (Advanced)

Get them job ready • Applied AI Professional Certificate by IBM (Beginner)

Certificates
3-12 months • Certified Artificial Intelligence Practitioner Professional Certificate by CertNexus (Intermediate)

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 11

Benchmark
Demonstrate the value of your L&D strategy

An effective learning strategy involves measuring learning activity and

outcomes to identify areas of success and improvement.

Insights help you strengthen and adapt your strategy. Real-time metrics
give you even more advantages, such as the ability to:

• See how fast your learners are mastering the skills they need with
real-time insights
• Identify skill areas that need additional growth and investment
• Determine what is and isn’t driving learning engagement
• Optimize the performance of your learning programs
• Identify trends and patterns, and make program adjustments accordingly

Skill Dashboards from Coursera can help you make data-driven decisions
about what’s next for your programs. With a central view and real-time
metrics, you can track engagement, activity, and progress. You can see
the growth and velocity of your entire workforce, as well as individual
learners, for 117+ skills in technology, data, leadership, and more.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 13

Match
Bridge skill gaps with existing talent How Coursera helps drive talent matching

LevelSets
According to McKinsey, a quarter of workers recognized the need to build AI skills and Evaluate skills proficiency, with bite-size assessments quickly revealing
an individual’s proficiency in specific tech skills and providing content
may need to find new occupations by launched three Coursera Academies to recommendations to maximize learning. With these course evaluations,
2030.8 Reskilling helps companies adapt, develop data and analytics, cloud and IT, businesses can target upskilling, and employees can focus on leveling up
improve productivity, and prepare teams and software engineering skills. their existing skills.

to stay competitive. It also leads to a more

This initiative was well-received, with SkillSets
motivated workforce and has positive social
over 1,600 assessments completed Offer job-based learning programs that target skill proficiencies like
and economic impacts.
and courses receiving a 4.79 out of 5 databases, machine learning, web development, and many more. These help
learning leaders rapidly reskill or upskill employees for in-demand roles.
A successful learning program will match satisfaction rating. L&D leaders at Prosus
skill needs to existing talent. However, doing used these targeted skill pathways
so at scale can be challenging. Prosus, one to increase employee engagement, Academies
Feature the most relevant SkillSets to make deploying a job-based learning
of the world’s largest technology investors, resulting in faster project completion. program even simpler. The Tech Academy, for example, provides a complete
skill development solution for technology teams, with beginner, intermediate,
and advanced learning options across more than 80 different SkillSets.
“Coursera Academies maps these optimal paths because the program uses data to
understand who the learners are. With Coursera, our learners receive an abundance
of AI-related material that is expertly written. Certain disciplines, like data science, Skills Dashboards
Provide insights into how a learning program is performing by tracking both
require the material to feel academic in quality while being interesting and accessible.” technical and human skills — including business, data, and technology —
across four proficiency levels. Learning leaders can quickly identify where
Bartosz Zieleznik, individuals excel or struggle and match them with additional relevant learning.

Head of Online Learning at Prosus

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 15

Conclusion
Drive business outcomes

At the end of the day, strategic learning programs lead to better outcomes for your
employees and your company. A learning program that works will enhance employee
performance, create a healthier workplace culture, and address skill needs with
greater cost efficiency than external hiring. According to SHRM, 76% of surveyed
employees cite L&D as a reason they stayed with their current company.

The business case is clear for building a learning strategy that works.

Set your learning strategy with Coursera’s talent

development solution.

Contact us to learn more.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 17

Endnotes

1. Forbes, What to Expect from the Job Market in 2023, Jan 2023.
2. Wall Street Journal, Generative AI is Already Changing White Collar Work as We Know It, March 2023.
3. World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2023, May 2023.
4. SHRM, The Real Costs of Recruitment, 2022.
5. Deloitte, The skills-based organization: A new operating model for work and the workforce, Sept 2022.
6. Coursera, The Job Skills of 2023, Dec 2022.
7. Deloitte, State of AI in the Enterprise, 2022.
8. McKinsey, The future of work after COVID-19, Feb 2021.

Navigating Change With an L&D Strategy That Works 18