By Leah Belsky, Chief Enterprise Officer
Skills limitations around high-demand technologies such as machine learning, AI and cloud computing are causing the deceleration of business transformation in many companies. Recent McKinsey data shows that 42% of companies have stuck with the status quo for their tech strategy because it is too difficult to source the talent required for crucial technology transformation efforts. If businesses can’t find the talent they need, they must develop the talent internally through upskilling. This requires an effective way to assess and understand the skill gaps of their employees.
Today, Coursera for Business is excited to announce the expansion of LevelSets, including 39 new assessments for technology, finance and marketing skills. For employees, LevelSets allows employees to quickly determine their proficiency in key skills and identify areas to focus on moving forward. For companies, these 15-minute assessments give organizations greater visibility and insights into employee skills and the skill gaps that exist. This in-depth view of workforce skills enables companies to execute more impactful talent management strategies, helping to accelerate business transformation efforts.
The initial LevelSets offering featured more than 20 data and analytics-focused skills assessments. With the expansion to technology, finance, and marketing skills, LevelSets is the only solution that provides assessments across all of these critical domains. Now offering more than 60 total assessments, LevelSets allows employees to test proficiency in a range of high-demand skills including:
- Technology – computer programming, dev ops, software engineering, network security, mobile application development.
- Data and Analytics – data analysis, data management, cloud computing, machine learning, and Python.
- Finance – accounting, statistics, business analysis, investment management, and risk management.
- Marketing – advertising, brand management, project management, research and design, and web development.
Not only are LevelSets providing companies with greater visibility into workforce skills, but they’re also encouraging employees to learn. Recent data shows learners that took LevelSets are highlighly motivated to develop new skills, completing 87% more courses than learners that did not take an assessment. Providing employees with access to these assessments can help businesses organically drive an increase in upskilling throughout the organization.
Customers such as Procter and Gamble, WPP, Societe Generale Group, and Ingka Group have adopted LevelSets to more effectively measure the skills of their workforce and to help learners develop high-demand digital skills faster.
“The LevelSets skills assessment capability has allowed me and my team of analytical chemists to rapidly and effectively learn new skills, especially in data science, a major focus area for us. LevelSets allow everyone to evaluate their current skill level, pick the courses that are right for them and quickly leverage these new skills to solve real business problems.”
–Jennifer Morgan, PhD, Group Scientist at Procter and Gamble
Coursera for Business now provides over 3,100 companies across the globe with role-based skills development featuring world-class content, hands-on learning, and the ability to track, measure, and benchmark skills through a single, unified platform. In addition to LevelSets, Coursera’s Skills Dashboard helps organizations visualize skills data in a variety of ways so businesses can better understand the skills that exist at every level within their organization. This tool provides a birds-eye view of skill mastery, showing how many people have mastered a specific skill and how many still have room to learn. With skills breakdowns by teams and individuals, organizations can also use these insights to quickly identify the best person to lead new initiatives that require specific skills.
In addition, recent platform innovations such as SkillSets are helping employees develop skills for specific jobs. These SkillSets are the building blocks for our portfolio of Academies. Using underlying skills data, these Academies offer a packaged learning experience based on the depth of skill needed for specific roles across an organization.
As the rate of innovation accelerates, the development of new skills will be imperative. We are honored to work with leading organizations around the world to provide businesses with deeper visibility into the skills of their workforce and to create development paths for employees that allow them to advance their career.
LevelSets are available today across Coursera’s Tech, Marketing, and Data & Analytics Academies.
