Bridging Skill Gaps – A Systematic Literature Review of Strategies for Industry

Abstract

Industries are facing extensive needs for both digital and green transitions. Adding to the challenges, environmental crises, a recent pandemic, and military conflicts are forming a “perfect storm”. Consequently, companies need to rapidly adapt to new requirements and create resilient, sustainable, and human-centric solutions, a combination often called industry 5.0. A highly skilled workforce is required, where “right-skilled” employees will drive successful technology adoption and business transformation. Unfortunately, many companies face skill gaps, causing a slowdown in productivity and sustainable development. Fully bridging the skills gaps is not achievable only through recruiting of young talent. Ongoing demographic changes are causing a decrease in the working population, making hiring harder and increasing industry competition for existing talent. Upskilling existing workforces is a natural solution to bridge the skill gaps. This paper presents the results from a systematic literature review conducted in January 2023 using the PRISMA method. The study included 40 articles and thematically analyzed solutions for bridging skill gaps. Identified solutions address employers, employees, education providers, students, job seekers, researchers, and policymakers. Results highlighted that collaboration between stakeholders potentially helps bridge skill gaps in industry. Employees requiring upskilling need to understand what skills are relevant, and how they can absorb state-of-the-art knowledge and learn new skills. Employers should support their employees, supply relevant resources, and define clear skill requirements. Education providers on the other hand, must adapt to changing industrial business needs and gradually adapt traditional curricula, in parallel with regular education. Academia and industry collaboration is vital. Thus, flexible and rapid training and re-training solutions and approaches are needed, not just on-off activities. The main contribution of this paper is to review actions that employers, employees, education providers, researchers, students, job seekers, and policymakers need to take to bridge skill gaps. This analysis can be used by industrial practitioners, policymakers, and education providers to work with strategies to bridge skill gaps in their business and in their work. The theoretical implication of this work is the acknowledgement of the existing skill gap and the synthesis of actions for stakeholders. The article can be used to set future research directions to get closer insights into the derived challenges and success factors when bridging skill gaps.