‘Learning new ways of working in the current climate or being open to reskilling and upskilling opportunities will also ensure that professionals continue to gain transferable skills that might be useful for the future, ’ said Asia Pacific Talent and Learning Solutions vice president Feon Ang.
Across the globe including Malaysia, we’re seeing unprecedented changes in the career landscape, as a result of the global pandemic. Organisations in the harder hit sectors have frozen hiring and even had to lay off some of their employees.
While the recovery movement control order is easing restrictions, many Malaysians are still trying to transition to the new normal. What we are seeing in Malaysia is reflective of many other countries around the world.
Malaysians looking for opportunities to gain new skills
Amidst all this, we have seen a global shift in the way professionals and businesses have learnt to deal with this new reality. Many are starting to pay more attention to the importance of continuous learning.
- For professionals who are struggling to cope with working remotely, this means learning new ways to cope with stress (home and work) or picking up the skills needed to remotely manage a team.
- For jobseekers, it means learning entirely new skills in the face of a tough job market, or even improving the skills they currently possess.
For small to medium businesses, this may mean learning how to maintain client relationships remotely, or understanding how to protect their finances in challenging times.
Free courses for Malaysians to upskill for in-demand jobs
LinkedIn has made several resources free to help professionals cope with the uncertainty and challenges arising from the global pandemic.
For job seekers in particular, LinkedIn offers free online courses that aim to help them learn relevant skills for jobs in-demand. These 10 jobs are in-demand in today’s economy and are well-positioned to continue to grow in the future. They were identified as having the greatest number of job openings, have had steady growth over the past four years, pay a livable wage, and require skills that can be learned online.
“Regardless of where you are at in your career, it is worth picking up new skills, or honing your current ones, during this time.
“In addition, soft skills remain relevant across a wide range of jobs. Creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, emotional intelligence rank as the top five soft skills in 2020, ” said Asia Pacific Talent and Learning Solutions vice president Feon Ang.
“Learning new ways of working in the current climate or being open to reskilling and upskilling opportunities will also ensure that professionals continue to gain transferable skills that might be useful for the future.
“For example, today, remote working is increasingly an expectation in a multigenerational workforce. A global survey showed that 45% of senior leaders say they’re considering a more permanent shift to virtual events or conferences, and 44% say they’re evaluating more permanent remote work policies.
“This may indicate that it is here to stay.”
In addition, LinkedIn will launch the following features on its platform to help job seekers.
#OpenToWork - Job seekers can now indicate to employers and their network that they are ‘Open To Work’ by adding a specific photo frame to their online profile photo.
Offer help: It is now easier for LinkedIn members to share in a simple post that they are willing to offer a helping hand — by connecting people, reviewing resumes, or providing general job-seeking guidance — to others in their network.
Interview preparation: To help job seekers get through the interview phase, LinkedIn is offering free interview prep tools, including a newly launched feature leveraging Microsoft-AI for real-time feedback on answers.
One Malaysian company providing skilling opportunities for its employees is Eco World Development Group, a public listed Malaysian company involved mainly in property development.
“EcoWorld always believes that continuous learning and improvement is one of the key factors to raise the bar of excellence and achieve our vision of creating tomorrow and beyond, ” said Eco World Development Group Berhad (EcoWorld Malaysia) senior training specialist Desmond Soh.
“Digital learning is no longer a ‘nice to have’ as we embrace the new normal. We believe that enhancing and enriching the learning experience through a holistic learning approach is especially critical during these changing times to keep our team members engaged and motivated to learn.
“Learning anytime and anywhere is exactly what we need to upskill and reskill ourselves to stay afloat in a new way of doing business. We use LinkedIn learning for its bite-size learning videos which come in very handy and helpful in meeting the needs of our modern learners," he said.
For more information on LinkedIn’s free online courses, click here.
