5 top skills (and courses) to future-proof your career
It’s no secret that AI is changing the way work gets done. As organizations assign more routine tasks to technology, they free workers to focus on more rewarding duties that require human intellect.
For example, over the next five years, 27% of system administrator tasks will be automated, according to Impact AI: 2024 Workforce Skills Forecast by ServiceNow and Pearson. As a result, system administrators will have an additional 14 hours per week to focus on higher-value tasks or reskill for new roles.
As this happens, the demand for tech workers will increase faster than positions can be filled, the research reveals—especially in emerging markets such as India, where 34 million additional workers will be needed in the next five years. The U.S. will need 1 million.
IDC confirms these findings, predicting that more than 90% of organizations globally will face an IT skills shortage by 2026 at a cost of US$5.5 trillion.1
Now is the time to prepare to fill these vital roles, and ServiceNow can help. Here are five top skills to future-proof your career, based on our research, along with courses through Now Learning that can help you develop these skills.
1. Collaboration
This is one skill technology can help with but never replace. Working with others requires human expertise. Given the hybrid work environment common to many organizations, excelling in collaboration can be a bit of a challenge.
ServiceNow’s free Build a community of change champions course can give you a jump-start on excelling in this critical area. In the 40-minute session, you’ll learn how to identify key stakeholders, ways to benefit from their expertise, and why including them can lead to success.
If you want to go a little deeper, our Taking the pain out of collaboration power skills course, in partnership with Udemy, may be for you. In 32 minutes, you’ll gain crucial insights into cross-team collaboration and frameworks and protocols to grow your collaboration skills.
2. Data and digital literacy
Digital literacy is imperative to succeed in the future. As more workplaces embrace digital transformation, understanding how to use data and digital tools will become even more essential.
Our free Anatomy of an application course can help prepare you to break down an application’s components to understand the features and functionality.
For a deeper dive, check out Udemy’s Design Thinking: The fundamentals course. Design Thinking is a method enterprises use to help create innovative products that solve real problems. Find out how the method is used, its stages, and how to apply it to understand and solve customers’ challenges.
3. Technology use, monitoring, and control
This skill is important for both tech and nontech roles as AI adoption ramps up. Knowing the basics of how to use technologies such as generative AI and low-code can be beneficial to any role.
Get an Introduction to data policies to discover how they work and how they can be used to enforce consistency in data. In the hourlong course, you’ll also learn when to use them.
You can go more in-depth on the subject in Udemy’s three-hour IT governance: A guide for IT professionals course, where the focus will be on decision-making. Effective decision-making is the key to good governance.
4. Leadership and social influence
The rise of AI and other emerging technologies has the potential to lead to more distributed teams. As this happens, the ability to work effectively with people across geographic locations will increase, requiring strong leadership.
Get a head start on this vital skill with Building relationships and the importance of emotional intelligence. In this podcast, Julie Bolstad, technical program manager for technology workflows at ServiceNow, provides a crash course in applying emotional intelligence to build relationships, based on her squiggly career.
Take those relationships to the next level with the help of Udemy. With more than four hours of material, Digital transformation: Leadership foundations provides insights to help you understand the various facets of digital transformation. In addition, it explores practical ways to grow your leadership skills.
5. Active learning and learning strategies
As technologies continue to evolve, having a knack for learning—and actively pursuing it—will be important to staying relevant and in demand.
We can help you RiseUp with ServiceNow to get skilled and advance your career. Find out how in Kickstart your RiseUp with ServiceNow journey.
No matter your career path, productivity will play an important role. Make sure you’re prepared with guidance from Udemy in Smart tips: Time management and productivity. Discover how to make sure you focus on the right things that help move you toward reaching your goals and realizing success.
1 IDC, IT Skills Shortage Expected to Impact Nine out of Ten Organizations by 2026 with a Cost of $5.5 Trillion in Delays, Quality Issues and Revenue Loss, According to IDC (doc #US52128824), May 14, 2024