Towards Bridging Skill Gaps for the Future Industrial Workforce

Licentiate thesis, 2023

Industry faces a multitude of disrupting economic, social, and environmental challenges. To overcome those, a skilled workforce is key. The aim of this thesis is to define, measure, and bridge the skill gaps of industry professionals who primarily have engineering backgrounds. In short, the research carried out and summarized in this thesis contributed to understanding the problem of skill gaps. The “skill gap” was generically defined by synthesizing definitions from the literature. Approaches to measuring skill gaps were compiled. Challenges and success factors when bridging skill gaps were found and potential solutions to bridge those challenges were identified. Those challenges are connected to motivation, managing change, identifying skill gaps, and tailor learning for everyone. The research resulted in a clear definition of skill gaps in an industrial context, a summary of approaches that have been used to measure skill gaps and key topics for employers, employees, and education providers to address when bridging skill gaps. However, the mission isn’t completed until the vision of having the right skills with the right person at the right time is fulfilled. So far, an understanding of the problem and potential actions to bridge skill gaps have been achieved. It remains to implement and test solutions to bridge the skill gap to be able to roll out an impactful solution.