Upskilling for Advanced Digitalization: A Scoping Review

Review article, 2026

In a rapidly transforming technological landscape, higher education institutions struggle to meet the demands of industry in providing timely and appropriate upskilling and reskilling opportunities for the workforce. Under the umbrella of “advanced digitalisation”, a term prominent in European discourse, covering a wide range of new digital technologies within the Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0 paradigms in manufacturing, ICT and engineering, we use scoping review methods to explore the unique challenges and interventions in this area, highlighting potentials for further research. Our scoping review examines 81 peer reviewed Scopus-indexed papers, outlining the current global research on the challenges and interventions in upskilling the workforce for advanced digitalisation. Our results show that research in this area is most prevalent in Europe, North America, and Asia and is most frequently done within the manufacturing and ICT sectors. Due to the fast pace of advanced digitalisation, close collaboration between education providers and industry is required to develop relevant and appropriate upskilling opportunities. We underline the importance of developing strategic management and change management knowledge alongside technology skills. We also highlight the importance of inter- and trans- disciplinary knowledge development. While determining skill needs has attracted substantial research focus, businesses may struggle with developing strategic upskilling plans despite being aware of their skills needs. We conclude that interventions that foster situated engagement and hands-on experience are vital for the future of upskilling.