University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Skills Obsession
Podcast

Skills Obsession

What a Mindset of Enablement Actually Looks Like

Stacia Garr
The Skills Obsession, 2021
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8

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You will be intrinsically motivated to learn a new skill if it improves your employability or salary, explains Microsoft’s global general manager for talent and learning, Karen Kocher. In a wide-ranging conversation on RedThread Research’s podcast, Kocher identifies five essential hybrid skills to keep you employed in an uncertain job landscape. She also discusses the Microsoft Skills Initiative and offers insights into her company’s unique learning culture.

Summary

The Microsoft Skills Initiative aims to keep people employable.

In 2020, Microsoft launched the Microsoft Skills Initiative to provide 25 million people with the skills they need to stay employable. Although the initiative primarily targets company employees, it also works with governments to help employees keep up with new technology. People must know how to use new technologies for Microsoft to help governments and companies optimize performance.

To be employable, people need to demonstrate they can apply their skills.

Skills are capabilities a person can use in everyday work situations.

People demonstrate proficiency after gaining long-time experience using a skill successfully. What employers look for the most are not skills per se but proof that...

About the Podcast

Stacia Garr is co-founder and principal analyst at RedThread Research. Her guest Karen Kocher is global general manager of Talent and Learning Experiences and Workforce/Workplace of the Future at Microsoft. 

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