What is IT Upskilling?

Imagine this scenario: Your network is facing yet another technical challenge when one of your employees pipes up with, "I just took a course on this last week; I can handle it." The crisis is averted and business continues as usual. 

That's the power of IT upskilling. For individuals, upskilling is about improving job prospects and skills. For organizations, upskilling is the most effective way to attract and keep highly skilled IT professionals, improve company performance, and drive innovation. 

Whether you’re exploring cloud computing, cybersecurity, or data analytics, upskilling ensures your team stays ahead of the curve and is ready to tackle whatever comes next. Let’s explore how IT upskilling can transform your team and keep your organization competitive. 

What is IT Upskilling?

IT upskilling is the practice of expanding your IT skills by learning new or updated skills to keep pace with the ever-evolving tech landscape. It's all about continuous learning. As new programming languages, best practices, and platforms become popular, IT professionals need to stay on top. 

Unlike reskilling, which is more about refining current skills, upskilling involves learning new skills to help IT professionals transition into a different role or improve their job prospects. For example, a system administrator learning cybersecurity skills to become a cybersecurity analyst or a marketing professional acquiring coding knowledge to pivot into software development.

What are the Benefits of IT Upskilling?

Upskilling is essential in IT—for both IT professionals and the companies they work for. The fast-paced evolution in the tech world means things are constantly changing. To stay relevant—and keep your company running smoothly—upskilling is essential. 

Here are a few more direct benefits of upskilling: 

• Enhance Employee Productivity and Performance: Upskilling enables employees to work more efficiently with the latest tools and technologies, directly reducing errors and improving the overall quality of their work.

• Support Career Growth and Job Satisfaction: Offering opportunities for IT professionals to advance their careers improves job satisfaction and increases employee retention by showing a commitment to their development.

• Address Skills Gaps and Future-Proof the Workforce: IT upskilling helps organizations close skills gaps in areas like AI and data science, ensuring their workforce remains competitive and prepared for future challenges.

• Boost Organizational Agility: Upskilled teams are better equipped to respond quickly to technological shifts and changing business needs. Empowering IT professionals with cutting-edge skills helps drive innovation.

What Areas Should You Focus on for IT Upskilling?

The tech landscape is ever-evolving, updating, and changing. So, prioritizing the right areas for IT upskilling can make or break your organization or your career. Here are key areas to focus on (and why they’re worth your time): 

Cloud Computing

Cloud infrastructure and services are the backbone of the modern IT environment. Whether it powers your favorite streaming service or enables global collaboration tools, the cloud is literally everywhere. Upskilling on platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud is an ideal way to boost your resume and make yourself indispensable to organizations transitioning to or expanding their cloud capabilities. 

Cybersecurity

With cyber threats lurking around every corner (and email inbox), specialized security knowledge is no longer optional—it's essential. From threat detection to incident response, building cybersecurity skills helps you become the digital bodyguard in your organization. Bonus points if you can explain ransomware to your relatives without them thinking it’s a plotline from a sci-fi movie. 

Data Analytics and AI

The buzz around data-driven decision-making and artificial intelligence isn’t just hype—companies are heavily investing in data insights and automation to gain a competitive edge. Learning data analysis, machine learning, and AI tool sets can position you as a trailblazer in the future of IT—and help you grow your IT career. 

DevOps and Agile Practices

Remember the days of endless development cycles and those “I can't replicate that issue” responses? DevOps and Agile put an end to that. Upskilling in tools like Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and Agile frameworks ensures you’re driving faster, more reliable releases. Plus, who doesn’t want to be the hero who eliminates production downtime?

Software Development and Coding

Mastering programming languages like Python, JavaScript, or Go, along with popular frameworks, keeps you relevant and versatile in the IT world. Whether you’re building apps, automating tasks, or debugging someone else’s spaghetti code, coding skills are a must-have.

Focusing on these areas not only future-proofs your career but also turns you into a Swiss Army knife of IT expertise—ready to tackle whatever challenge comes your way (or at least explain it to everyone else).

Tips for Implementing IT Upskilling

If you're serious about upskilling your own skills or driving change at your organization, creating an effective plan is crucial. Here's how to implement an IT upskilling program without the chaos. 

Create a Learning Culture

A learning culture isn’t just about encouraging employees to read one technical blog a month—it’s about making professional development part of your company’s DNA. Provide resources like training platforms, workshops, and mentoring programs to empower your team to grow. When employees feel like they have the tools (and permission) to learn, they’re far more likely to stay motivated. An added bonus: A culture of learning makes your organization more attractive to top talent.

Use Online Learning Platforms like CBT Nuggets

Online training platforms like CBT Nuggets offer a veritable buffet of IT training courses for every skill level and nearly every discipline. Content is delivered in a convenient, self-paced online format, so students can learn at their own pace. Plus, there is no need to pay for travel or navigate awkward conference room training sessions. Whether your team needs to master entry-level networking or take a deep dive into Kubernetes, there’s a course for that.

Get a free week of training or talk to sales about onboarding your team to CBT Nuggets!

Offer Certifications and Advanced Training

Certifications validate employees’ expertise in areas like cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data science. Partner with vendors or training providers to offer your team access to industry-recognized certifications. This will not only boost individual careers, but also elevate your team’s collective knowledge.

Develop Internal Training Programs

Another approach to upskilling is to create custom training programs that focus on the tools and practices your team uses daily. Whether that means recording videos or hosting in-person training sessions depends on what works best for your organization. Get your senior IT team involved in mentoring or leading knowledge-sharing initiatives—this builds camaraderie and passes valuable institutional knowledge to the next generation of employees.

Track Progress and Success

What good is an upskilling program if you can’t tell whether it’s working? Use performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of your upskilling program. Monitor employee progress, track certifications earned, and review how the training impacts overall productivity and project outcomes. 

This will help you adjust your programs as needed to ensure continuous improvement. After all, IT is a marathon, not a sprint, and tracking progress helps ensure everyone is moving in the right direction.

Upskilling in IT

Upskilling in IT isn't just about individual IT professionals padding their resumes. It's about finding the best way to build a happy, productive, and future-proofed workforce that drives innovation in the long run. 

A learning management system (LMS) is one of the most effective ways to build a culture of learning. With CBT Nugget's LMS integration, you can distribute customized training schedules, track courses, and help your team achieve its full potential. Learn more about our LMS solution.