Discussions by Tito
There’s no doubt that Covid-19 has had an emormous impact on the world economy. The pandemic has also impacted greatly on our physical, emotional and mental state as we strive everyday to maintain social distancing and improve our immune system. Many employees have had to work from home embracing the use of advanced technologies, some have lost their jobs and have no guarantee of securing new jobs even when the pandemic is over. I have on many occasions while driving from Lekki to Ikeja noticed how many shops have remained closed. The pandemic has led many shops to a state of hibernation. This only tells us something, that there’s a dire need to reskill and upskill. Reskilling and upskilling simply means, employees and entrepreneurs may have to look at other arears of retraining themselves or improving on the existing skills that they possess in order to survive. Survival has become extremely imperative and to achieve this, there’s a need to redirect our thinking. Enrolling for a course may surely set you apart from everyone else. Never stop learning and improving on yourself.
Reskilling and upskilling is not only applicable to employees but also applicable to entrepreneurs. Reskilling and upskilling simply means that we are improving ourselves and in turn adding value to our businesses or organisations as it were.
For employees, reskilling and upskilling means reorientating ourselves and improving on existing skills in order to add value to our organisations. It’s no longer going to be business as usual. When the pandemic is over or even before it is over, many CEOs may need to have their employees take on more job responsibilities. The new skills we acquire now, may actually be the determing factor that will set us apart from our colleagues in the workplace. Therefore, we need to make ample use of our time to plan, set goals and retrain ourselves to take on challenges and most of all, to survive. We will all agree that the pandemic has caused a lot of adversities in our daily living but has also presented us with an opportunity to turn our pains into gains.
For entrepreneurs, reskilling and upskilling simply means, refocusing our business ideas in line with the unprecedented shift in consumer behaviour. The drastic shift in consumer demand across the globe has led to a strain in liquidity across economies. This calls for a total reorientation of business skills and ideas. What we are seeing now is how consumers are shifting from focusing on luxurious items to focusing on essentials and health, most importantly, the area of mental health . Many consumers have embraced online shopping as against physical shopping. Organisations are depending majorly on sophisticated technologies to hold meetings and carry out their operational activities, an example is the Zoom application.
Therefore, in the new normal, the challenges presented by the spread of the pandemic which led to the lockdown of economies across the globe will only provide opportunities for very few organisations that are well positioned.
