Professional network LinkedIn launched the Future of Skills 2019 Report, which identifies the top 10 rising skills of LinkedIn members in the region over the last five years, by looking at the skills listed by members with the highest month-on-month growth. As part of the report, LinkedIn also conducted a deep dive into employees’ readiness to tackle the future workforce and how L&D professionals are responding to the skills transformation.

As part of the Future of Skills 2019 Report, LinkedIn conducted research that surveyed 4136 employees and 844 L&D professionals across Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore to explore attitudes towards L&D, the current state of learning in the workplace, skills requirements and future approaches to L&D. The research was commissioned by LinkedIn and conducted by ACA Research between 13 March and 15 April 2019.

To determine the Top Rising Skills, LinkedIn analyzed skills data listed by members on its platform in the last 5 years and identified those skills that have experienced exponential growth (increase in number at a constantly growing rate month-on-month). There is three times more demand for professionals with rising skills as compared to other professionals.

As traditional industries adopt new technology and ride the wave of digital transformation to improve operations and introduce new products and services, it is unsurprising that the top rising skills in APAC are dominated by technology-related skills.

These rising skills can be used as a signpost for organizations to determine how the industry is innovating and transforming, and help their employees cope with the pace of change through upskilling.

The report also studied the top three rising skill categories in each country that are more prevalent compared to the APAC average. These are the skills that have higher prominence in the Philippines compared to the region:

“As digitalization continues to transform the workforce at a rapid speed, certain skills are becoming less in-demand simply because different skill sets are required to navigate such transformation,” said Feon Ang, vice president, Talent and Learning Solutions, Asia Pacific, LinkedIn. “It is therefore important for organizations to have a deep understanding of their current talent pool, and how to evolve it for their long-term business goals. Helping current talent to upskill or reskill early can help organizations ensure that their future talent needs are met.”

“While we encourage organizations to tap on real-time data and insights to help inform them about trends in the talent marketplace, we also believe that embracing a culture of learning is just as important for organizations to remain resilient amidst a rapidly changing workforce,” said Ang. “At the same time, employees need to be empowered and motivated to learn on their own terms, given difficulties in finding the time and accessing opportunities.”