In today’s rapidly evolving professional landscape, the call for lifelong learning has never been louder. As industries shift and technologies advance, institutions are being asked to equip learners not only with foundational knowledge but also with ongoing opportunities to refine, expand, and adapt their skills. Upskilling learning experiences have emerged as a key component of the response to this demand, offering accessible, targeted ways for individuals to remain agile and relevant in their fields (World Economic Forum, 2025). This Envision piece offers insights to administrators and faculty who are considering whether to integrate upskilling programs into their institution’s broader portfolio of offerings. Additionally, this piece provides recommendations for faculty and staff who are designing and facilitating such learning experiences.
Upskilling Learning Experiences
Upskilling learning experiences are best defined as short, targeted opportunities—such as workshops, bootcamps, microcredentials, and applied online modules—designed to help learners build or update specific skills tied to current workplace needs efficiently. Unlike traditional degree programs, which typically feature a sequenced curriculum and extended timeline, upskilling learning experiences tend to be more modular and can often be completed in days or weeks rather than a full academic term. These experiences complement degree programs by enabling rapid skill development and providing timely pathways for learners to stay current in evolving fields.
Considerations and Recommendations
Consider the needs of your target learners.
At the heart of any effective upskilling experience is a clear understanding of the learners it is designed to serve. While there are universal needs, such as flexible delivery, opportunities for active engagement and practice, and clear connections to real-world application (Martin & Bolliger, 2018; Nachtigall et al., 2022; Venable, 2022), it is equally important to account for the specific context of the target discipline or professional focus area. For example, learners in healthcare might need hands-on practice scenarios that simulate high-stakes decision-making, while those in data science may benefit more from opportunities to craft visualizations or presentation materials. Once you’ve examined those needs, you’ll then want to consider your institution’s capabilities for meeting them. For example, if your institution largely develops and delivers asynchronous learning experiences but synchronous lab sessions have been identified as a key learner need, you’ll want to contemplate options for expanding your synchronous learning capabilities. By thoughtfully balancing general and discipline-specific learner needs and considering your institution’s current capacity to meet those needs, you can ensure that learning experiences are not only engaging but also deeply relevant to the professional realities learners will encounter beyond the classroom.
Consider how the student experience may vary.
Student-student engagement is a key component of effective learning experiences (Martin & Bolliger, 2018), but successful integration requires strategic program structure planning. In some learning experiences, student cohort size may be fixed (e.g., a course might only run if at least 15 students are enrolled). This can allow you to develop and integrate activities and assignments that include discussion boards, group work, peer reviews, or other forms of student-student engagement with confidence. In other learning experiences, however, cohort size may be unpredictable, or cohorts may not truly be formed at all. In a brief, asynchronous upskilling experience (e.g., a one-hour LinkedIn Learning course), for example, students would likely engage independently, rather than as part of a cohort. Depending on the parameters set for the learning experience, students might also engage with and complete content on vastly different timelines, with few—if any—students submitting the same assignments at the same time.
With these considerations in mind, you may find that integrating opportunities for student-student engagement successfully requires a more creative approach. For example, if you can’t be certain that multiple students will be enrolled in a learning experience simultaneously, consider whether you might be able to support indirect interactions. To do so, you might include a discussion board that students can contribute to independently. In the discussion board instructions, you can encourage students to review previously submitted posts without formally requiring peer responses.
Consider options for leveraging internal and external expertise.
In order to develop and deliver effective upskilling experiences, you’ll need to have the right set of subject matter experts. In some cases, your institution may have faculty members with the requisite expertise and availability. In other cases, however, you may need or want to consider bringing in outside experts—particularly those who are actively involved in the target field—to help bring learning experiences to life and ensure they align with current industry and employer needs.
Another option for augmenting internal expertise and capacity is to incorporate guest speaker content or materials produced by outside experts, such as case studies. Such an approach can provide the best of both worlds, with internal faculty developing and delivering learning experiences enriched with the insights of others in the field.
Consider options for providing feedback.
Depending on the nature of the learning experiences you are developing, direct facilitator involvement may be minimal. For example, you might have a subject matter expert available to answer student questions but not to grade student assignment submissions or provide customized feedback. Given the importance of feedback for all types of learning experiences (Faulconer et al., 2021; Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Williams, 2024), finding ways in which you can create opportunities for students to receive feedback—regardless of the degree of facilitator involvement—is an essential element of the development process.
If the learning experiences you are developing will include direct facilitator involvement in grading assessments and providing feedback, we recommend considering options for supporting consistency and efficiency. For many types of assignments, rubrics can clarify expectations for facilitators and students alike and help ensure an appropriate degree of standardization in grading and feedback. In learning experiences with multiple facilitators, rubrics can be especially useful for aligning expectations.
If you are developing learning experiences that won’t feature direct facilitator support, you might still consider providing rubrics for students to use to guide self-assessment or, potentially, peer reviews. In addition to rubrics, you might also consider integrating automated feedback for quizzes, worked examples, or answer keys that become available after assignment submission. Incorporating reflection exercises that prompt students to evaluate their own work, potentially with AI support, can further enhance the assessment experience. For example, as part of a reflection exercise, you might consider having students prompt AI to review and provide feedback on an assignment submission. Students can then consider points of alignment and distinction between AI-generated feedback and their own self-assessment.
Consider the value add.
There are countless free resources available to support lifelong learning. Why should students choose—and potentially pay for—yours? In seeking to answer this essential question, consider the following:
- Differentiators: What can make your program stand out in an increasingly crowded market? In many cases, you’ll likely want unique, tailored content (e.g., faculty-produced learning materials and customized assessments) to be part of your answer. While curated materials (e.g., YouTube videos, online readings) can certainly have a role in upskilling learning experiences, they are likely to be freely available. As such, their integration necessitates thoughtful consideration of how they can best augment the customized materials created for the learning experience. For further insights on resource selection, review our piece on selecting supplemental resources.
- Recognition: What will completion of the learning experience mean to employers? While the answer to this question depends in part on how students frame the learning experience in their resumes and elsewhere, consider options for supporting recognition within the applicable field. Establishing partnerships with industry associations, for example, can bolster student confidence that your learning experience will be a fruitful investment.
- Takeaways: What will students walk away from the experience with? Digital certificates or badges can often be readily integrated into online learning experiences, but these aren’t the only options worth considering. If project portfolios are widely used in the relevant field or discipline and the learning experience features multiple student-created deliverables, you might consider integrating a final portfolio submission as a requirement. In other cases, having students compile resources to support career progression might be particularly valuable. Such requirements can not only prompt reflection on and integration of new knowledge and skills but also ensure students leave the experience with a tangible artifact to support their next steps.
Consider how the learning experience will be maintained.
Designing an upskilling learning experience is rarely a one-time endeavor; it should be viewed as an evolving resource that adapts alongside the learners and the industry it supports. As technologies, practices, and professional expectations shift, learning experiences that remain static risk quickly losing relevance. Building in mechanisms for regular iteration helps capture insights into what is working well and where adjustments are needed. Iterative updates not only keep content aligned with current demands but also demonstrate a commitment to responsiveness and continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Thoughtfully designed upskilling learning experiences offer institutions a powerful opportunity to respond to a rapidly changing professional landscape while deepening their impact on learners’ careers. By centering learner needs, articulating a clear value proposition, leveraging appropriate expertise, and planning intentionally for feedback, engagement, and long-term maintenance, institutions can create learning experiences that are both meaningful and sustainable. As demand for lifelong learning continues to grow, well-crafted upskilling programs can serve not only as flexible educational offerings but also as strategic extensions of an institution’s mission, strengthening relationships with learners, employers, and industries alike.
References
Faulconer, E., Griffith, J., & Gruss, A. (2021). The impact of positive feedback on student outcomes and perceptions. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(2), 259–268.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.
Martin, F., & Bolliger, D. U. (2018). Engagement matters: Student perceptions on the importance of engagement strategies in the online learning environment. Online Learning, 22(1), 205–222.
Nachtigall, V., Shaffer, D. W., & Rummel, N. (2022). Stirring a secret sauce: A literature review on the conditions and effects of authentic learning. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 1479–1516.
Venable, M. A. (2022). Trends in online student demographics. BestColleges.
Williams, A. (2024). Delivering effective student feedback in higher education: An evaluation of the challenges and best practice. International Journal of Research in Education and Science, 10(2), 473–501.
World Economic Forum. (2025, January 7). The future of jobs report 2025.