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Bringing AI to Life: Empowering employers and employees to unlock potential

Digital & Online Learning
August 7, 2023
Laura Ewart & Carmen Light

Navigating new waters: AI-driven shifts in the workforce

Today we’re kicking off a series of blog posts highlighting how we’ve already integrated AI into how we think and operate, and its place in the future of our customers’ learning journeys - as discussed in our 2023 Half Year Results.

AI is reshaping the world of work, forcing workers and employers to rethink the skills and roles they need in an AI economy. How do employers and employees navigate these new waters?

“We hear consistently from employers and workers that they know upskilling is critical to their future. They just don't know what kind of learning will produce a real return.” – Jonathan Finkelstein, SVP Workforce Skills.

That’s why Pearson’s Workforce Skills division is dedicated to helping companies and workers solve their skills challenges, guiding them to invest in learning that will produce a real return. We do this primarily in two ways – and with the help of some very clever AI.

AI holding up the mirror to AI

First, we help employers build skills strategies using our sophisticated AI platform, Faethm by Pearson to anticipate supply and demand factors inside and outside the organization that may impact the workforce.

The platform uses AI to model how technological and economic change will impact jobs. It analyzes millions of data points to identify the latest skills, trends and labor market insights. Armed with this knowledge, employers can make intelligent, data-backed decisions about their workforce, and the skills and jobs they need to unlock growth. And employers can make informed choices about their employees’ learning and career pathways.

Second, we help employers and workers understand which are the most in-demand skills today. We do this through our huge database of credentials, via Credly by Pearson. We have a massive network of verified talent representing more than 70m credentials awarded to over 35m people. Using a combination of metadata, workforce forecasting AI, and intelligent algorithms, we help pair employee skills with open jobs to create a workforce fit for the future.

What’s over the horizon?

And we’re not stopping there; right now, we’re bringing our proprietary Global Scale of English (GSE) into the Pearson skills ontology so that we can map English language proficiency requirements for career pathways. The GSE is the most precise global standard for measuring English language proficiency and progress, and it underpins all our English language teaching and assessment products. Just another way we’re helping enterprises make better decisions through data.

The bottom line is, AI has the potential to make us all more efficient and change how we work. At Pearson we’re using AI to predict that evolution. Hear more from Jonathan Finkelstein on how we’re making that happen: