When we talk about reskilling for the digital transition, the focus is often on what workers still need to learn. But this can easily overlook something equally important: what they already know.
People working in manufacturing and assembly bring extensive practical experience to their jobs. They know processes, materials, machines, customers and recurring problems. They solve unexpected situations, work within teams, organise tasks and find practical solutions – often without describing these abilities as “digital” or “entrepreneurial” skills.
These existing competences matter when workplaces change.
Learning to use a new digital tool, for example, does not replace years of professional experience. Instead, digital competence can complement that experience. A worker who understands a production process can use data to recognise problems more quickly. Someone who knows where inefficiencies occur may identify opportunities for a new service or improved process. Practical problem-solving can become the starting point for innovation.
This perspective is important for E-SHIFT. The project does not see workforce transition simply as filling deficits. Its learning approach aims to help workers recognise their existing strengths while developing the additional digital and entrepreneurial competences they need for changing roles and new opportunities.
This also means looking beyond entrepreneurship as simply “starting a company”. Initiative, creativity, opportunity recognition and the ability to turn an idea into action are valuable within existing companies as well.
Digital transformation brings change – but workers do not enter that change empty-handed. Their experience is part of the foundation on which new skills and new opportunities can be built.
