The Expertise Economy helps lift the lid on the skills gap

In today’s rapidly changing world, one of the key organizational challenges is developing workers’ skills to ensure success now – and for the future.

To help meet this challenge, Kelly Palmer, a Silicon Valley-based thought-leader from LinkedIn, Degreed, and Yahoo, along with David Blake, the co-founder of the Ed-tech pioneer, Degreed, have shared their experiences of this phenomenon as well as describing how some of the smartest companies in the world are turning learning and expertise into a major competitive advantage.

Kelly and David have shared these experiences in a book called “The Expertise Economy” (ISBN: 978-1-4736-7700-5, $29.95, 256 pages) whose European launch takes place in Zurich, in Switzerland, on 15th November. Published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, the book is subtitled, “how the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed”.

Setting out and drawing on the science of how human beings learn, the authors offer examples from leading companies around the world which are driving the conversation about how to create experts and align learning innovation with business strategy.

The book includes interviews with people from companies including Google, LinkedIn, Airbnb, Unilever, NASA, Booz Allen Hamilton, and MasterCard. It also includes the views of thought leaders in learning and education such as Sal Khan and Todd Rose; as well as from the Thinkers50 list-makers Clayton Christensen, Daniel Pink, and Whitney Johnson.

Kelly Palmer said, “The workplace is experiencing large-scale transition with digitization, automation, and acceleration. Critical skills and expertise are imperative if organizations and their workers are to succeed in the future - and today’s most forward-thinking companies are being proactive in adapting to these changes.

“‘The Expertise Economy’ dares readers to let go of outdated and traditional ways of closing the skills gap, and it challenges CEOs and business leaders to embrace the urgency of re-skilling and upskilling the workforce,” she added. “Ultimately, companies big and small need to transform their workers into experts and, ultimately, their biggest competitive advantage – and this book provides some key insights to show you how to do this”.

“Disruption in any industry is a process, not a one-time event. With so much change on the horizon, Kelly and David have highlighted how firms must harness learning to stay in the game,” commented Clayton Christensen, the Kim B Clark Professor of Business Administration, at Harvard Business School and New York Times best-selling author of “The Innovators Dilemma”.

If you would like to attend the book launch – and/or interview Kelly Palmer – contact Lauren Lochtefeld (details below). Further details of “The Expertise Economy” can be found at: https://www.expertiseeconomy.com/

About Degreed
Degreed is a better, smarter way to discover, learn and certify the skills you need for the future. Degreed connects all the resources people use to learn and grow, including corporate learning systems and millions of courses, videos, books, articles, podcasts, and subject experts from thousands of sources. Then we add data science and machine learning to provide people and businesses with the tools, analytics and feedback they need to stay ready for whatever’s next. Founded in 2012, Degreed is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Salt Lake City, New York and Amsterdam.

About Kelly Palmer
Based in San Francisco, California, Kelly Palmer is on a mission to change the way the world learns. A thought leader on learning, business, and career development, she is currently on the executive team of Degreed and was formerly the chief learning officer of LinkedIn. Prior to LinkedIn, Kelly was vice president of learning at Yahoo! and held executive positions in learning, M&A, and product development at Sun Microsystems. She speaks regularly at companies and business conferences around the world, has been featured in the Financial Times, Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., Chief Learning Officer (CLO), and on Bloomberg radio. Kelly has a Bachelor of Arts in English/communications and a Master of Science in adult learning and education technology. She is the co-author of the book “The Expertise Economy: How the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed”.

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Contact: Lauren Lochtefeld, Degreed, +1 805 636 9403, ll@degreed.com
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