Durable skills or soft skills are not new, but are important for the future of work as repetitive tasks are taken care of by AI, says Terrence Cummings, chief opportunity officer at Guild, which “helps employers provide tuition-free education, skilling, and career mobility to their workforce.”
Cummings joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
He says, “AI is something that’s going to change every job. It’s going to influence – at a minimum – every job. I use AI on a daily basis.”
Cummings continues, “We have 8 million open roles right now in the United States but think about what that’s going to look like in three years, in five years. The number may change, but also everyone’s talking about AI – the types of roles they need will change.
“And so where we can be helpful and what employers are looking for is one, talent intelligence. How can you help us to figure out what the gaps are today and what the gaps are going to be in the future? And then the learning platform to help us to be able to fill those gaps through training and skilling and education needs. So, it’s vital for employers.”
Regarding upskilling in the workplace, Cummings says, “Employers know that they need those skills. Where the conversation sits is “when do we do it and how do we do the skilling?“
Learn more about Guild.
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
