Why Reskilling Is So Important Now

By Katherine Gustafson

America has a skills problem, or more accurately, a massive skills gap. 

There are too many open jobs and too many job seekers with skills that don’t match up. Even those who have steady work need additional skills to remain relevant, particularly as the era of AI accelerates. 

This is true across all industries, but it's especially urgent in the skilled trades. Traditional skilled trades like manufacturing and modern skills-based careers like healthcare were already sounding the alarm about the need for more trained workers before both COVID-19 and the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI) profoundly changed industry dynamics.  

Now, the need for reskilling is more urgent than ever. 

What is reskilling?

Reskilling is simply learning new skills for a different job. It’s also the name of a movement to help people gain the know-how they need to take on better-paying roles, whether in a new workplace or with their current employer. 

Reskilling can mean learning new manual skills for a change in career, such as a machinist learning medical skills to become a paramedic. It can also mean learning fresh digital skills or technologies to shift into new roles within one’s industry, such as a marketing intern learning to employ AI in campaign planning to secure a marketing analyst job. 

With AI driving explosive change in technology, reskilling can also increasingly mean gaining the skills to continue doing one’s current job effectively as things change. Survey data from the nonprofit Jobs for the Future shows that 66% of workers say AI is affecting their jobs, but meanwhile only one-third of them feel they have the training and resources to use AI effectively. 

Reskilling the U.S. workforce

As technology continues to accelerate and disrupt industries from construction to information technology, training on more advanced tools or about digital processes is the greatest priority in reskilling the U.S. workforce. 

Technology is both a major focus of the skills workers are gaining and the key element in how much of the training takes place. Take the Thinking Through AI app, released in March 2026 by Readocracy in collaboration with Jobs for the Future and HP. The app provides practical, self-paced learning for AI literacy, particularly aimed at those who lack ready access to the technology, skills, and economic opportunities that can help them thrive in a digital-first workforce. The app automatically translates the learning activities into a shareable portfolio that allows users to demonstrate AI-ready skills to potential employers.

Many with basic skills in their fields can utilize technology and education as stepping stones to a higher-paying but related role. For example, a certified nursing assistant can build on that valuable hands-on experience to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), increasing their salary by roughly 60% in the process.

In that example, reskilling provides upward mobility for one person and a job opportunity for another looking for an entry point into a growing field. SkillPointe ambassador Tammy Ronstadt says the opportunities are everywhere. 

“Any kind of nursing field, whether you want to be an RN, LPN, nurse practitioner, it is the field of the future. It really is,” says Ronstadt, director of provider practice operations for Heritage Valley Health System, who started as an LPN. "You will always have a job. There's never going to be a shortage [of jobs]. We are greatly in need."

States take the initiative

A variety of state-level programs are addressing the need to reskill the workforce. 

A number of them launched in 2020, using federal recovery funds to help more people get back to work after job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An example was Mississippi’s reskilling program, ReSkillMS, which connected employers with potential trainees interested in learning specific skills that employers needed. The training was provided through on-the-job training or community college courses, often at no or little cost to the individual. The concept was so appealing that 2,000 Mississippians enrolled in the program in its first 30 days. Employers that provided such training were eligible to be reimbursed for up to 75% of the worker’s wages during the training period depending on the pay rate of the newly trained worker. The program shuttered at the end of 2020 in accordance with Federal rules about how states had to spend the COVID-19 relief funds that supported it.

More recently, in 2026, a nonprofit in Virginia launched Upskill Virginia, a statewide campaign to help jobseekers gain skills for in-demand careers that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. The program, run by InsideTrack in collaboration with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), will help up to 1,000 workers pursue credentials at Virginia’s 23 technical and community colleges to expand access to middle-skill careers in key industries. Upskilling Virginia will employ NACCE’s premier workforce technology solution, SkillPointe, which uses AI tools to personalize career exploration and help users gain detailed information about career options, benefits, and requirements. The program will pair this technology solution with human-led, evidence-based coaching to help participants identify their career goals and design their training plans.

Why reskill?

Reskilling brings benefits to workers, employers, and the local and national economy. Win-win-win. It is also, quite simply, imperative in an environment where technology is rapidly transforming entire industries. The vast majority—86%—of employers expect AI and information-processing technologies like virtual reality to transform their organization, according to the World Economic Forum. 

For employers, which usually bear some or all of the cost of reskilling workers, the investment is almost certainly worthwhile. Human resources expert Josh Bersin, who has researched the topic, says “it can cost as much as six times more to hire from the outside than to build from within.” 

For workers, it can mean better-paying and more satisfying jobs, or even just the ability to keep up as industries quickly change. Economies benefit from workers with stable careers and more disposable income. It’s not easy, but reskilling is well worth the effort and expense. It’s a pressing need not only in the U.S., but around the world.  

Katherine Gustafson is a full-time freelance writer and editor with a diverse client list that includes such organizations as Kyndryl, Bloomberg, Intuit, LegalZoom, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and World Wildlife Fund, among many others. Her work has been published in Forbes, Business Insider, Slate, TechCrunch, HuffPost, and other outlets, and she is the author of a book about innovation in sustainable food. She has written about workforce and human resources issues for Indeed, Workday, Visa, Bloomberg, SHRM, and Reworked.