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The future of work is no longer on the horizon; it is here, reshaping how enterprises operate and how individuals navigate their careers. At this year’s Coursera Connect conference, one message came through clearly: Workforce demands are evolving faster than traditional programming models can adapt. Technology, particularly AI, is accelerating the pace of change, but it is only one force among many transforming the skills landscape. According to the World Economic Forum, 39 percent of key skills will change in the next five years, and more than half of employers say they will transition staff from declining roles into growing ones.
This moment carries both urgency and responsibility. Universities have a unique opportunity to design multiple pathways—helping graduates secure their first jobs, supporting employees to upskill and reskill, and partnering with organizations as they transform their workforces at scale. At the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, we are embracing this responsibility through Michigan Online and partnerships across the learning ecosystem, co-creating models that align academic strengths with evolving employer needs.
The conference provided valuable touch points with leaders in corporate learning and development. These conversations validated what we are already seeing on our campuses: The demand for skills transformation is accelerating, and universities have a pivotal role to play. Three themes stood out—and they highlight opportunities for higher education to lead.
- Skills Transformation Is Accelerating
Across industries, employers are urgently seeking a blend of technical and human-centric skills. By 2030, 59 percent of the global workforce will require upskilling (WEF Future of Jobs 2025). On the technical side, the race is on to build fluency in AI, data analytics and other digital capabilities. On the human side, organizations prize the qualities that help them adapt and thrive through change: employees who are skilled at collaboration and communication, while bringing mindsets of resilience and purpose.
The skills most in flux are not limited to the tech sector. Lightcast data shows a much broader impact: The average job has seen 32 percent of its required skills change since 2021, and one in four jobs has seen 75 percent of skills change. Employers are already moving quickly to respond. Since 2022, there has been a ninefold increase in job postings outside tech that require generative AI expertise, while 76 percent of postings demand at least one durable skill like communication, leadership or critical thinking. Recent studies are sounding the alarm bell about the decline in entry-level jobs.
Universities are uniquely positioned to meet these needs by connecting technical and human-centric skills in coherent pathways. Rather than offering a disconnected catalog of courses, we can design integrated, interdisciplinary pathways that mirror workplace realities. At Michigan, for example, we are curating bundles of courses on Michigan Online that combine technical topics like AI and data analytics with our evidence-based strengths in leadership development and finding purpose at work. These pathways provide learners with the skill sets and goal orientation that translate directly to workforce outcomes and help employers build the adaptable teams they need.
Guidance for peers: Move beyond a disconnected course catalog. Design interdisciplinary, stackable pathways that mirror the realities of modern work, signal to employers that you understand the skills they prize and map clearly to growth opportunities for learners.
- Learning and Development as a Lever for Culture Change
Employers are not just investing in training to fill skills gaps; they are using learning as a lever to drive culture. At Coursera Connect, one striking example cited by a global learning officer involves designating “AI champions” within an organization and rewarding them with opportunities to share insights directly with senior leaders. These champions become visible role models, while the C-suite gains tangible evidence of how training translates into innovation and business outcomes. Another chief talent officer highlighted that the pressure for rapid upskilling gives learning and development leaders a seat at the table where executive decisions are made.
This emphasis on culture change is why higher education’s role matters. We have long cultivated critical thinkers, problem-solvers and innovators. By partnering with employers, we can design programs that not only build skills but also shift organizational mindsets. When 85 percent of employers cite upskilling as their top workforce strategy for 2030 (ahead of automation), universities have an opening to help companies make learning central to their identity.
Guidance for peers: Frame programs not only as skill builders but as culture shapers. Show how university-designed learning creates champions inside organizations and strengthens alignment between employees and leadership. In doing so, you help companies see learning not as a cost center but as a driver of strategic change.
- Verified, Job-Relevant Learning Is the New Currency
Employers are rethinking how they evaluate talent. Credentials that are verified, portable and tied directly to performance are becoming the new currency of workforce transformation. Performance-based assessments, job-embedded projects and stackable credentials are rising in importance as organizations seek proof of skills beyond traditional transcripts.
Yet the marketplace is noisy. With more than 1.1 million credentials available and only 12 percent leading to significant wage gains, learners face overwhelming choices with limited assurance of value. Employers, too, are left trying to interpret signals from an ecosystem that lacks consistency or oversight.
Here, higher education has a distinct advantage. Faculty bring expertise in designing authentic, rigorous assessments. At Michigan, our learning design teams partner with faculty to build action learning into online courses and explore stackable, performance-based credentials that employers can trust. These models give learners agency while giving employers confidence.
We can provide learners with credentials that demonstrate relevance and applicability. The University of Michigan is well-known for action-based learning, and CAI learning design experts work closely with our faculty to build this pedagogy into our nondegree online courses. At the same time, Michigan and many peer institutions are evolving a taxonomy for credentials. In an increasingly overwhelming marketplace of offerings, it is critical that universities work together to develop shared standards that provide clear, trustworthy signals to both learners and employers. This challenge of bringing coherence and consistency to credential frameworks will be a top focus at UPCEA’s Convergence conference later this month.
Guidance for peers: Prioritize demonstrable skills over seat time. Explore flexible, stackable designs that give learners agency and employers confidence. Transparent, portable credentials can become the currency that connects academic learning to workplace performance.
A Call to Action for Higher Ed
The demand for workforce transformation is not slowing down—it is accelerating. Employers are looking for clear signals of job-ready skills, while learners face a chaotic marketplace of more than 1.1 million credentials, only a fraction of which deliver significant wage gains (American Enterprise Institute, 2025). If higher education does not lean into this moment, private providers will continue to fill the gap.
But if we do lean in, we can lead. By designing flexible, stackable pathways, connecting technical fluency with durable skills and validating learning in ways employers trust, universities can remain at the center of lifelong learning. This is not only about serving students on campus. It is about helping organizations reshape their workforces and ensuring learners everywhere have the skills to thrive amid rapid change, and doing so in ways that fit into their busy lives and careers while mapping clearly to growth opportunities they can see and pursue.
At the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, we are committed to this mission. Yet no single institution can succeed alone. The challenge before us is clear: How will higher education as a whole not just react to the future of work, but lead it? And how will we show that higher education’s relevance lies both in advancing discovery and new ideas and in helping individuals and economies adapt and grow in a rapidly changing world?
