Nearly four in ten of the skills your team relies on today will change by 2030. For a small or mid-sized business, the response that works is not another library of videos nobody finishes. It is getting people into a room to practise.
Summary
Skills are changing faster than most small and mid-sized companies train for them. The fix that works is practice-led learning with people in the same room.
That is the approach of our partner Kognitiv Academy, a KHDA-approved executive education and professional learning academy based in Dubai. Its in-person, experience-led programmes help professionals and teams build skills in AI and digital capability, leadership, sales and growth, customer communication, and finance and governance.
The gap is widest in small companies
Employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025. Smaller companies are the least prepared. Workers in SMEs take part in job-related training less than those in large firms, by 15 percentage points on average, the OECD reports.
The reasons are cost and time: fewer people to spread the bill across, and nobody to cover the desk.
Training keeps your people
In a Gallup survey of more than 18,000 US employees, 48% said they would switch jobs for one that offered skills training. A small company has no bench to absorb a resignation. Training is one of the few retention tools it can afford that also improves the business.
Why the room matters
A platform licence and a list of videos is the usual answer, and the weakest one. People learn by doing, with others, and with someone correcting them as they go.
A meta-analysis of 225 studies of university science courses found that students taught by lecture were 1.5 times more likely to fail than those who learned actively. The effect was strongest in groups of 50 or fewer.
Negotiating, giving feedback, pitching, leading a tense meeting: these are learned by trying them in front of people and being coached on the spot. A booked session with the whole team also beats the inbox in a way self-paced content never does.
Three moves for SME leaders
- Start from the business problem. Train for the two or three capabilities that would move revenue, service or cash this year.
- Train teams, in the room. A shared session makes the new habit the team’s norm.
- Choose practice over presentation. People should spend most of the session doing the skill, then apply one thing at work within a week.
Find out more
Our partner Kognitiv Academy is a KHDA-approved executive education and professional learning academy in Dubai. Its in-person, experience-led programmes cover AI and digital capability, leadership and people, sales and growth, customer and communication, and finance, risk and governance.
To find out how to upskill yourself and your team, visit kognitiv.academy.
Sources
- World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2025
- OECD, Equipping SMEs with the skills to navigate the twin transition, 2025
- Gallup, No More Fear of Being Obsolete: Upskilling and the AI Revolution
- Freeman et al., Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics, PNAS, 2014
