Degreed LENS 2024: Reflecting on the Power of Skills and Strategic Partnerships

Last week I had the privilege of attending Degreed LENS, an insightful event focused on the power of skills to transform organizations and enable people to reach their full potential. Throughout the sessions, a few key themes emerged that resonated strongly with Fuel50 's mission and approach:

1. The world of work is at an inflection point where the shift to skills-based practices is becoming inevitable. Such practices not only drive better job performance than academic credentials or work experience hiring, they also boost internal mobility. Companies that don't adapt risk being left behind as skills overtake jobs as the new currency of work. Tying learning directly to enterprise strategy and digital transformation is elevating L&D's impact and is garnering recognition from the C-suite on the clear business value, as evidenced by a global CPG company that directly attributes upskilling to acquiring new digital capabilities that drove revenue growth and pricing power.?
2. Activating skills requires creating personalized, AI-driven experiences that engage employees in active skill development in the flow of work. The days of one-size-fits-all learning are over. This quote from David Blake resonated, stating, "In times of great change, learners will inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists."?
3. While technology is a key enabler, the real magic happens when you connect skills data across talent processes to inform better decisions about mobility, workforce planning, hiring, and more. An integrated ecosystem approach is critical.
4. Making this shift is a multi-year journey that requires alignment around a vision, roadmap, and success measures. It's complex but the payoff in business agility, employee experience, and competitive advantage is immense. To take a page out of JFK's famous moonshot speech, you should choose to do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard. Don't boil the ocean, just start.

What excited me most is how well Fuel50's strategic product partnership with Degreed, announced just before LENS, positions us to jointly help organizations navigate this journey. With our new Learn+ offering, we're connecting Fuel50's skills-powered Talent Marketplace with Degreed's market-leading LXP to drive hyper-personalized, purposeful growth for employees.

By intelligently mapping Degreed learning content to Fuel50 skills, we're able to recommend the right learning at the right time to help employees build critical skills. By surfacing Fuel50 gig opportunities in Degreed, we're motivating employees to apply newly developed skills through stretch projects and experiential learning. It's a virtuous cycle of continuous skill development.

But beyond the technology integration, what I valued most from my interactions with the Degreed team at LENS is our shared commitment to customer success, innovation, and ecosystems. By listening to our clients, exchanging ideas, and co-innovating, I'm confident we can push the boundaries of what's possible with skills technology.

I left Degreed LENS energized by the path ahead and the power of our partnership. Together, Fuel50 and Degreed are uniquely positioned to help companies become skill-centric organizations and empower their people to achieve their full potential. Let's seize this moment and build a future where everyone can grow and succeed.

David Blake Maxwell Wessel Deeps Ramanathan Nag Chandrashekar Elizabeth Barisik Elizabeth Lui John McGinn Dan Carlson Casey Adams Tania Palen Li-Ming Yang Taylor Blake Emily Jansen van Vuuren Melissa Alvarez Heather Gilmartin Adams Stacey Aries Jennifer Bankey Sonja Peyton-Scott Carla Quiring Jim Myers Nina Orlando Lars Mackenzie, PhD