At the time of writing this, we’re all in the middle of a meltdown in the tech industry. Companies like Meta have had to lay off up to 13% of their workforce, and Amazon had to trim the salaries of 50% of its employees this year to manage budgets.

If you’re one of these companies that had to lay off members of your tech team or are finding it hard to hire due to fiscal constraints, then you’re undoubtedly facing a talent crunch.

Now, you have two choices:

Choice 1. Hire employees on a tight budget

Choice 2: Ask existing employees to take on the responsibilities handled by the employees who had to be laid off

The problem? Your existing employees don’t have the skills to take on those extra responsibilities. This results in halting the organization’s overall progress.

Upskilling and reskilling can be your weapons in such struggling situations. They put you at the forefront in helping your employees adapt to the new changes in the recession.

In this article, we’ll uncover:

The difference between upskilling and reskilling
Benefits of upskilling and reskilling
Examples of companies leveraging upskilling and reskilling programs
An important drawback of most learning platforms that employers need to be aware of

What is upskilling and reskilling?

Upskilling and reskilling sound very similar, but they both have different business goals. Your company needs processes for both in order to bridge the skill gap and boost growth.Let’s understand them in detail.

Upskilling

Upskilling refers to the process of acquiring new or advanced skills that are relevant to one’s current or future job, profession, or industry. It involves learning new techniques, technologies, or approaches to work that can help individuals increase their productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness in their roles.

Upskilling can be done through a variety of methods, including formal training programs, online courses, on-the-job training, mentorship, and self-directed learning. It is often pursued by individuals who want to stay competitive in their careers, keep up with industry trends, or advance their professional goals.

For example, a backend developer can join a full-stack development program that teaches them about React and Node JS in order to transition to a full-stack role.

The three key reasons why an engineering leader might want their team to go through an upskilling program are:

Helping employees perform better in their current job
Helping the workforce adapt to new and future changes in the industry
Helping the workforce stay confident in their skills and adapt to new industry changes

Also, read: How to Assess Programming Skills Before Hiring

Upskilling is no longer a luxury—it’s a survival skill,” says Riccardo Ocleppo, founder and director of the EU-accredited Open Institute of Technology (OPIT). “Our flexible online MScs in Computer Science and Data Science let professionals earn a recognised degree without pausing their careers.”

Reskilling

Reskilling refers to the process of learning new skills that are different from one’s current job or profession, with the aim of switching to a new career or industry. It involves acquiring a completely new set of skills that are relevant to a different job or profession. However, the skills employees learn may or may not overlap with their current role.

Reskilling may involve pursuing formal training programs, apprenticeships, internships, or other learning opportunities to gain the necessary skills and knowledge required for a new profession. It may also require significant investment in time, effort, and resources, as individuals may need to start from scratch in a new field.

One example of reskilling in the tech world is when a software developer decides to transition to a career in cybersecurity. This would involve acquiring a completely new set of skills and knowledge, such as understanding different types of cyber threats, security protocols and measures, and the tools and technologies used to mitigate these risks.

Scenarios in which engineering leaders might ask their team members to reskill include:

Transitioning to new projects or initiatives that require skills that are different from the current expertise.
Adapting to new technology such as when rewriting their code base or changing their underlying infrastructure.
Retaining high-performing existing employees whose roles have become redundant
Filling vacant roles in the organization through lateral hiring.

How are upskilling and reskilling different?

Now you know what exactly upskilling and reskilling mean. So let’s weigh in the differences both the terms have for better clarification:

UpskillingReskillingIt helps employees learn additional skills to perform better in their current job.It helps employees to learn new skills to perform a different job.The skills they learn are relevant to their current job.The skills they learn are not related to their current job.It involves employees polishing their current skill sets.It usually involves a change in career.More employee-focused. Upskilled employees can get new opportunities and develop talent for personal growth.More employer-focused. It helps organizations retain their best talent by providing them with growth paths

Why are upskilling and reskilling important?

According to the book Organizational Learning and Development During Recession by Marianne Reyes, Martin Clarke, Director of General Management Programmes at Cranfield School of Management, stresses:

It is vital to give your top people the support they need, especially during economic downturns” because a “well-trained and skilled workforce will be instrumental in supporting organizations during the downturn as well as after economic recovery and growth resumes.

The author talks about a survey conducted by Boston Consulting Group and the European Association of People Management that found cutting down the training and development costs during the recession can have a serious impact on the organization in the longer run.

Clearly: upskilling and reskilling of employees is crucial for the individual’s growth as well as the organization’s growth, and it becomes even more important during a recession. According to The Future of Jobs Report 2020, companies say that about 40% of workers will require six months of reskilling, and 94% will have to learn new skills on the fly. Why? Because tech leaders anticipate the in-demand skills to change in a few years, and the current hiring freeze has left them without the option of onboarding specialized talent.

This is not to say that skill improvement has benefits only during an economic downturn. The pandemic taught us that technology and business needs can change on a dime, and tech teams need to be prepared for more such “out of the left field” moments. However, it is true that learning and development programs have significant value in keeping the product pipeline churning during a hiring freeze.

With that said, let’s look at some of the ways in which timely learning programs can help your tech teams during crunch situations (with real-life examples):

#1— It can reduce skill gaps (the IBM example)

In 2009, the global recession significantly impacted IBM’s revenue and growth. To overcome this challenge, IBM decided to launch a program called the Skills Initiative that aimed to train and retrain IBM employees in high-demand skills, such as cloud computing, data analytics, and cybersecurity.

As part of the program, IBM offered employees a range of learning opportunities, including online courses, virtual classrooms, and hands-on training. The company also provided financial incentives for employees who completed training programs and achieved new certifications.

The Skills Initiativehelped IBM to retain its workforce during the recession and equipped its employees with the skills and knowledge needed to meet the changing demands of the market. By upskilling and reskilling its tech team, IBM was able to remain competitive and even expand its business into new areas, such as cloud computing and data analytics.

#2— It can boost productivity and retention (the AT&T example)

During the 2008-2009 recession, AT&T faced a decline in its revenue and was forced to lay off a significant number of employees. To reduce costs and remain competitive, the company decided to upskill its remaining workforce to improve productivity and retain employees.

AT&T implemented a comprehensive training and development program called Workforce 2020, which aimed to upskill its employees in emerging technologies, such as cloud computing, big data analytics, and machine learning. The company invested heavily in online training programs, workshops, and mentoring to help employees learn new skills and apply them to their jobs.

The upskilling program had several benefits for AT&T, including heightened productivity, reduced errors and defects, and improved customer satisfaction. Additionally, the program helped AT&T retain its employees during the recession by offering them new opportunities to grow and develop their careers within the company.

#3— It definitely can save your budget! (the Microsoft example)

Imagine hiring a new employee during a recession. The process of starting from scratch is time-consuming. Instead, it is always easier to bridge the skill gap through learning programs than conducting the hiring process from scratch and bringing in the new hire.

In 2018, Microsoft announced a new initiative called Microsoft Leap, which aimed to reskill and retrain thousands of its existing employees who were at risk of being displaced by automation and artificial intelligence. The program included a four-month training course that covered both technical and soft skills and provided hands-on experience with emerging technologies such as machine learning, data science, and artificial intelligence.

Through the Microsoft Leap program, the company was able to reskill more than 10,000 of its employees and retain them in new, high-demand roles within the company. According to an article in Forbes, Microsoft was able to save approximately $30 million in recruitment fees alone by reskilling its existing employees instead of hiring new ones. The company also reported that the reskilling program led to a 38% increase in employee satisfaction.

Also, read: Internal Hackathons: Drive Innovation and Increase Engagement in Tech Teams

The drawback of most upskilling and reskilling programs

While the upskilling and reskilling programs are commendable initiatives taken by organizations, they come with a drawback: no measurable ROI, which means there is no clear way to see real skill development.

To understand this further, I sat down with our Founder, Sachin Gupta to understand skill benchmarking and why it is critical in today’s world. Here’s what he said:

The technology landscape is changing so rapidly that organizations have to continuously adapt to the cumulative skills of their employees—to keep them in line with the tech innovation curve.
Large organizations find it challenging to have an accurate picture of the skill map of their teams and data in HCM tools.
While many organizations have learning programs, they struggle to measure the ROI from such programs.
While employees intend to upskill, they may not always have a sense of their skill baseline as they may not know how they are progressing in their skill development journeys.

How to develop an upskilling and reskilling strategy for your employees?

According to LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report, 89% of L&D pros agree that proactively building employee skills for today and tomorrow will help navigate the evolving future of work. That’s the reason organizations need to double down on their efforts to upskill and reskill their employees. But how?

Here’s a 5-step process you can use to develop an upskilling and reskilling strategy.

Step #1—Conduct a skill gap analysis

A skill gap analysis is an assessment conducted by HR teams to identify whether or not the current skill sets of employees can meet the overall needs of the company.

For example, the organization conducts a survey where they ask questions to their employees about the current skills they possess and how they have upskilled themselves. Employees fill out the survey, and the HR team analyzes submitted data.

To conduct a skill gap analysis:

Plan

Perform skill gap analysis at two levels—individual and team.

For individuals, identify the skills a job needs and compare them to the employee’s actual skills.
For teams, determine whether employees have relevant skills to work on a new project or will the company need to hire externally.

Identify key skills

What skills do we value as a company? What skills do employees need to do their work well and will need in the future? Answering these two questions will help you understand the skills you require.

Measure your current skills

Create a skills spreadsheet for each position, and list the skills employees in these positions have.

Step #2—Integrate upskilling and reskilling into your employee development plans

Emphasize the importance of learning and reskilling for employees. There may be times when employees cannot upskill themselves due to their key responsibilities. That’s where you as an organization need to integrate learning and development programs into employees’ annual goals and objectives.

For example, offering eLearning assets to employees every quarter, such as an eBook relevant to their expertise.

These employee learning programs can fuel knowledge and skills in employees, and help them stay prepared for the future.

So, make sure the goals are:

Specific
Obtainable
Time-bound

For example, developers on the engineering team need to learn at least two skills within the period of 6 months.

Step #3—Choose your training methods

There are several training methods to choose from:

eLearning
On-the-job training
Instructor-led training
Role-playing
Coaching
Simulation training
Group activities
Video training
Cross-training
Job shadowing
Case studies

But before choosing a specific training method, make sure the learning and development team understands employees’ learning styles and uses the right format for them.

For example, the L&D team uses group activity learning format for employees who prefer learning one-to-one.

Step #4—Leverage technology

To streamline the development of your employee development program, you need to amplify technology. Here are two primary technologies you’ll need when you plan to create your own learning and development programs.

1. Learning management system

A learning management system handles all aspects of employee training—from creating to delivering and tracking training material. It helps both the organization and employees by:

Tracking employee’s progress toward meeting their learning goals
Collecting data for improving the learning process.

For example, Paycore, a corporate LMS helps administrators organize learning programs for individuals, teams, or departments. With this software, administrators can create interactive online course content with surveys, quizzes, and assessments.

2. Digital adoption platform

A digital adoption platform integrates with the company’s training program applications. It helps employees navigate the platform by offering step-by-step instructions to complete a specific task.

For example, Whatafix is a digital adoption platform that helps L&D teams create in-app content such as step-by-step guidance, walkthroughs, task lists, and smart tips to guide employees through complex digital processes.

Step #5—Follow up and track progress

The ultimate goal of the upskilling and reskilling program is not just to get your employees to upskill but to check if they have learned new skills. That’s where you need to measure the training program’s effectiveness and monitor KPIs. Some of the KPIs include:

Course completion rate
Training progression rate
Assessment score
Lowering skill gap analysis
Improving proficiency.

So, use the following metrics to measure the effectiveness of the learning and development program:

Employee feedback

Once the training program is complete, ask employees about their experience with the training program. What have they learned from the program? Was the program in-depth or did they need more resources to strengthen their skill development? How are they planning to use these skills in their job?

Skill assessments

A skill assessment platform helps L&D teams see whether or not employees have learned the subject and topic well from the training program.

For example, HackerEarth’s learning and development program offers an assessment platform.

This is where L&D teams can create their assessment platform for their employees to take assessments after completing the training program. Further, the platform also provides employees’ progress reports to their managers.

Post-training job efficiency

Observe your employees and see how they have executed the newly learned skills on the job. But the problem with tracking the employee’s progress?

Even after observing their work, there is no documented data of how much of the newly learned skills they implemented and whether or not they are ready to take up the additional role or move to an entirely different role.

That’s where HackerEarth’s learning and development program helps organizations.It does not only provide you with a skill assessment platform but, as Sachin says:

The product introduces a layer of objectivity to their upskilling program
It creates a guided learning path where they can see their progress firsthand

Things Tech Companies Can Expect From HackerEarth's Learning and Development

According to Sachin, there are 4 things users can expect from this L&D product:

Employees will get real-time and objective feedback on their skill development. Starting with baseline evaluations, through continuous evaluations, and ultimately a summative assessment. Over time, we will be able to recommend to learners what specific areas of skill development they should focus on.
Employers will be able to measure ROI on their upskilling programs.
Employers will be able to create a skill map for their organization. They can understand the current skill set in their team and plan for skill development over time.
Accurate skill data can help employees and employers match people to opportunities they are most suited to.

All these things lead to greater output but also more engaged and retained teams.

You see? The goal here is for both employees and organizations to get a clear view. For organizations, it’s about whether or not employees have developed their skills, and if so, are they ready to take on more specialized roles?

For employees, it’s about seeing whether they have a clear career path to move forward on.

Use learning and development tools to upskill your tech teams

To sum up, learning and development programs should be an important facet of every tech team’s culture on any given day. However, during troubling times such as a recession, it can become a crucial weapon in fighting the wolves at the door.Upskilling and reskilling programs can help you:

Retain your high-performing engineers
Provide them paths to grow their skill sets and their career prospects
Help your tech team stay ahead of time.

And so, choose the right learning platform to empower your employees in keeping up with changing technologies and on-demand skills. See their progress in real-time with HackerEarth’s learning and development platform that offers curated assessments and learning paths to your internal employees, and helps you quantify the benefits of every certification.

I Used AI to Build a "Simple Image Carousel" at VibeCodeArena. It Found 15+ Issues and Taught Me How to Fix Them.

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My Learning Journey

I wanted to understand what separates working code from good code. So I used VibeCodeArena.ai to pick a problem statement where different LLMs produce code for the same prompt. Upon landing on the main page of VibeCodeArena, I could see different challenges. Since I was interested in an Image carousal application, I picked the challenge with the prompt "Make a simple image carousel that lets users click 'next' and 'previous' buttons to cycle through images."

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Within seconds, I had code from multiple LLMs, including DeepSeek, Mistral, GPT, and Llama. Each code sample also had an objective evaluation score. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many solutions for the same problem. I picked gpt-oss-20b model from OpenAI. For this experiment, I wanted to focus on learning how to code better so either one of the LLMs could have worked. But VibeCodeArena can also be used to evaluate different LLMs to help make a decision about which model to use for what problem statement.

The model had produced a clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The code looked professional. I could see the preview of the code by clicking on the render icon. It worked perfectly in my browser. The carousel was smooth, and the images loaded beautifully.

But was it actually good code?

I had no idea. That's when I decided to look at the evaluation metrics

What I Thought Was "Good Code"

A working image carousel with:

Clean, semantic HTML
Smooth CSS transitions
Keyboard navigation support
ARIA labels for accessibility
Error handling for failed images

It looked like something a senior developer would write. But I had questions:

Was it secure? Was it optimized? Would it scale? Were there better ways to structure it?

Without objective evaluation, I had no answers. So, I proceeded to look at the detailed evaluation metrics for this code

What VibeCodeArena's Evaluation Showed

The platform's objective evaluation revealed issues I never would have spotted:

Security Vulnerabilities (The Scary Ones)

No Content Security Policy (CSP): My carousel was wide open to XSS attacks. Anyone could inject malicious scripts through the image URLs or manipulate the DOM. VibeCodeArena flagged this immediately and recommended implementing CSP headers.

Missing Input Validation: The platform pointed out that while the code handles image errors, it doesn't validate or sanitize the image sources. A malicious actor could potentially exploit this.

Hardcoded Configuration: Image URLs and settings were hardcoded directly in the code. The platform recommended using environment variables instead - a best practice I completely overlooked.

SQL Injection Vulnerability Patterns: Even though this carousel doesn't use a database, the platform flagged coding patterns that could lead to SQL injection in similar contexts. This kind of forward-thinking analysis helps prevent copy-paste security disasters.

Performance Problems (The Silent Killers)

DOM Structure Depth (15 levels): VibeCodeArena measured my DOM at 15 levels deep. I had no idea. This creates unnecessary rendering overhead that would get worse as the carousel scales.

Expensive DOM Queries: The JavaScript was repeatedly querying the DOM without caching results. Under load, this would create performance bottlenecks I'd never notice in local testing.

Missing Performance Optimizations: The platform provided a checklist of optimizations I didn't even know existed:

No DNS-prefetch hints for external image domains
Missing width/height attributes causing layout shift
No preload directives for critical resources
Missing CSS containment properties
No will-change property for animated elements

Each of these seems minor, but together they compound into a poor user experience.

Code Quality Issues (The Technical Debt)

High Nesting Depth (4 levels): My JavaScript had logic nested 4 levels deep. VibeCodeArena flagged this as a maintainability concern and suggested flattening the logic.

Overly Specific CSS Selectors (depth: 9): My CSS had selectors 9 levels deep, making it brittle and hard to refactor. I thought I was being thorough; I was actually creating maintenance nightmares.

Code Duplication (7.9%): The platform detected nearly 8% code duplication across files. That's technical debt accumulating from day one.

Moderate Maintainability Index (67.5): While not terrible, the platform showed there's significant room for improvement in code maintainability.

Missing Best Practices (The Professional Touches)

The platform also flagged missing elements that separate hobby projects from professional code:

No 'use strict' directive in JavaScript
Missing package.json for dependency management
No test files
Missing README documentation
No .gitignore or version control setup
Could use functional array methods for cleaner code
Missing CSS animations for enhanced UX

The "Aha" Moment

Here's what hit me: I had no framework for evaluating code quality beyond "does it work?"

The carousel functioned. It was accessible. It had error handling. But I couldn't tell you if it was secure, optimized, or maintainable.

VibeCodeArena gave me that framework. It didn't just point out problems, it taught me what production-ready code looks like.

My New Workflow: The Learning Loop

This is when I discovered the real power of the platform. Here's my process now:

Step 1: Generate Code Using VibeCodeArena

I start with a prompt and let the AI generate the initial solution. This gives me a working baseline.

Step 2: Analyze Across Several Metrics

I can get comprehensive analysis across:

Security vulnerabilities
Performance/Efficiency issues
Performance optimization opportunities
Code Quality improvements

This is where I learn. Each issue includes explanation of why it matters and how to fix it.

Step 3: Click "Challenge" and Improve

Here's the game-changer: I click the "Challenge" button and start fixing the issues based on the suggestions. This turns passive reading into active learning.

Do I implement CSP headers correctly? Does flattening the nested logic actually improve readability? What happens when I add dns-prefetch hints?

I can even use AI to help improve my code. For this action, I can use from a list of several available models that don't need to be the same one that generated the code. This helps me to explore which models are good at what kind of tasks.

For my experiment, I decided to work on two suggestions provided by VibeCodeArena by preloading critical CSS/JS resources with <link rel="preload"> for faster rendering in index.html and by adding explicit width and height attributes to images to prevent layout shift in index.html. The code editor gave me change summary before I submitted by code for evaluation.

Step 4: Submit for Evaluation

After making improvements, I submit my code for evaluation. Now I see:

What actually improved (and by how much)
What new issues I might have introduced
Where I still have room to grow

Step 5: Hey, I Can Beat AI

My changes helped improve the performance metric of this simple code from 82% to 83% - Yay! But this was just one small change. I now believe that by acting upon multiple suggestions, I can easily improve the quality of the code that I write versus just relying on prompts.

Each improvement can move me up the leaderboard. I'm not just learning in isolation—I'm seeing how my solutions compare to other developers and AI models.

So, this is the loop: Generate → Analyze → Challenge → Improve → Measure → Repeat.

Every iteration makes me better at both evaluating AI code and writing better prompts.

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What This Means for Learning to Code with AI

This experience taught me three critical lessons:

1. Working ≠ Good Code

AI models are incredible at generating code that functions. But "it works" tells you nothing about security, performance, or maintainability.

The gap between "functional" and "production-ready" is where real learning happens. VibeCodeArena makes that gap visible and teachable.

2. Improvement Requires Measurement

I used to iterate on code blindly: "This seems better... I think?"

Now I know exactly what improved. When I flatten nested logic, I see the maintainability index go up. When I add CSP headers, I see security scores improve. When I optimize selectors, I see performance gains.

Measurement transforms vague improvement into concrete progress.

3. Competition Accelerates Learning

The leaderboard changed everything for me. I'm not just trying to write "good enough" code—I'm trying to climb past other developers and even beat the AI models.

This competitive element keeps me pushing to learn one more optimization, fix one more issue, implement one more best practice.

How the Platform Helps Me Become A Better Programmer

VibeCodeArena isn't just an evaluation tool—it's a structured learning environment. Here's what makes it effective:

Immediate Feedback: I see issues the moment I submit code, not weeks later in code review.

Contextual Education: Each issue comes with explanation and guidance. I learn why something matters, not just that it's wrong.

Iterative Improvement: The "Challenge" button transforms evaluation into action. I learn by doing, not just reading.

Measurable Progress: I can track my improvement over time—both in code quality scores and leaderboard position.

Comparative Learning: Seeing how my solutions stack up against others shows me what's possible and motivates me to reach higher.

What I've Learned So Far

Through this iterative process, I've gained practical knowledge I never would have developed just reading documentation:

How to implement Content Security Policy correctly
Why DOM depth matters for rendering performance
What CSS containment does and when to use it
How to structure code for better maintainability
Which performance optimizations actually make a difference

Each "Challenge" cycle teaches me something new. And because I'm measuring the impact, I know what actually works.

The Bottom Line

AI coding tools are incredible for generating starting points. But they don't produce high quality code and can't teach you what good code looks like or how to improve it.

VibeCodeArena bridges that gap by providing:

✓ Objective analysis that shows you what's actually wrong
✓ Educational feedback that explains why it matters
✓ A "Challenge" system that turns learning into action
✓ Measurable improvement tracking so you know what works
✓ Competitive motivation through leaderboards

My "simple image carousel" taught me an important lesson: The real skill isn't generating code with AI. It's knowing how to evaluate it, improve it, and learn from the process.

The future of AI-assisted development isn't just about prompting better. It's about developing the judgment to make AI-generated code production-ready. That requires structured learning, objective feedback, and iterative improvement. And that's exactly what VibeCodeArena delivers.

Here is a link to the code for the image carousal I used for my learning journey

#AIcoding #WebDevelopment #CodeQuality #VibeCoding #SoftwareEngineering #LearningToCode

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Upskilling And Reskilling: Ready To Future-Proof Your Workforce?

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