CLOSING THE SKILLS GAP
Providing easy access to in-demand skills


UN Sustainable Goal 4 :
EDUCATION



4. "Achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development. This goal ensures that all girls and boys complete free primary and secondary schooling by 2030. It also aims to provide equal access to affordable vocational training, to eliminate gender and wealth disparities, and achieve universal access to a quality higher education."

Including 4.4: "By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship."

Source: Education-United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)



An API is a technology which allows web applications to communicate, coordinate, share information and a lot more from the databases of any two given websites. IPAs therefore appear to be particularly useful and valued in the field of education, since education is by nature an exchange of knowledge and skills. Thus, an educational API allows both the sharing of educational data and resources, and the addition of educational features and functions to applications. There are numerous APIs with an educational and skills-based focus, such as Linkedin Learning API, Emsi API, Softskill Percipio API, Skills API, Gateway API, OpenClassrooms API, Open API or Khan Academy API.
This module therefore represents a strong potential for the achievement of this UN Sustainable Development Goal, thus motivating my choice of study.

In-demand skills and APIs

Current in-demand skills:
- Hard skills (Data Science, AI, Cloud computing, User experience design, Blockchain, Business Analysis, sales...)
- Soft skills (Communication, Creativity, Change management, Decision making, Problem solving...)


In-demand skills are skills and knowledge required by employers at the time, in relevancy with the context. Indeed, skill needs continuously shift, creating a discrepancy between skills people already acquired and those still to learn. This phenomenon adds up to a long-existing skills gap defined as both the difference between the skills required for a job and the skills an employee actually possesses and the difference between the skills that employers want and those that are available from workers looking for a job. Inequalities in regard with both access to the list of skills required and access to a way of acquiring them emphasize this gap. The skills gap can be observed in every realm and no company is immune to it.
Thus asking how APIs could enhance in-demand skills' learning through providing an easier access to the skills required to get a specific job as well as to a way of gaining them. How could APIs bridge the gap?