Tech skill gaps are decimating the global workforce and could put workers—and companies—in crisis

Salesforce released its Global Digital Skills Index on Thursday, which offers insights into how the global workforce feels about the future of work in a world that continues to prioritize tech savviness and a digital-first mindset.

The report found 76% of respondents said they do not feel prepared for that future.

The survey, which was conducted between November and December 2021 across 19 countries, looked at 14 “workplace digital skills” ranging from creative design to encryption and cybersecurity while also taking into account six “everyday digital skills” like social media and web navigation.

Of the 23,661 workers, ages 18 to 65, who completed the survey, Salesforce found that 28% are actively involved in digital skills training. Just 17% consider themselves “advanced” in workplace digital skills, while 49% consider themselves “beginner.” 

Of all skills, knowledge of collaborative technologies like Slack and Microsoft Teams was deemed the most important by 63% of respondents. Only 25% rated themselves “advanced” in that category.

The report also identified key generational differences. Roughly half (51%) of all respondents said they were interested in acquiring new digital skills, but that enthusiasm isn’t spread evenly across age groups. While 83% of Gen-Z respondents said that they are actively involved in learning new skills, just 12% of baby boomers are.

Marquita Sidibe, a 43-year-old senior systems support analyst for Liberty Mutual, decided to make a career change in 2015 and go back to school for additional training. She had been working in food service at an Indianapolis country club for 11 years when she began to ask herself: “I can’t advance any more with this position, what else is out there?” 

Feeling comfortable with her finances and in a stable place with her family, she enrolled in a local community college and earned a technical certificate in software development while continuing to bartend on the side.

This career change couldn’t have come at a better time. Over the course of the pandemic, she watched many friends struggle to find work amid restaurant shutdowns, while she felt protected from the job market’s volatility thanks in part to her new digital skill set.

 “I think that the last 18 months have taught us that if you’re not digital then you’ll just fall by the wayside,” she says.

 “I think that the last 18 months have taught us that if you’re not digital then you’ll just fall by the wayside.”Marquita Sidibe, senior Systems Support Analyst, Liberty Mutual

With the onset of the pandemic, it “became this imperative” for workers to develop their digital skill sets, says Kris Lande, senior vice president of marketing and community at Salesforce, where she directs Trailhead, the company’s free platform for workplace skills education. 

Over the ensuing months, workers had to either confront the changes head-on, or, as Trailhead user Sidibe warns, fall by the wayside. “When COVID hit, we saw a 40% increase in sign-ups to Trailhead,” says Lande, who notes that skills that became essential overnight are not those “traditionally taught in a four-year [college]” and are therefore harder to acquire.

In a statement Salesforce shared with Fortune, the company places the onus on tech companies to help workers gain digital skills they need: 

“The pandemic and its impacts displaced millions of workers around the world. At the same time, companies need workers with the right skills to lead digital transformations today and into the future. Tech companies have a responsibility to address this disconnect. By creating affordable avenues for learning in-demand skills, tech companies can create a more inclusive workforce across the technology industry.”

While workshops and online courses offered by tech companies can offer a path to acquire relevant digital skills, it can still be out of reach for vulnerable subsets of the general population, like older adults.

Adults over 50, especially women and people of color, represent a demographic that’s seen increasing financial hardship since the pandemic began, Lisa Ryerson, president of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Foundation, tells Fortune. “What we see across the organization is that many, many older adults need to continue working,” says Ryerson.

Over the past two years, Ryerson says that she and her colleagues at AARP have noticed “significant job loss among older adults” occurring simultaneously with “an acceleration in demand for workers who are skills-ready in terms of a broad range of digital skills.”

Yesterday, Google announced it would contribute $10 million to the AARP Foundation with the aim of training older adults and a focus on those in marginalized communities, in digital skills. The investment underscores what Ryerson sees as an imperative to keep older adults engaged with the changing nature of work in the U.S., where people are increasingly working beyond the age of 65. 

For Ryerson, access to jobs in tech and digital-first industries is essential to the foundation’s mission of eliminating senior poverty. “Digital skills increasingly are components of quality jobs,” she says. “Jobs that have family-sustaining wages, benefits, that help individuals across their lives be financially secure.” 

For workers, getting to a place where you can begin to acquire new skills, though, is not just a question of deciding to do it, argues Sidibe. “In our household, we do have access to the internet,” she notes. “But there are some that don’t. What would they do?”