5 Reasons Why Upskilling Your Dev Team Is Critical for Growth

Future-Proofing Your Business

Running a development business is always a balance between cutting-edge and older, more established technologies. Cutting-edge frameworks enable you to build more complex features quickly, but require an upfront investment of learning time. Plus, they might not turn out to be as good as they’re hyped up to be.

Nevertheless, it’s easier to adapt to changes in the industry when your devs are up to date with the latest programming frameworks, tools, and methodologies — even if they don’t use them right now. That way, you won’t waste time catching up with the trends because you’ll be able to adopt them as soon as they become relevant.

For example, in 2019, AI, along with mixed reality and the Internet of Things, was listed among the top emerging trends of software development. Developers who entered those fields early have been able to capitalize on their knowledge, particularly now that AI has hit the mainstream.

In the same vein, companies that encourage their developers to get a head start on emerging trends like sustainable software development and languages whose popularity is rising, like Rust and RealityKit, can effectively future-proof their business.

Conversely, companies that neglect upskilling risk increased skill and technical gaps, as well as poor business alignment.

Therefore, by upskilling your dev teams, you ensure they remain relevant and ready to rise to any challenges that the future holds.

Next Steps to Upskill Your Teams

Now that you have a general idea of why you should prioritize upskilling your dev teams, it’s up to you to take the necessary steps to create a learning path for your developers.

Seek your team members’ input via surveys and interviews to find out what interests them and which skills they consider to be the most valuable. Then, you can establish a strategy that benefits both your company and your developers.

Depending on your industry, you can explore relevant courses, tutorials, podcasts, coding challenges, bootcamps, hackathons, events, and conferences.

For instance, if your developers enjoy learning from podcasts, they can check out gems like:

• The Kodeco Podcast
• DeveloperTea
• DataSkeptic
• Practical AI and
• The Soft Skills Engineering Podcast

On the other end of the spectrum, bootcamps offer the opportunity to learn a lot in a short amount of time.

Finally, at Kodeco, there are a variety of resources at your disposal, to help your developers start their upskilling journey.

Key Takeaways

Here are the key points for you to keep in mind as you weigh the benefits of upskilling your dev team:

• Enhanced knowledge and exposure to various platforms and practices lead to fresh perspectives and innovative solutions, ultimately improving software quality. This leads to benefits like better monetization and increased user retention.
• Developers who are familiar with multiple platforms can communicate and collaborate more effectively with teams working on different technologies.
• Skilled devs need less time and money to build great solutions.
• Offering opportunities for continuous learning and skill development improves employee satisfaction and reduces turnover.
• By proactively staying updated, businesses can easily adopt emerging trends without lagging behind their competitors.

For additional insights, join Kodeco’s forums, where you can find like-minded individuals willing to share their experiences and offer advice. Or engage with our thriving community on Discord.