Why can a role start to require new skills?
A role can keep the same title and start to require different knowledge. New procedures, tools, equipment or levels of autonomy change the way work is carried out, even when the core responsibilities remain similar.
The digital side of work is one of the areas where this difference is most visible. According to ANACOM, in 2025 around 30% of Portuguese companies with 10 or more employees had a high or very high Digital Intensity Index, below the European Union average. Construction, accommodation and food services, and manufacturing were among the sectors with lower levels.
This indicator measures companies’ adoption of technology, not workers’ individual skills, but it shows that the degree of digitalisation varies between organisations and sectors. As tools and processes evolve, the knowledge needed to perform certain roles may also change.
It is in this gap between what the role now requires and what the team is able to deliver that upskilling can make sense. Before moving forward, however, it is necessary to understand whether there really is a skills gap or whether the difficulty has another cause.
Upskilling and reskilling meet different needs
The need to develop skills may arise within the role itself or be linked to preparing for a different activity.
Upskilling to build on the current role
With upskilling, the aim is to strengthen or update capabilities that remain linked to the role being performed. This may mean learning new features of a tool, deepening a technical procedure or taking on greater autonomy.
The core role stays the same, but what the professional needs to know or be able to do evolves. This can happen, for example, when a task that previously required only execution also starts to involve checking indicators, validating information or resolving simple situations without supervision.
Reskilling to prepare for another role
With reskilling, learning prepares the professional to carry out a different activity. The aim is to acquire skills associated with another set of tasks and responsibilities.
The difference, therefore, lies in the purpose of the learning. For a company, this distinction helps clarify whether it needs to deepen existing skills within the team or prepare someone for a different role.
How can you tell whether there really is a skills gap?
A repeated mistake, a slower task or a frequent need for support do not, in themselves, mean that there is a skills gap.
In a team that starts making mistakes with a new procedure, the cause may be a lack of knowledge, but it may also lie in contradictory instructions, a lack of access to information or a poorly suited tool. If the cause lies in one of these factors, strengthening skills without fixing the underlying problem will have a limited effect.
Knowledge, practice and autonomy are not the same thing
A lack of practice is also different from a lack of knowledge. A professional may be able to explain a procedure and carry it out with support, but still not have enough practice to do it alone consistently. In that case, the knowledge is already there; what has not yet been consolidated is autonomy.
A professional may also carry out a routine task correctly but not know how to act when faced with an anomaly or a decision that requires more interpretation.
Before concluding that there is an upskilling need, it is worth understanding:
- what should be happening differently;
- at what point in the task the difficulty appears;
- whether what is missing is knowledge, practice or autonomy;
- whether the right tools, information and conditions are in place to carry out the task;
- whether the problem persists when the process is clearly defined.
This analysis avoids turning every operational difficulty into a learning need. In some cases, the skill is there and the problem lies in the way the work is organised.
Which skill needs to be developed, and to what level?
Identifying the area where there is a difficulty is not always enough. To define an upskilling need, you need to understand which skill is missing and to what level it should be developed.
The diagnostics available on gov.pt to assess digital skills show this difference: they look at areas such as searching and browsing, content creation and management, communication and sharing, safety and problem-solving. A professional may master some of these dimensions and struggle with others.
Technological change can also alter what a role requires. New tools or the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace can add tasks and call for a greater ability to interpret or validate information. The same applies to technical skills: knowing how to operate a piece of equipment under normal conditions does not necessarily mean knowing how to respond to an anomaly or decide when to ask for support.
The level of proficiency should therefore match the responsibility associated with the role. There is a difference between carrying out a task with support, performing it independently and being able to act in less predictable situations.
Nor is it necessary to develop every skill in every member of the team. When a frequent task depends on a single person, developing that capability in another professional can reduce that dependency and make the team more multi-skilled. In highly specific activities, maintaining specialisation may be more appropriate.
From learning to applying it at work
Identifying the right skill does not mean the professional can already apply it independently. Even when they understand a procedure, they may need practice to consolidate how they carry it out, especially when faced with situations different from those they first encountered.
It is in real-world application that you can see whether new knowledge actually changes the way a task is carried out. If the aim was to increase autonomy, this progress may become visible in a reduced need for support with familiar tasks. If a tool or procedure was involved, it is important to check whether the professional can use it correctly in the situations where it is needed.
When this change does not happen, repeating the same learning is not always the answer. The difficulty may lie in a lack of practice, the low frequency of the task or working conditions that continue to limit the work. In these cases, going back to the original cause is necessary to understand whether the skill still needs to be consolidated or whether there is another problem to solve.
Did this topic help?
Upskilling makes most sense when it responds to a specific need within the team. Identifying the gap, defining the level of proficiency required and understanding who needs to develop that skill makes it possible to align learning with the real demands of the role.
If you represent a company, discover Timing’s solutions and find out how we support recruitment processes, temporary work and human resources management, with solutions tailored to your organisation’s needs.
If you are looking for a career opportunity, explore our available vacancies and register on our website to access all job offers in Portugal, from north to south and the islands.
Follow us on social media to keep up to date with our latest news and opportunities.
Back