Outskilling in 2025: Real Workforce Strategy or Just Talk?

What Is Outskilling? Navigating New Skills in Today’s Economy

We're often awash in workforce buzzwords, and the trends they describe often outpace reality. One older term making the rounds lately is outskilling: the idea that employers provide training programs to employees whose jobs are being eliminated, preparing them for career opportunities elsewhere. It sounds noble—and perhaps strategic. You can understand its appeal in light of the broad workforce disruptions forecasted from AI.  But does it actually happen in 2025?

Let’s pause for a moment to distinguish outskilling from its close cousins:

• Upskilling is about training employees to advance within the same company.

• Reskilling is about training employees to take on a different role, usually internally.

• Outskilling, however, is typically offered because the company may not intend to retain the employee. It prepares workers—often those facing layoffs, automation, or stagnation—for careers outside the organization.

This nuance matters: outskilling is not just a benefit, it’s often a strategic exit plan. It helps companies soften the blow of redundancy while protecting their employer brand. And yet, despite over five years of chatter, outskilling seems to remain mostly a rhetorical concept.

The term first gained traction around 2019, notably in a Forbes article by Allison Salisbury. At the time, analysts pointed to programs like Amazon’s Career Choice and Nokia’s Bridge program as early examples of a shift away from traditional outplacement. By 2020, amid mass layoffs triggered by COVID-19, calls for outskilling to become the “new normal” intensified. Surveys suggested that 80–89% of CEOs valued outskilling in theory. In practice,  fewer had likely structured them for planned exits.

So, where does that leave us in 2025?

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Amazon’s Career Choice: A Robust Upskilling Program for Developing Skills

Amazon has invested more than $1.2 billion into its Upskilling 2025 pledge, which includes a standout initiative called Career Choice. This program pre-pays tuition for frontline workers to earn certificates or degrees in high-demand fields like medical technology, trucking, and IT—even if the roles are outside Amazon.

This is one of the few real programs that approaches outskilling. It explicitly helps workers prepare for new careers beyond Amazon. By offering access to technical skills, soft skills, and online courses, the company enables workers to pursue career growth and career advancement elsewhere, while also benefiting from higher retention during the training period.

Unlike typical upskilling, Amazon’s Career Choice is distinctive in that it explicitly supports external transitions, even though the company does not necessarily intend for employees to leave. The goal is to give workers the flexibility and resources to pursue new paths, whether inside or outside the company, while enhancing retention and brand reputation in the process. Employees benefit by developing new skills at their own pace, often tied to specific career paths aligned with today’s ever-evolving job market.

Walmart’s Upskilling Focus: Employee Development and On-the-Job Training

Walmart has expanded its Live Better U (LBU) education benefit program to fill critical skills roles internally. In 2024, Walmart doubled its short-form certificate programs to prepare workers for in-demand positions in store management, supply chain, health services, and tech.

This is part of a broader upskilling program that emphasizes developing skills that are urgently needed for business continuity. However, this initiative is primarily an upskilling effort, not outskilling. The focus is on employee development, increasing employee retention, and helping workers take advantage of career development opportunities within Walmart.

That said, by emphasizing continuous learning, leadership skills, and workplace learning, the company is fostering a learning environment and building a stronger skills pipeline for employees for the future.

McDonald’s Archways: Continuous Learning and Professional Associations in Practice

McDonald’s offers Archways to Opportunity, funding GEDs, college credits, and ESL classes for frontline workers. This initiative helps employees pursue personal growth and career progression, often leading to improved job prospects both inside and outside the company.

While Archways is not explicitly positioned as an outskilling program, its focus on skills development, professional development, and lifelong learning makes it a borderline example. It offers workers portable education and connections to professional associations and credentials—yet without an express strategy to prepare them for job exit.

Public Sector Outskilling: Identify Skills Gaps and Build for Tomorrow

Outskilling also exists in the public sector. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded a $2 million grant in April 2025 to help retrain more than 2,000 laid-off Boeing workers in Washington State. These training programs include skills gap analysis, career coaching, and support for pursuing certifications aligned with high-growth industries like green energy and defense.

This is more akin to outskilling: the initiative exists to help dislocated workers transition into entirely new careers, not return to their old employers. The intention is clear—equip them with advanced skills, relevant skills, and technology skills for a shifting labor market.

Similarly, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) launched NOVAnext in early 2025. The program offers free short-term training and certifications to recently laid-off federal workers in project management, IT, and HR sectors with strong job market demand.

NOVA’s program is explicitly designed to help workers fill skill gaps, track progress, and gain access to new career opportunities through structured development. Programs like these use employee feedback and local industry trends to shape their offerings, making them responsive and targeted for actual job placement.

Outskilling and the Modern Workforce: Understanding the Job Market and Employee Retention

Despite the occasional headline, outskilling is not an emerging trend in 2025. While a few high-profile programs (like Amazon's Career Choice or government-funded retraining grants) have outward-facing components, almost none are explicitly or intentionally built around preparing employees for a planned exit.

The vast majority of what’s labeled as outskilling today is more accurately described as upskilling and reskilling. These efforts aim to retain employees or redeploy them internally, not transition them out. Even Amazon’s Career Choice, while enabling external mobility, primarily functions as an education benefit that improves short-term retention.

Despite a few isolated cases, there is no strong evidence that outskilling is emerging as a genuine trend in 2025. Most examples are better described as internal development programs, and intentional, structured programs to train workers specifically for exit remain extremely rare. Programs like Amazon's Career Choice, the DOL's Boeing grant, and NOVA's retraining initiative clearly meet the criteria for outskilling.

By contrast, many corporate programs described as outskilling are actually forms of internal upskilling efforts, focused on retaining talent and meeting internal demand. These may prepare workers for career advancement, but not necessarily career exits.

Still, as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technological advancements reshape the workforce, the pressure to invest in training employees and future-proof business objectives will only intensify. Companies that help employees learn and navigate transitions may see improved employee satisfaction, higher business outcomes, and stronger organizational growth.

Final Thoughts: The Promise and Limits of Outskilling and the Benefits of Upskilling

Outskilling may have started as a buzzword, and for now, it largely remains one. Despite isolated efforts like Amazon’s Career Choice or government retraining grants, there is little evidence that employers in 2025 are systematically preparing workers for departure or investing in structured outskilling programs. The concept continues to be discussed more often than it is practiced, especially for companies navigating workforce reduction, role elimination, and technology-driven workforce development.

With the original hype dating back to 2019, the idea of outskilling has yet to materialize at scale. Even though the benefits of upskilling remain clear and specific skills are in demand, most employers have not made the shift to include exit-focused training. To remain competitive, they may need to reconsider how they invest in talent, not just for their needs but for the learning culture and employment brand that they foster.

Want to see how real-time workforce data can help your organization identify skills gaps and support smarter talent transitions? Book a free demo of Aura’s workforce analytics platform and take the first step toward a data-driven upskilling and workforce strategy.