In the past 12 weeks more than 2.2m employees have been furloughed in the UK.

We asked our own international community of professionals and uhubs members how they felt about the situation. Of those that have been furloughed, 92% said they intend on using the time to improve their own skillset.

Back in 2018...

Back in 2018 (when we were still able to hug people...) my Cofounder Ash and I felt a new solution to workplace learning was required.

Ash started building digital marketing skills in his parents attic in Birmingham and used these skills to become the first Marketing Director at Just Eat.

I went the usual university route before building my own mentor network to learn the practical startup business skills I craved.

But not all employees have networks of coaches and mentors to call upon.

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“The skills gap is costing UK firms £6bn a year”

Mckinsey 2019

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Mckinsey recently stressed the importance of upskilling that enables individuals to stay relevant in a more dynamic and digitized labor market.

The damage to the economy that COVID-19 has caused is still being understood by experts. We feel the rebuild will require a better equipped workforce who are able to rapidly develop the most in demand skills to solve our big problems.

This is why we are building Uhubs.

Uhubs helps professionals learn state of the art skills through live masterclasses and 1:1 coaching from real world experts.

Our mission is to upskill 1 billion people by 2030.

If you are interested in learning more about how Uhubs can help support your staff, please get in touch at hello@uhubs.co.uk and I would be happy to share my insights and what other leaders are doing to support their employees.