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The world of employment is changing faster than ever. Technological advances, international events and demographic trends are shortening the "lifespan" of employees' skills and rapidly changing the workforce needs of companies. This is the case with digital skills, for example, as new technological possibilities are introduced every day. The explosion of remote working has caused previously overlooked skills to become more important.

So far, many companies have been operating in a fragmented way: data on workforce skills are collected but not used holistically for long-term workforce planning or management decisions. In the same way, people know their employees need to acquire new skills, but are not sure what kind of additional training or retraining they actually need.

Kadri-Liis Kusmin, PhD student at Tallinn University's School of Digital Technologies, shows that the key lies in the systematic use of skills intelligence. This will enable organisations to better cope with changing circumstances and develop employees’ skills with timely and relevant training. To solve these problems, Kusmin developed the SIMPIE framework within her PhD thesis, which helps organisations organise and use skills intelligence step by step.

"The SIMPIE framework helps bring clarity by creating a coherent system that supports the employees’ development, the organisation’s flexibility and strategic decision-making," explains the doctoral student. SIMPIE, or Skills Intelligence Management Planning, Implementation and Evaluation, supports the structuring, implementation and evaluation of skills intelligence management.

The doctoral thesis involved testing and developing solutions with businesses and education partners in four research cycles. This resulted in a framework, an assessment tool to measure the maturity of an organisation's skills intelligence and its management, and a set of principles for the development of information systems to ensure the long-term support of skills intelligence. In this way, the SIMPIE framework provides a more solid basis for planning workforce development and retraining.

The thesis provides a practical tool for businesses, but also aims to have a wider societal impact. The framework will support lifelong learning and help policy makers better understand the skills needed in a future society.

 

The thesis defence

Kadri-Liis Kusmin is a PhD student at Tallinn University's School of Digital Technologies. Her PhD thesis is "Counteracting Skills Instability: A Framework and Methodology for Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Skills Intelligence Management".

The public defence of the thesis will take place on 22 September 2025 at 18:00 in Tallinn University Hall M648.

The public can view the defence and ask the degree candidate questions on .

The supervisors of the thesis are Peter Normak, Professor at Tallinn University and Timo Tobias Ley, Professor at Tallinn University.

The opponents are Stefan Thalmann, Professor at the University of Graz and David Romero, Professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education.

The doctoral thesis is available in the  digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library.