AI is Changing Jobs: Why Employers Must Stop Ignoring Transferable Skills

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally reshaping workplace tasks and the skills required to perform them. As industries evolve, the ability for workers to move between jobs—and even entire sectors—is becoming increasingly critical. This shift places significant pressure on adaptation, particularly for women, who face greater exposure to automation and AI changes due to their concentration in specific industries.

While much of the current discourse focuses on workers needing to reskill and retrain, there is a crucial missing piece: employers must also become more flexible. The assumption that changing industries means starting from zero is outdated. Our research highlights that career changers bring valuable, transferable skills that are often overlooked by rigid hiring practices.

The Power of Transferable Skills

Our study focused on 655 women working in Australian construction companies. While some started their careers in construction, many had transitioned from unrelated fields such as healthcare, education, transport, finance, hospitality, and manufacturing. These career changers brought essential skills including:

• Management and Coordination
• Communication and Collaboration
• Diverse Professional Experience

One participant, a former commercial pilot turned engineering consultant, noted: "I do have a lot of experience, and I do have lot of relevant skills that I think I bring to the table too." However, possessing these skills is different from having employers recognize them.

Breaking Down Barriers

The Australian construction industry faces a severe workforce shortage, with approximately 20,000 unfilled jobs. Women currently make up only 13% of the 1.37 million workers in this sector. Increasing female participation could add 51,000 workers by 2029, potentially reducing the workforce gap by 44%.

Despite this potential, many career changers enter industries through informal networks rather than formal recruitment. One woman shared how vital these connections were: "If I […] didn’t have access to this network, I’m not sure how I’d even go about starting. I’d find it intimidating, and would presume my qualifications wouldn’t marry with the expectations."

This reliance on networks reveals a systemic issue: without industry contacts, candidates may assume their skills are irrelevant. Hiring managers acknowledge this paradox. One manager admitted: "I don’t believe the obstacle is with the candidate; I think it’s us not being creative enough to create roles or positions that would suit the skill set of those candidates..."

Rethinking Hiring Criteria

Specialist roles will always require specific training. However, for roles in administration, finance, safety, and environmental work, transferable skills are highly valuable, and industry-specific knowledge can be learned on the job.

Employers should shift their focus from strict industry history to a more dynamic assessment:

1. What existing skills does the candidate bring?
2. What can they learn quickly?
3. What genuinely requires prior industry experience?

As AI continues to disrupt the labor market, adaptability must be a two-way street. Workers need to evolve, but employers must evolve too by recognizing the true value of diverse professional backgrounds.