Reskill means learning new skills, especially for a different career. Standard workplace vocabulary, common in conversations about AI displacing jobs. Not concerning, useful word. If your kid uses it constantly, ask them where they first heard it, not to police their speech but to understand which online community they are in. Most slang of this kind moves through TikTok and group chats, so seeing it in your child's vocabulary just means they are plugged into normal teen internet culture.
reskill
Retraining an employee for a different role — sometimes a genuine career opportunity, often corporate-speak for "your job just became AI-done."
riːˈskɪlDocumented since 1980s1980sGen XhistoricalCurrent402 viewsLast reviewed Jun 29, 2026＋ Add a definition
Etymology timeline
Born ~1980 · 1 year of recorded useGen X eraSee decade cohort →
Seen in the wild
Firecrawl: Lloyds boss warns bankers must 'reskill themselves' to survive AI ...Jan 2026
Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian [View image in fullscreen](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/29/lloyds-charlie-nunn-warns-bankers-reskill-themselves-impact-ai#img-1) AI is ‘going to radically…
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Wikipedia: CyberFirst
The programme collaborated with the Government of the United Kingdom to run a "Rethink Reskill Reboot" campaign.
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Definitions
Global
+456100%
#1·Apr 24, 2026Global
Retraining an employee for a different role — sometimes a genuine career opportunity, often corporate-speak for "your job just became AI-done."
"HR called it reskilling. IC called it redundancy."
Origin: Modern corporate and agile-methodology lexicon.
For parents
Reskill means learning new skills, especially for a different career. Standard workplace vocabulary, common in conversations about AI displacing jobs. Not concerning, useful word. If your kid uses it constantly, ask them where they first heard it, not to police their speech but to understand which online community they are in. Most slang of this kind moves through TikTok and group chats, so seeing it in your child's vocabulary just means they are plugged into normal teen internet culture.
For ESL learners
Reskill is a workplace verb meaning to acquire new skills, typically for a career transition. Use in HR, business, and education writing. Formal equivalent: "acquire new vocational skills," "retrain." Common non-native mistake: confusing with "upskill" (improving existing skills). Reskill implies a more substantial pivot to different competencies, often after technological displacement. Read or listen to the word in context several times before trying it yourself; the right register is harder to learn than the dictionary meaning.
Cluster: authentic
Heard in the wild
“Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian [View image in fullscreen](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jan/29/lloyds-charlie-nunn-warns-bankers-reskill-themselves-impact-ai#img-1) AI is ‘going to radically change how customers experience financial services’, says Charlie Nunn.”
“The programme collaborated with the Government of the United Kingdom to run a "Rethink Reskill Reboot" campaign.”
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Show 2 more dictionary-style senses (imported)
Global
#2·May 2, 2026Global
To retrain workers in the skills needed by modern business, especially after redundancy.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Global
#3·May 2, 2026Global
To learn additional skills.
Source: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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For specific readers
Why is this section here?
Slang is read by different audiences for very different reasons. The For parents view re-explains the term in plain, non-judgemental language so a caregiver can understand what their child means without needing the surrounding subculture. The For English learners view focuses on register (when it's safe to use), formal alternatives, and common mistakes — what a textbook won't teach you.
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Other words near "reskill" (R)
resident doctorResidentSleeperresiliationresistant materialsresistoidreskeetreskill arcreskill checkreskill codedreskill energyreskillerreskill fail
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Semantically related
- upskill73%
To learn new skills — especially ones your employer wants you to have. HR-speak that now appears unironically in resumes. "AI upskilling workshops" are the 2025 office sacrament: mandatory, vague, potentially useful, definitely photographed for the LinkedIn post.
- reskiller73%
Someone who pivots hard into learning new skills, especially when their previous career path gets disrupted by automation, layoffs, or industry shifts. A reskiller doesn't wallow — they enroll, they grind bootcamps at 11pm, they earn certifications while everyone else is complaining on LinkedIn. Equal parts necessity and hustle mentality, the reskiller is the worker who refuses to be made obsolete without a fight.
- reskill mode73%
The focused, heads-down state someone enters when they've committed to learning an entirely new set of skills — no distractions, just tutorials, courses, and relentless practice. Reskill mode is often triggered by a job loss, an industry shakeup, or a personal wake-up call. When someone goes into reskill mode, their social calendar disappears and their browser history becomes a stack of YouTube tutorials, Udemy receipts, and Reddit threads about career switches.