Why adaptability is the most valuable career skill in 2026

I've just won Data & Digital Transformation Leader 2026 at the Women in Packaging Excellence Awards, run by Packaging News.

Three years ago, I knew nothing about digital transformation. Today I lead the UK's transition to the next generation of barcodes at GS1 UK. The move from the stripey black-and-white barcode to QR codes that carry expiry dates, batch numbers and a product's whole history in a single scan.

Making that transition, and doing so in three years, is a remarkable achievement- but it's one that I believe many more of us will need to make over the next few years, so I felt it was important for me to write this down.

From FMCG brands to a barcode revolution

It looks like a huge leap, and it was. From the outside it probably looks like I had a plan.

I didn't.

Three years ago I managed a portfolio of FMCG brands. I knew that world inside out. Then I walked out of the most senior role I'd ever held and was instantly the least qualified person in the room. I didn't understand the technology. I didn't know the language. I asked questions I was slightly embarrassed not to know the answer to, in front of people who'd been doing this for years.

There was no course. No retraining. Just a willingness to be a beginner again. In public. At an age when you're meant to have it all worked out.

The future skills I helped map, then had to live

A few years ago, before any of this, I was part of a global project on future commercial skills.

Mapping which capabilities our industry would need. Which ones were running out of road.

That's where I first paid proper attention to the World Economic Forum's work on it. Around 40% of the skills we rely on are expected to be transformed or outdated by 2030. The ones rising fastest weren't the obvious technical ones.

They were adaptability. Curiosity. Technological literacy. The willingness to work with something new instead of being threatened by it.

I was helping map the future.

I didn't realise I was mapping my own.

Adapting. Learning constantly. Working with technology I'd never touched. The exact skills the research had pointed to. I'd written them down for other people, then walked straight into needing every one of them.

What this means if you're watching your own field change

I coach people through exactly this moment. Not the trophy. The bit before it.

The job that's getting smaller and more outdated by the month. The redundancies happening to people around you. The feeling of this isn't it, sitting right next to the fear that you haven't got what it takes to move.

If that's you, you're probably looking at people who've already pivoted and assuming they had something you don't.

They didn't.

They just started before they felt ready.

The award has my name on it. But what it's really recognising isn't expertise I arrived with. It's what happens when you're willing to begin again, in full view, without the map.

You don't need permission to do the same. You already have it.

Frequently asked questions

Who is Camilla Young?

I lead the UK's transition to the next generation of barcodes at GS1 UK, taking the retail industry from the traditional 1D barcode to QR codes powered by GS1. I'm also a career change and executive coach, working with people navigating change in their own working lives. I'm a top 100 retail technology influencer and recently won Digital Transformation Leader at the Women in Packaging Excellence Awards.

What is a QR code powered by GS1?

It's a QR code built on the GS1 Digital Link standard. As well as holding the product's identifier (the GTIN) so it still scans at the checkout, it can carry extra data such as the batch or lot number, expiry date and country of origin, and link a shopper straight through to ingredients, allergens, sourcing and recycling information. One code, many uses.

What are the most important future skills?

The World Economic Forum's research points to adaptability (resilience, flexibility and agility), curiosity and lifelong learning, and technological literacy among the skills rising fastest in importance through to 2030, alongside analytical and creative thinking. The pattern is clear: the most valuable skills are increasingly the human, transferable ones that let you move between disciplines rather than stay locked inside one.

Does Camilla Young offer career change coaching?

Yes. I coach people through career change and reinvention, particularly those who feel stuck, are facing redundancy, or sense their field shifting underneath them. If that sounds like where you are, you can learn more here.