| The field of instructional design and technology (IDT) has become an alternative career path for many former K-12 classroom teachers who have left the teaching profession. The purpose of this study was to determine the transferable skills, skills gaps, and their impacts on former K-12 educators who have made this career transition. A mixed methods explanatory sequential design was used for this study. A quantitative survey was used to identify the top five skills used by IDT professionals and received 109 responses. Results of the survey indicated that the five skills used most were working with subject matter experts, developing learning assets, using e-learning software and tools, applying principles of cognitive science and adult learning, and designing storyboards. The qualitative research followed a phenomenological design to collect the lived experiences of ten K-12 classroom teachers who have transitioned into the IDT career field and used the quantitative data to shape the focus of the research questions. Interviews were conducted via Zoom in a semi-structured interview format. After an inductive and deductive coding process, seven major themes along with subthemes were identified regarding the transferrable skills and skills gaps between K-12 teaching and IDT career fields. Identifying the transferrable skills illustrated how transitioning teachers can successfully adapt their current skillset to adult learning environments as well as appropriately target upskilling in weaker areas to meet the needs of the IDT field. Results also showed this career transition had a positive effect on participants overall job satisfaction and career outlook. |