Ensuring your skills line up with the future of the workforce should be the number one priority of any employee now. It is unlikely that the skills you currently possess will be completely utilized in the future of work, so identifying and adapting your skills based on current trends is the best way to stay relevant in the uncertain future. To that end, following the development of technology is arguably the best way to stay ahead of the disruption that will be caused.
Technology is a double-edged sword in that it makes the entire process of work move faster, but is responsible for the loss of jobs in every industry. In fact, Fortunly discussed how 37 per cent of workers feared losing their jobs due to automation, and the number of industrial robot jobs increased by 14 per cent each year. Rest easy, however, knowing that creative destruction will ensure jobs for humans rise to replace those lost. With that in mind, you will need to be sure that your skills line up with those jobs, which requires preemptive action today.
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
Invest in Additional Education
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
Becoming a forever student is one of the best ways to ensure your skills are always relevant. There is no shortage of technological developments and trying to learn them all on your own can be a difficult task. Therefore, considering attending a popular trade school may help you gain the knowledge needed to keep your skills up to date.
On that note, options such as Thinkful can teach you the basics of tech-based fields ranging from UX design to web development. This option is also comparatively cheaper than graduate school and doesn’t require any prior degree to enroll. There is certainly a cost attached to these trade schools, but they are a mere fraction of what other institutions may charge.
Educating yourself on new and emerging trends is the best way to stay ahead of any disruption. Doing so will put you at the forefront of the disruption and companies will see you as the future of work, which may lead to a better and more lucrative career in the future.
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
Start Following Technological Fields
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
You cannot keep your skills up to date if you don’t understand what you are keeping them up to date for. To revamp your skillset, you will need to study the emerging technological fields and the various jobs that they offer. Computer science, for example, is a new field that has become popular among college students looking for a major.
This field has given way to a number of new jobs all based in tech that use a wide array of skills most current employees don’t have. One of the largest skills is coding. Numerous coding languages have emerged over the years, such as Python or Java, and professionals who understand these languages are becoming high in demand.
Fast Company wrote an article in which they discussed the importance of becoming a coder and the numerous careers offered by this skill. There are a number of highly-rated coding bootcamps that can give anyone the skills needed to enter a coding career, but they are often overlooked because people don’t take the time to study this trend.
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
Don’t Settle For the Skills You Already Have
Keeping Your Skills up to Date
Keeping your skills up to date for the future of work means accepting that your skills won’t always be relevant. There’s nothing wrong with this because it is just how the workforce works. Jobs come and go, as do skills. Recognizing this and identifying which skills can be improved is the best way to keep yourself relevant in the future.
Focus on your strengths and ask yourself why a company should hire you. Doing this can reveal which of your skills are most dynamic and important, as well as which aren’t. From there, you can focus on phasing out the non-important skills in favor of more helpful traits.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s impossible to predict every single disruption that technology will cause. Despite this, you can still take steps today to stay ahead of the disruption and ensure that your skills are up to date for the future of work. Doing so may actually save you from a future job loss and could potentially even lead to a promotion to a more lucrative line of work in the future. Try not to ever become comfortable with the job market, as it tends to always go through some sort of disruption. Staying ahead of this by keeping your skills up to date is your best shot at a long-lasting career.