Training Yourself
To remain continually employed in the modern jobs landscape, workers must take it upon themselves to constantly self-educate and self-train to gain new knowledge and skills.
What I read: Training Yourself: The 21st Century Credential (paid link) by Charles D. Hayes. Published March 15, 2000.
A long time ago, I read this book by Charles D. Hayes and it was transformative. Hayes, who resides in Alaska, is a self-taught philosopher and has been one of our country’s most vocal proponents for lifelong learning as a means to self-improvement and continued employability.
When I first read the short but remarkable Training Yourself many years ago, it validated what I already knew from my own professional trajectory. Ultimately, it’s up to each of us to make sure we have the information and skills we need to remain continuously employed.
Hayes dedicated much of his work to promoting the idea that education is not something you get but something you take. Champions of self-education have often referred to this as “pull” versus “push” education, pulling education to us rather than waiting for someone else to push it into our brains.
Based on the published price I’m seeing to buy the book today, my guess is it’s out of print. That said, it’s honestly worth whatever price you have to pay for it. It’s that good. However, I think I can provide the gist of Hayes’ message here.
On some level, Hayes was prescient. Look at all the layoffs happening today and the quickly shifting workplace landscape.
Always assume you are in the midst of another reorganization.
For example, who would have thought artificial intelligence (AI) would become so prominent as a technological advancement we’d have to learn about to remain employed. In fact, I just recently posted this on a professional social media platform.
My best career advice. Learn as much as you can about AI. Have a backup career plan if your job is replaced by AI.
Perhaps AI won’t replace massive numbers of jobs in the short term, but still, it’s clear that going forward workers are going to need to be ready to pivot and shift quickly to make sure they keep a paycheck coming in. Whether it’s AI, other technology, or drastic shifts in an entire employment sector, we have to keep learning, forever.
The bottom line is that knowledge and competence are the best means of obtaining and maintaining employment security, and nothing is surer or more reliable for gaining it than the process of self-education.
As for workplace training, few businesses and companies provide adequate training today. On some level, there’s no way any company could possibly keep their employees continually and adequately trained to maintain current knowledge and skills to do their job. Sure, it would be nice, but it rarely happens.
What Hayes said in his book back in 2000 is even more true today. In the book, Hayes addresses the fact that many employees complain that they don't receive adequate training from their companies.
You’ve probably heard this familiar refrain hundreds of times, especially if you have a lot of work experience: 'I never got any training in that subject,' or 'We never get any training.' Well, guess what? If you wait for someone else to give you what you should take for yourself, you’re in for tough times. The twenty-first century is likely to become unemployment hell for people who wait to receive from others what they ought to be taking for themselves as instinctively as taking in a breath of fresh air after a hard run.
After decades working in corporate life and even though I worked for some great companies, what Hayes said is absolutely true.
Hayes offers four reasons why he believes workers will find it essential to be able to prove their expertise in light of the fast-changing and dynamic nature of the modern workplace. And such proof will increasingly rely on something other than a college degree or certifications.
The rapid growth of new or updated information results in new knowledge containing the seed of its own destruction. We can’t rely on information or needed skills remaining static for very long. This means workers seeking to maintain a current education must become good self-educators.
The era of the dominance of the expert is waning, The former stranglehold some institutions and individuals had on knowledge is no longer possible. This means that what you know and can do is rather quickly becoming far more important than how you learned those things.
Our capitalist economy is changing. Of course, it’s always changed. But the speed of change increases every day. Technology in particular is propelling these changes. Also, unlike the long-term permanent jobs of the past, many positions are now being done by temporary, gig, or contract workers and Hayes believes that trend will continue. Security in any one position is no longer something we can count on.
The global economy is also quickly changing, again in large part due to technological innovation. Hayes believed there will be a progressive and continuous trend toward lower wages for unskilled labor and mid-level knowledge workers. Those who can develop and maintain a high-level of knowledge and skill in their areas of professional expertise will enjoy less competition in the job marketplace. Intellectual capital is increasingly becoming the most leveraged asset of companies and organizations, but it’s incumbent upon workers to make sure that capital is maintained or there’s going to be someone right behind you ready to take that job.
Hayes once said this.
The temporary nature of our lives may be a reason for unavoidable despair, but such is the price of intelligence – it doesn't render our lives meaningless. To the contrary, the opportunity to live a life as a human being makes us the most fortunate creatures on the planet. We should be experts at being human and creating a world where humans can thrive.
I think that’s a nice place to end this post. The ability to self-train and self-educate is something I hope everyone embraces because it makes all our lives better and keeps us working in the sometimes-chaotic jobs marketplace.
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