African agriculture powering economic transformation
We live in a very dynamic world. As we always hear, everything changes, except the law of change itself. No profession and no career remains constant. This means, therefore, that even the skills you need to do your job today will be different from those you will need to do the same job tomorrow. In fact, your job may no longer be needed tomorrow and, so, you may need to think of the skills that you will need to find the new jobs that will arise tomorrow.
I had an interesting incident in one of my past jobs. We had some very specialised systems in one of the sections of my department then. The two people that had the specialist knowledge left the company, and so, we had no one to take charge of the specialised systems. We then remembered that we had someone in the department who had worked on those systems some three years prior to that. We transferred the gentleman back to the section for cover. However, the gentleman struggled to drive and operate the systems. We asked him why he was unable to manage the systems in a section that he had mastered not long ago. He said that even within the three or so years, technology had changed so much that he did not even know where ‘to begin.’
In fact, this gentleman went on to suggest that it was going to be easier to train someone without any prior knowledge in similar systems than to train someone that knew the older version of similar systems. This goes to prove that we all need to keep our skills dynamic, progressive and ever fresh.
Another major trigger for the need to keep upgrading our skills is the fact that we all want to progress in our career by taking on bigger responsibilities, by taking on jobs that are more challenging or jobs that pay better. If we remain stagnant with the skills, we become ‘obsolete’, irrelevant and valueless.
Everyone needs a personal skills development plan. This plan needs to consider where you want to be in your career in the next three years, five years as well as in the long-term like 10 years’ time. That vision gives you the chance to accurately estimate the type of skills you will need in future. Then you can identify the gap between the skills set that you have right now and the totality of the skills that you will need in the future. That gap is what you now need to fill through a skills development plan.
You need to itemise all the skills that you do not have today. Then draw up a plan that addresses each of the identified missing skills. You will cover the missing gaps in a variety of ways. One obvious way is by signing up for a training, which you can attend physically. The advantage of this approach is that one tends to fully understand the content by attending the training physically. Another alternative way is by pursuing an online training course. The advantage of this approach is that you can access such a training from anywhere in the world, provided you have access to Internet.
Another great way to acquire the missing skills is through hands-on training. This could be by joining a company or team that does something that requires the skills that you are seeking to learn. Join them so that you can learn and master those skills.
As we grow older, we face challenge from younger generations who are more agile, progressive and adaptable. You need to accept this reality and then work to minimise the age-induced disadvantage that you may have regarding progressively upgrading your skills. The good news is that with time and age, you have better experience, which once you combine with progressive skills can make you the best candidate for best top jobs of tomorrow. Good luck! n
