Starting a new career is never easy. It comes with many uncertainties, and typically there is no clear path to take. Rather, starting a second career is a fluid process of learning, experiencing, and identifying what fits best with your unique skill set. The good news is that changing careers in the age of intelligent technologies offers more advantages than ever before. This fact is especially true for older workers and for those that work in supportive or administrative roles, who are more often than not excluded from management programs, corporate training, and skills programs within the company.
As skill-development becomes more and more crucial in this new age of work, understanding what the future of the workplace looks like and how to develop a second career and skill development strategy alongside the Age of Intelligent Technologies will be essential to staying employable in the future.
What Skill Development Means in the Digital Economy
In basic terms, skill development is the process of developing new competencies, or advancing current skills, in order to meet current and future career goals. In the past, many saw this development as a straight path with a clear understanding of what skills were needed to succeed in a specific industry. Today, however, skill development is undergoing a rapid change.
Unfortunately, many companies and even higher education institutions are failing to address the skills gap in a meaningful way that would fully equip employees for the skill demands of the future.
The main reason for the lack of preparedness is the fact that career development is no longer a one-path process. Skills are no longer alike over industries. In fact, in many cases, even peer companies require different skill sets. This change is likely to make skill development more personalized. Rather than a set development path with a clear endpoint, learning is likely to become a lifelong process that is tailor-made to match a person’s unique skill set and professional goals.
Standard skill development models will not be effective for long-term success in today’s job market. Instead, each worker will have the power to carve out an individualized development plan that caters to their unique skill set and career goals. The benefits of this type of learning is that it creates a comprehensive concept and provides more learning opportunities for each individual.
How to Start Looking for Second Career Options
There is no doubt that the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence) is transforming the workplace. This doesn’t mean that all jobs will disappear, but it does mean that many jobs will be reconfigured over time. As AI continues to handle many of the mundane daily tasks, workers will be required to have different skills to remain relevant to employers.
The focus of future jobs will be on tasks that are continuing to evolve and the worker’s ability to deliver. Companies will expect more from their employees, and they will focus on how their workers provide real value to the company. From a skills development perspective, workers will need to develop cognitive skills that prove valuable in their specific profession.
For example, AI is helping doctors manage paperwork more efficiently. This, in turn, gives doctors more time to focus on patient care. While time management and organizational skills were a priority for doctors in the past, new emerging skills, such as empathy and communication, are now considered crucial because these skills contribute to improved patient care.
Workers must take a closer view of their specific profession and evaluate how their role is evolving and what skills may be needed in the future. This assessment allows employees to create a cohesive learning strategy that enables them to move forward in their career.
7-Step Sustainable Second Career Plan
Developing a strategy to change, or at least shift, careers is a vital step to keeping yourself employable in an uncertain time. The following 7-step career shift plan can help you generate new insights into the potential job market and to understand future job roles better. Having this understanding can help you identify the top skills needed in your career and to develop a life-long learning plan that enables you to succeed in your career.
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- Create a list of your current and preferred skills.
- Determine which roles tend to utilize the combination of these skills.
- Make a list of the different roles by pairing them into relevant groups.
- Look at each group separately and determine the top three changes you have seen in each of these job sectors over the last two years
- Identify how the demand for skills is evolving in each of these industries and determine if any potential skills gap exists and what these skills are.
- Assess which industries and economies are most likely to be augmented and to automate these role groups by intelligent technologies?
- Evaluate if, and how, intelligent technologies will change the skill set required, as well as, the labor demand for all specific second career options?
Answering these questions will give you a better understanding of what the future in any potential second career will look like. Not only will this information help you determine if this is the right career path for you, but it also will help you identify what skills are necessary to succeed both now and in the future for any chosen career option. With this understanding, you can create a plan for skill development that provides a pathway for career growth.
At Tulsie, we work with professionals ready to start a second career. We can provide industry insights to help you determine what skills are needed for the future within any specific job group. We also work with clients to help them discover their talents, as well as identify their skills gap, to ensure they create a lifelong path to learning that prepares them for the future.
Learn more about starting a second career in the age of intelligent technologies by contacting Tulsie today.
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