A second degree

A common question today is how do people get the needed knowledge and skills to succeed in this recession time? For college students the answer is easy because they could learn these skills in schools, assume that they select the right field of study and their schools have trainings that meet the need of the job market. For people who are working, the answer is little difficult as they have to learn new skills in seminars, by reading books and articles. If needed, they may have to go back to school to learn other skills and get other degrees. Lifelong learning is critical today for everybody as they need to continually update and expand their job skills to meet market demand.

According to a new U.S study, about three million working adults are returning to school each year to learn new skills or new degrees. This is a trend that U.S. universities are working hard to accommodate these older returning students. You can find older working adult and younger students are working side by side in many universities. But in Europe and Asia, this trend has not caught on yet. Many working people are still hesitating about returning to school after they have graduated and worked for a numbers of years. A U.K educator explained: “The Americans are very practical, when they see that their career have reached a dead end, they have no problem to return to school and get another degree. However in Europe, people do not have that practical mind set yet. European schools are not ready to welcome older students, especially people with ten or more years of experience. Many U.S universities even have night schools for people to get another degree when they are still working but this trend is still new elsewhere.” An adult student said: “I have bachelor's degree in accounting but after working for six years, I do not see much future in this field. I return to school for a degree in Information System Management that will give me more opportunities and better salary.” Another student agreed: “I have a degree in economics but it is not a good choice so I am willing to stay in school for one more year to get a second degree in computer science that will open more doors to me.” Today, having a second degree is a popular trend among college students to make sure that they will get jobs in this difficult time.

The study finds that in this globalized world, most workers are likely to change jobs, careers, or companies several times in their life. The reason is certain skills or degrees are no longer a guarantee for good job but change to something else may give them better opportunity. As company structure is changing to a horizontal (Flat) rather than vertical (Hierarchy), many workers are likely to move to other companies rather than within a single company. Workers who spent years in one specialized kill are realized that their careers are limited and they must learn new skills in various areas with broader skill sets. Workers that used to work alone are learning to work in teams with diverse members. Today, most companies are no longer hire workers on the basis of their degree alone but on degree AND skills. Many are organized across geography boundaries and they hire workers in different places or even different countries. Therefore a foreign language such as English is needed to stay competitive in this fast changing world.

Lifelong learning is a part of career success today. Working people need to remain current on the latest technology within their career field. They need to keep their skills updated in order to adapt to changing global economy and job market.

Sources

  • Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University

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