Punxsutawney Phil, Groundhog Day (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
If you could combine “Back to School” (1986), the late Rodney Dangerfield’s popular comedy, with Bill Murray’s cult classic, “Groundhog Day” (1993), you’ll know virtually everything you need to know about the world of work in the 21st century.
In short: Work and learning will become analogous. The longer you work, the more you’ll have to learn. Nothing stands still any more. What’s “cutting-edge” today may be obsolete tomorrow.
To succeed, you’ll need to view education as never-ending. As soon as you think you’ve finished, it will be time to start all over again, and—with apologies to Groundhog Day’s creator, Danny Rubin—again … and again … and again. It will give powerful new meaning to the term “lifetime learning.” It’s already happening.
You may even be mid-career, or older, like Dangerfield’s character, Thornton Melon, the millionaire men’s store-owner who enrolls in college to motivate his floundering son. Your motivation will be different: You’ll go back to school to keep up, to match the pace of change, to advance in your career, or, perhaps, just to hang on.
Technology is driving this new phenomenon. As a recent report on the future of work notes, “skills acquisition will no longer be a process with an ending. Companies will need to reassess constantly the capabilities of their workforce while workers will need to regularly upgrade their skills to meet advances in technology, new ways of working and changes in the demands of the labor market.”
If you’re thinking to yourself, “I get it; now give it a rest,” think again; there’s no resting.
The best place to start, as the saying goes, is the beginning. Secondary education itself will have to change, going back to the future, to borrow another movie title.
In the past, many (if not most) U.S. school systems offered students a variety of education options, including vocational, trade and technical schools for those not interested in or ready for college.
Here in Beantown, for example, in addition to the college prep high schools—such as Boston Latin School— previous generations of students had the choice of several “job-prep” high schools, including the High School of Commerce, Mechanic Arts High School, the High School of Practical Arts, Boston Technical High School, Boston Trade High School, and Trade High School for Girls. They’re all long gone, with the exception of Tech, which is now known as John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.
With today’s pervasive shortages of skilled workers, a situation not expected to let up any time soon, public school administrators would be wise to bring some of this back.
That’s just step one. Employers need to accept responsibility for the second step: by increasing their commitment to, and investment in, on-the-job training, starting with apprenticeship programs, internships and the like.
Apprenticeship programs take many forms. Some, following the German model, combine academic studies—typically starting in high school—with on-the-job training. When students receive their high school diplomas, they’re ready to step directly into a job.
Other apprenticeship programs typically involve collaborations and partnerships between community colleges and area employers. In many cases, the programs are tailored to meet the employers’ specific needs.
Government has an important role to play here. And to their credit, both the Trump administration, and the Obama administration before it, were strong supporters of the community college programs.
But, like the technical and trade high schools, apprenticeship programs only get employees started. To maintain their productivity—better yet, to increase their value to the company—employers need to encourage and support continued, or more emphatically, continuous, education. Not “when the mood strikes,” or when it’s convenient, but ongoing—for many workers, it’ll go on for the next 40 years (as depressing as that might sound).
As the report I cited earlier, a collaborative effort by a BCG team and another from The Addeco Group, the global staffing agency, puts it, the lifelong acquisition of skills should be seen as a means of “future-proofing” both businesses and their workers.
Companies need to treat this as an urgent necessity and make top-notch training part of the company’s culture, a point of pride, not an HR department after-thought or add-on that’s viewed as a waste of time, the report suggests.
Workers also need to understand the importance. “All workers should be responsible for acquiring new skills at all ages and stages in their career and should turn this responsibility into concrete action,” the authors stress. Employers should provide guidance, time, and financial incentives, but it’s up to the employees themselves to do what needs to be done to stay current during their careers.
Sure, some employees will polish their skills at your expense, then bail out for another company. When that happens, be gracious; don’t begrudge them the opportunity for advancement. Instead, view them as success stories and talk about all the great things your alums are doing. If this message is expressed properly, over time you’ll likely keep more than you lose.
The important thing is to recognize the need and act on it, today and every day. In today’s rapidly changing workplace, everybody will need to go back to school, “Groundhog Day” style: again, and again, and again.
