Skilling up: the only way to remain relevant in Digital Age
The Internet has changed the rules of businesses worldwide. What was once considered as a best practice a decade ago is no longer applicable in today’s digital era. IT/ITes, telecom, media and FMCG are some of the key sectors that have been completely transformed by the emergence of the digital economy. In the digital economy, media consumption is changing; newspapers, readerships and revenues are evaporating, with content being consumed completely online. And if you think your industry is untouched, you’re likely to be wrong. Therefore, in order to be in line with future trends, one has to constantly learn and develop one's skills to keep pace with changing technologies.
Digital advertising is set to surpass traditional ad spending by 50 percent, with mobile ads accounting for nearly half of all Internet advertising by 2018. So digital is the way forward and a buzzword that the world is going to function by. Without sufficient amount of skills in new and emerging technologies, one’s career path might be bleak.
Think digital, think upskilling
Being digitally-inclined and media-savvy is a necessity in today’s fast-paced world, with businesses increasingly going digital. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have drawn vast audiences, with over two billion people worldwide on these digital platforms. Automation and rapid technological advancements have led to six technologies—big data, data science, cloud computing, digital marketing, IT security and mobile—changing the global business landscape. So, both experienced professionals with legacy skills and young professionals with 3-4 years of work experience need to be skilled in these next-gen technologies to not become obsolete. So how does one go about this?
The answer lies in constant upskilling and keeping oneself up-to-date on futuristic technologies. Both IT professionals and enterprises are increasingly turning their heads towards edtech companies that are catering to the needs of digital economy. Large and even mid-sized enterprises are actively relying on both internal training and outsourcing the learning requirements to new-age education companies.
Innovation in professional training to the rescue
The digital bandwagon has put the professional training domain in the spotlight. This space is rapidly growing and becoming the go-to destination for people when they think about going digital. Domain experienced professionals are training fellow white-collared workers who are spread across geographies with frequently updated learning content on the latest technologies. These global edtech companies have been seeing a huge trend of individual working professionals learning skills that ensure better prospects for their career. However, the key here is that edtech companies need to provide learning solutions that aren’t just convenient, flexible, and catering to the needs of busy professionals, but also ensure that the training can be applied on the job for tangible benefits. Organisations are becoming more global and virtual than ever before, accountabilities are changing from time to time as per geographies, and so are the technologies. The training programmes need to be designed in such a way that they are easily adaptable, allowing individuals to learn new things frequently to manage a more dynamic career graph without downplaying their motivation and productivity levels.
The age of digitisation is impacting millions of white-collared working professionals to get out of their comfort zone and gain expertise in a specific field. With the possibility of online training at one’s own flexibility, professionals are actively opening up to skill-up for a fullfilling career journey. Enterprises today are encouraging their workforce to take up such training programmes in order to gain specialised skills and add greater productivity to the workplace.
Continuous learning in Digital Age
Looking at the way Fortune 500 and medium to large enterprises have woken up to the digital wave, there is a hunger to be on top of the game. The importance of continuous learning has finally caught up and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anywhere in the near future. Continuous learning can help in preparing oneself for various job roles with clear and structured learning paths. Be it professionals with 4-5 years of work experience or those with 10-15 years of experience who are in the midst of mid-career stagnation, digitisation is triggering them to up-skill and be at pace with the future.
Looks like the coming of Digital Age has surely done well for the growing white-collared community. It’s time to up-skill without wasting any time.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
