5 essential skills you need to keep your job in the next 10 years — from fastcompany.com by Gwen Moran
Automation may affect half of jobs. Here are five areas to develop to keep yourself employed.

Excerpts/quotes (emphasis DSC):

  1. Trendspotting
  2. Collaborating in new ways
  3. Building brands—even as employees
  4. Learning next-level technology
  5. Developing your emotional intelligence

 

  • Trendspotting
    With the workplace changing so quickly, it’s essential to develop systems to not only monitor those changes, but to distill the information and training you’ll need to keep up with them. That means staying abreast of industry developments, taking classes, attending trade events, and following thought leaders who are talking about your sector. It also means being observant about the day-to-day tasks and functions that matter and how they’re changing, separating anomalies from trends.
  • Looking for the next changes and remaining ahead of the curve in learning about them will be essential to remaining among the most marketable employees.
  • In addition, following trends and thought leadership in your own sector and ensuring that your skills are staying up to date will also play a role.
  • …remaining employable will require embracing rather than eschewing tech changes
  • Pay attention to what’s happening in the most advanced workplaces in your field and prepare. That way, you’ll be ahead of the game when the changes come to you.

 

 

From DSC:
It is great to see an article that encourages trendspotting, being aware of what’s happening in the world around us, and looking upwards/into the horizons as key skills!  Given the pace of change, this is becoming critical for people to do — otherwise, we risk being blindsided by changes — by incoming “waves” of change — that we didn’t see coming. We don’t want to be tapped on the shoulder, personally escorted to that conference room with all of the windows having cardboard on them, and then be let go…to our utter shock and dismay.

 

Laid Off Get Back On Track

Image from:
ttp://www.careerealism.com/laid-off-get-back-immediately/

 

This also means that we should be teaching more about trendspotting and futurism in K-20.

 

Further questions/thoughts:

  • Will our students be able to pivot? To reinvent themselves? To practice lifelong learning?
    .
  • Will our students have the ability to peer into the horizons and be able to ascertain potential scenarios and directions that could impact them? Will they have the problem solving skills to plan for potential plans of action to address these scenarios?
    .
  • Does each of us have an effective learning ecosystem that is robust enough — and up-to-date — that will help us adapt, learn, and grow?