 In my previous post, I asked the question: how do you keep up with the pace of technology in your career? Global Tech Women has noticed a surge in the last few years of women (and men) that do not keep up with the pace of technology on their own time are handed early retirement packages or downsized out of their positions as the needs of the company changes. New employees with new skills are hired instead of training existing employees. Often these new workers are younger and cheaper for the organization and the organization doesn't have to train them on the new technology. The former workers lacking current skills are forced out of the marketplace. Women often take the legacy or proprietary system work because it is stable and allows for work/life flexibility so we see women leaving the field at a higher rate during this surge. There are many ways to learn new skills both online and in person but I have to say from this angle, there is little interest in this topic! Very few people seem concerned about this trend and fewer people commented on what their plan is to stay relevant. Our post on What to Wear to Work exceeded viewers by twenty-fold over this topic. I am wondering what this means. Should we focus on other things? Academics are clearly concerned about the growth or MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). The quality of an online experience versus the conventional college classroom experience is one we will be pondering for the next decade as the trend towards traditional colleges and universities going online continues, but what about people who have graduated?  Lynda Weinmann at Lynda.com Since my last post, Women 2.0 has developed an extensive list of areas to advance your knowledge entitled: How to Become a Femgineer? In the comment section a couple of women posted more alternatives. Another resource I hear often is Lynda.com which was started by a woman. Many organization who pay for their employees ongoing training use Lynda.com and their class list is quite extensive but they do have a membership fee. If you can't find what you are looking for at no charge, this might be an option for you.
What are your thoughts? How important and how much time do you spend staying relevant? -Deanna Kosaraju
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|
RSS Feed