OBSOLESCENCE OF SKILLS AND PREVENTION
I promised to tell you about Tom, my former colleague. But let me explain Obsolescence of Skills and how to prevent it first. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training defines Obsolescence of Skills as the degree to which professionals lack the up-to-date knowledge or skills necessary to maintain effective performance in their current or future work roles. Although there are different categories of obsolescence of skills, one that is particularly relevant to our discourse today is Economic skills obsolescence, where skills previously utilized in a job are no longer required or have diminished in importance.
This fits Tom like a glove.
Now to the story. Tom was a very skilled draughtsman. A few years before we met, as employees, in one of the leading international engineering consultancy firms, he had worked with one of the leading architectural consultancy outfits in our country. From his own account, he was so good that, at one point, the company bought him a brand-new car. I do not know the circumstances under which he left that organization.
But he was subsequently employed by our organization to work on a major oil and gas cross-country pipeline project in the north of the country. When that project was winding down, he was laid off, although the company had another major project in another part of the country. They advised Tom to find his way to the new location for re-employment, if he still wanted to work. Well, Tom did and was re-employed.
That is where we met. Everything went on well until the project started winding down. Tom was sacked again even though we had just won another major contract with one of the international oil companies (IOCs), that was to run for years. I was furious. “What a heartless employer this is?”, I fumed. Why do they treat this hardworking man this way? I went on to investigate. And I did not like what I found out.
Tom was simply obsolete! His skills were no longer required!
The job he did no longer existed! At least, not in the form that Tom was used to – drafting had gone digital, but Tom was still analog! Drafting was now done with computers. Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) had made Tom redundant. It was not the lack of academic certificates that made Tom redundant; the same certificate he had was required for CAD. Tom simply did not know CAD.
The painful and annoying part is that it did not happen overnight. It was not a typhoon, neither was it an earthquake, it was not a volcanic eruption, nor was it a terrorist attack. Tom’s was just another case of the frog in the slowly heated water. The frog was put in cold water, we are told, and the temperature raised very gradually. It did not perceive the gradual change in temperature until it was boiled to death. Tom was in the midst of a transformation in his profession and did not know it. He apparently saw the change but could not come to grips with what it could mean for him. He failed to act.
A major CAD training workshop had been held just three years before. About the same time, major oil and gas companies in the country were transitioning from table drafting to CAD and sending their drawing office staff for training. Their contractors and consultants were doing the same. Perhaps, Tom, like most employees, expected the employer to bear responsibility for the update of his own personal skills, and continuous employability.
Well, whatever Tom thought, he was the ultimate loser. So will you if you fail to act!
And Tom is not an isolated case. You may know many others.
A similar thing happened in the banking industry about the same time. Before then, banks would usually recruit high school graduates and train them in the requisite skills. Many of such training were short courses with certificates that allowed to transfer within the banking and financial services. But they were still basically high school graduates, although some had risen to management positions in the industry.
But over the years, younger graduates, some with MBA, were also being recruited into the industry, and equipped with requisite banking skills. But the difference is that they had broader theoretical knowledge of the job than their older colleagues with only high school certificates.
Then competition in the industry, occasioned by the entrance of new generation banks with more efficient and lean management, forced the older banks to review their operations to save cost. As a result, many of the high school certificate holders were laid off. Even those of them who were in high positions discovered that they could not be employed anywhere else. I know some who enrolled in the universities after they lost their jobs.
The question I have for you is this: where is your industry headed? If you cannot answer that basic question, then you are running a significant risk.
A knee-jerk response to this is often to go for more technical training. That is good, but not nearly enough. But as mentioned earlier, most of the skills required will be largely non-technical or, as mentioned above, hard-to-teach intangibles such as leadership, emotional intelligence, curiosity, creativity, adaptability, resilience and critical thinking, etc. I will address some of these in future essays.
How to prevent Obsolescence of Skills:
- Watch the trend
Gone are the days when skills were isolated. Developments in IT impacts virtually every other area. What does it mean to the future of your profession? Even within your profession, what are the new developments? Is the way the profession is practiced, or how services are delivered, changing? Are you up to date?
- Identify the skill gaps
A honest assessment of item 1 should provide an answer for this. For instance, if you are an HSE professional, you should begin to assess the impact of the current concerns about Climate Change on the future of your profession. You should then ask yourself if you have the skills to deal with that.
- Consider the cost of doing nothing
Next, you need to consider the cost or impact of continuing as you are. You should also consider where you would be 5, 10 or 15 years from now if you do not take the necessary steps.
- Map out a plan for personal development
In mapping out a personal growth plan I would suggest that you consider common barriers to learning, and map out plans to overcome them.
Unionlearn, the learning and skills organisation of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), reports that many people find that there are barriers impeding their ability to access learning. These include:
- Social and cultural barriers: peer pressure and family background (commitments etc).
- Practical and personal barriers: transport; time; disability; caring responsibilities; childcare; finance; cost; age; language; and lack of access to information, limited internet access, etc.
- Emotional barriers: lack of self-esteem or confidence due to low skills levels; negative personal experience of learning; previously undetected or unaddressed learning disabilities; social problems such as unemployment, abuse or bullying.
- Workplace: time off; access; discrimination; unsupportive managers; shift work; isolation.
Devise a plan to overcome whichever applies to you. I will also be addressing how to overcome these challenges in future essays.
- Whatever it takes, take action.
It might be easier for some to start. For others, it might be a lot more challenging, for any of the reasons mentioned above, and some others not mentioned. But whatever it takes, take action.
- Start today
Don’t get caught in the trap of procrastination. There is no guaranty that tomorrow will be more favourable to starting than today. Do not become a victim of the Law of Diminishing Intent: the longer you delay action, the more unlikely it is that you will act. If for nothing else, let it go on record that you took the first step today.
Nice article
Thank you