If you’ve been a reader of Xremo’s blog thus far, we emphasize on upgrading the value of the jobseeker. The goals of this blog are to give you much insight, and perhaps make you acutely aware of where you are in life and to help you upgrade yourself to a valuable and professional individual. This is only to say the least. We also spoke about how going job hunting alone may somewhat deprive you of the better value a recruitment agency can bring in terms of speed, connections as well as career touchpoint. If you are alone in your job hunt, then give us a ring. It’s a better feeling when you know someone else is job hunting for you as well.
In this entry, we will talk about training programmes. The value of any training programme and courses are obvious. Any kind of training adds value to the candidate even if that training is unrelated to the job scope. Think of it in the same way as work experience. At the end of the day, that something learnt is to your advantage and it certainly may help in logic and problem solving sometime in your future. Observing today’s continually evolving marketplace, we can’t afford to rely on our current skills alone for the long run because the ever-evolving workplace is filled with unpredictable innovations. We say that the workplace of the future will be much different in five to ten years. Continuous learning and training is an inevitable thing so the old thinking that your current academic qualification may not hold true anymore in the workplace of the future.
Now, we list the following essential skills that you must attain to stay relevant.
- ICT Skills.
No matter what industry you are in, Information Computer Technology cuts across all the major industries and ranks as the number one skill set on our list. Productivity, Sales & Services and Communications are those fundamental areas that require this expected skillset. Graphic Design, SEO Marketing, Data Analysis, Accounting & Bookkeeping, Copywriting, Trade Planning, Supply Chain and Collaboration all come under this huge and varied discipline. The derived skills under ICT also include:
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
• Big Data Analytics and Data-Based Predictions.
• Cloud Computing.
• Cybersecurity.
• UI/UX Design and Video Production.
• Writing and Language Skills.
For a brief overview of the above skills, please read our previous entry “Mastering High Demand Skills in the Digital Industry”.
The question on our mind is, “Where am I going to go to learn all these?” and “How will I ever find the time to do so?”.
Fortunately, people with full-time jobs don’t have to enrol for a full-time course. There are plenty of online courses that you can pick and choose, even from Google. There’s never been a better time to upskill than in this pandemic era. Education has been democratised and many start at 49 Dollars per month which works out to RM203 per month such as the above mentioned ICT skills from Coursera. Some of these courses are completed in as little as 3 to 7 months. Click this link for the full range of Coursera courses.
Other notable free or affordable and certified Online Courses are here:
1. UWashingtonX Free Online Courses
2. INTI Programmes for Working Professionals
3. Future Learn Online Courses
4. Future Learn Business Management Courses
5. Harvard University Free Online Courses
If you are the type that needs to sit in a classroom like most of us who still find it difficult to wrap our heads around all things tech, we could suggest that you go on HRDF Corp’s website. They too have varied courses which you can attend for a short time.
And so the workplace is undergoing change. It seems that remote work is here to stay for the time being but something like this will produce other unforeseeable changes as well.
- Changes in work for the future.
To understand this a little deeper, we want to look at a recent research piece by the McKinsey Global Institute.
They report the following:
Covid-19 has reshaped the world in ways that will endure long after the pandemic ends. Remote work is here to stay. E-commerce is soaring. Automation is accelerating. Our research indicates that the mix of available jobs will change as a result, creating more urgency for training workers for the changes ahead. More than 100 million workers in our focus countries, or one in 16, may need to switch occupations by 2030. Job growth will be more heavily concentrated in high skill jobs, while middle and low skill jobs decline. The explosion in e-commerce set off a scramble for warehouse workers that is unlikely to stop. Investment in the green economy will increase the need for wind turbine technicians. Demand for photographers may grow to address our increasingly visual ways of communicating. Aging populations in many advanced economies will increase demand for nurses, home health aides, and hearing aid technicians. Teachers and training instructors will also continue to find work over the coming decade. But the forces unleashed by Covid-19 have put other jobs at risk. Business travel is unlikely to recover quickly. And that affects flight attendants, airline mechanics, and baggage handlers. The use of self-checkout stands accelerated during the pandemic, displacing some grocery store clerks. Companies have deployed robotics to process routine paperwork, replacing office workers. We’re entering an era of occupational transitions, an era that demands answers to three key questions.
1. What new approaches to training can support the millions of people making these transitions?
2. To protect the social fabric, what benefits, such as sick leave and unemployment insurance, are needed for all workers including gig workers?
3. Can business and government leaders come together to create solutions, not only for navigating the pandemic but for navigating the post-pandemic world of work?
To understand more, download the full report HERE.
This report says that there will be new in-demand skills soon and some old occupations may not make the transition. For example, the flight attendant is an airline worker who is slowly losing their job because of the halt on air travel. Does anyone still remember the airline captain who now runs a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur?
- How about Graduate Training Programmes?
Big corporations are always looking for bright young people to train, employ and retain them by offering these programmes. The popular ones offered by blue-chip companies are thoroughly comprehensive and have various areas of specialisation. A graduate will be trained in all areas of the company’s business from management, design, supply chain and even plant management just to name a few based on the industry. There are leaders and mentors who take the graduate by the hand and put them through real-life situations at work. Project management as a team of graduates led by the mentor is one of the main drivers and challenges are given for the trainees to prove themselves.
The structure of these programs allow trainees to attain proper certainty about their career, in short, they aim to give you a well rounded and solid work experience. There are opportunities to rub shoulders with the senior managers as they share the story of their own career journey and knowledge in meetings. Another is the opportunity to expose yourself to the latest industry technologies in the market. Quite seriously, there’s a lot in the way of expertise and work culture to learn and benefit from. One key highlight is the Personal Development Plan where the mentor will address the ways a trainee can develop and better themselves, identify strengths and areas to improve upon.
There are of course certain attributes and qualifications that you must have to qualify such as an analytical mind and the ability to communicate well. You must be strong academically with a Bachelor’s Degree, minimum CGPA of 3.0 or Second Class Upper equivalent. Here are just some of these programmes:
1. Shell Graduate Program
2. Maybank Graduate Program
3. British American Tobacco Global Graduate Program
4. Celcom Axiata Management Trainee Program
5. Huawei Campus Recruitment
6. Astro Young Talent Program
In conclusion, the demand for skills always changes and builds rapidly on top of the existing ones year by year, particularly in the over-reaching tech industry. This forces you and me to be constantly aware of what the current in-demand skills are.
