It is becoming evident that job acquisition, retention, and developing a lucrative career in each profession does not sorely depends on just graduating and getting a degree or certificate, even if one is graduating with a first class and is honored with a doctorate degree. It is also primitive for employers and executives to think that the goals and objectives of their organizations can be achieved by the earlier mentioned individuals. That is why there is need for continuous training to stay relevant in the professional world.
According to Manpower group employment outlook survey, published on September 14, 2021, 69% of employers globally are struggling to find skilled workers, especially in high-demand areas like Operations and Logistics, Manufacturing and Production, IT, Sales, and Marketing.
Are you surprised at the statistics considering the rate at which we have people graduating from numerous universities globally? 69% of employers are still struggling to find skilled workers. What could be the cause of this skill gap? Is it that the graduates are not well taught? That is certainly not the cause. It all falls back to the lack of continuous training.
In this article, we will be identifying some reasons why continuous training is needed to stay relevant in the employment industry. But first let’s get few facts concerning continuous training.
Meaning of Continuous Training
Continuous training is the process of acquiring new skills and knowledge continually over time (or ‘Upskilling’). You might also hear the term ‘lifelong learning’, which is a similar concept but usually refers to personal development, rather than work-related development. Continuous and lifelong learning can take many different forms – everyone learns differently. From evening classes at your local university to bite-size learning or online courses, training can be seen in two-fold;
- Employers’ training- This is a training that involves executives and CEO to improve in their managerial function and strategic decision making.
- Employees training -This is a systematic method of learning and development with the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of an individual, a group, or an organization (Goldstein & Ford, 2002).
Continuous training involves the use of various methods that can be classified as synchronous or asynchronous learning models. Synchronous learning refers to the training approach where employees learn under the guidance of an instructor whether in a traditional classroom setting or when taking a virtual course. Asynchronous learning, on the other hand, is when employees work independently and at their own pace.
Another approach combines these two models called blended or hybrid learning (CompTIA, 2020).
Reasons Why Continuous Training is Important
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Increased Productivity
Energy Audit in the FM world used to be a cumbersome time-consuming process due to the limited resources available for carrying out the process with a lot of effort and less productivity. But thanks to advancement in energy auditing software’s and technologies, the process has become more faster, easier, and accurate giving a better result and yielding more in terms of service delivery. But before those software’s and technologies can be integrated in any organization there need to be trained personnel to handle them.
Utilizing them goes beyond employing electrical engineers to operate them, because of the recent innovations and advancement in technologies those engineers will need to be trained in line the current change and transformation in technologies for them to be utilized and be more productive in their audits.
In the year 2019, Max Migold Limited conducted a training on energy to their Electrical Engineers to ensure that they can operate and make use of the new Audit technology called Eniscope that the company integrated into their Auditing process. And that has greatly increased the company’s service delivery when it comes to Energy audit. The efficiency of the team increased drastically.
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Industry Trends
Change they say is the only thing constant. The trend in all industry is constantly changing drastically with time across all fields, be it marketing, production, service delivery, management etc. Some organization grows to a certain level and fall because they could not learn, understand, and match up with the change in their industry. So, it becomes imperative that both employers and employees are constantly trained in line with the current trend in there.
The trends in industry does not only allow an entrepreneur to know what their customers need and how to deliver them it also brings to their awareness the constraint the organization might have to face in the nearest future.
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Regulations
Regulating agencies are being created by the government continuously, laws and regulations are being amended often it become necessary for both employers and employees in every organization to stay updated with the regulations governing them to avoid penalties that can be inflicted through failures to adhere to those set laws and regulations. And these can only be achieved by continuous training and becoming familiar with those set laws and regulations. No one can be saved in ignorance
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Demand For Skills
The labor market changes overtime, its constantly growing and evolving the changes in the job market determine the kind of skilled personnel that are being sought for no matter the educational background. The world educational forum predicts that 42% of the core skills required to perform existing jobs will change in the next couple of years. In another survey they predicted that by 2030, one billion people will need to be reskilled to meet the current roles and jobs in existence.
This stands as strong evidence to the importance of continuous training to stay relevant and not left behind On the 14 of Jan 2016 Klaus Schwabthe founder and chairperson of world economic forum wrote that changes are occurring at an exponential rate. He further explained that we stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another.
In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. We do not yet know just how it will unfold, but one thing is clear: the response to it must be integrated and comprehensive, involving all stakeholders of the global polity, from the public and private sectors to academia and civil society.
The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.
Playing it Forward
The need for continuous training can never be overemphasized. It is important that all stake holders make it a priority to invest in themselves and their employees if they want to continue to live not just exist, vegetate, and not just grow, and reach their full business potentials.