“I feel cheated.” Ms Edna Chan (not her real name), a 45-year-old Events Manager confided.
“I had signed up for this 3-month ‘’Data Science” course but when I got my certificates, nobody would even interview me, let alone offer me a job as a Data Scientist!”
“What’s the point of Skills Upgrading?” She lamented.
As far as I can remember, our society has always hankered after the great paperchase.
Since the days of the Chinese Imperial Exams, possessing a scroll of some kind has allured many with the promise some form of job security or greatness.
That is why today, many still crave the almighty Degree even though it has become so common that in 2020, 1 out 3 Singaporeans were Graduates, and with our local universities minting an extra 19,761 degrees per annum.
Furthermore, we are advised by our leaders to keep ourselves up to date as our degrees have a ‘5 year time-stamp’, hence the need for constant Skills Upgrading.
But I have observed that this emphasis on Skills Upgrading has inadvertently generated negative outcomes and counter-intuitively, led to a ‘less-skilled’ society.
How? Please allow me to explain.
1. Skills Upgrading Could Lead To Mismatched Expectations
Like our Events Manager Edna, many mid-career executives have been sold the dream that skills-upgrading is the ‘be-all-and-end-all’ to land a better job.
Sharon, a 43-year-old Office Manager, heard that Artificial Intelligence was going to be the ‘next big thing’ and signed up for a 3-month course in ‘AI Ethics and Governance’. Upon receiving her certificate, she approached her boss, demanding a raise as she was now an ‘up-skilled’ worker.
But the most egregious misconception seems to be the belief that just because someone has undergone 6 months of classroom lessons, they are now entitled to pivot into a new job, in a new industry, and at their current salary. Nothing less.
“Don’t they realise how unrealistic they are?” A frustrated owner of a Digital Marketing Business shared with me. “I’ve met mid-career executives at employment fairs with certificates in basic Python programming, demanding I hire them at their last drawn salary of $8,800/mth, even though I could hire a younger and more experienced coder for less than half that amount!”
2. It Could Lead To A ‘Certificate-collecting Habit Of Irrelevant Skills’
As a Career Strategists, we meet many executives who do not know what upgrading courses to sign up for, and with good reason too; the www.myskillsfuture.gov.sg website alone lists a stunning plethora of 27,684 courses currently available.
So, they select the courses based on what their peers are talking about, what they have read online, or what the ‘flavour of the month’ is (which at this time of writing, is ‘AI Prompt Engineering’).
These skills may or may not have relevance to their vocation and they will have very little chance to practice it in their job, like the accountant who undertook a rather unrelated 3-month “User-Experience Design” course simply because the course description stated “No prior technical skills required to sign up for this program” and it was easy to join.
Indeed, knowing the appropriate skills to acquire can prove challenging and some might even say that identifying them is a skill in itself, leading to a catch-22 situation. As a result, many end up ‘mis-skilling’ themselves in the process.
3. It May Lead To ‘Superficial-skilling’, Lacking Depth Or Mastery
And even if the mid-career executive gets the right type of skill to train in, the level of proficiency is often rudimentary as it takes months of hands-on practice to become good at it.
After all, author Malcolm Gladwell insists that it will take someone around 10,000 hours to become an expert at anything.
Last year, I attended a 3-day “Search Engine Optimisation” course that was very technical and walked away with only a basic understanding of it. Yes, I received a certificate, but I wouldn’t even dare fiddle with my company’s google dashboard less I break something.
Many do not realise that attending a skills-upgrading course is merely the start of the journey. It will take time, commitment and hours of practice before it becomes an innate capability that is of value to your career and your employers.
So, what can we do about it?
1. Use The New Skills To Augment The Ones You Already Have.
A Supply Chain Manager we know studied data-science in the hope of pivoting into a new field but was disappointed at being described by potential employers as ‘too inexperienced in analytics’.
We advised her instead to overlay her newfound skill onto her current role and become more effective at her job. She listened to us and developed new Demand Forecasting Models that got herself promoted within 6 months.
Instead of becoming something you’re not, use the new skills to become better at what you do.
2. Know What Skills To Choose.
With the advent of Digital Learning platforms like www.Udemy.com, Www.Coursera.com, and even YouTube.com, we are indeed spoilt for choice when it comes to skills we can quickly learn.
Hence, you need to select your area to upskill wisely.
Is there a future demand for it?
Is it applicable to your current or future job scope?
And most importantly, are you interested in it?
Having a keen interest in a new field will sustain you during the difficult parts of your steep learning curve.
3. Work Towards Mastery
Like a muscle, a skill unused becomes useless.
Find a context within your job to apply the new skills you have picked up. Create a project where you can utilise your newly acquired knowledge/abilities and create measurable outcomes that can benefit the business.
In other words, use your skills to Build Capability and work towards Mastery – become the Subject Matter Expert in your field and your leaders will begin to value you even more.
Over the years, many have answered the clarion call of skills-upgrading with good intentions but ultimately ending up disappointed.
This is painful to see, as these disillusioned learners may give up entirely on a critical need to continually enhance their capabilities.
In today’s fast-moving economy, we need to adopt a spirit of life-long learning and growth while making sure we progress in the right direction.
Only then can we achieve the goal of skills-upgrading – Long-term employability.