Upskilling — the Key to Staying Relevant in the Future
The humble Golf Tee is a pivotal piece of sporting equipment in golf. It’s a stand used to prop up the ball, basically for support and elevation before striking it with a club. But, this one right here is a fascinating Tee.
It is not just any ordinary tee that you pick up from the Sports Store or pay through your nose for at the Golf Course.
It is actually 3D Printed!
Think about it, if 3D printers became more economical, and hence, commercialised in the future, then Golfers can custom print their own Golf tee in the shape, size, colour, and branding of their own choice. Any sports player — whether amateur or professional — loves adding their own touch of personalisation to their kit.
When technology gets into commercialisation it has the tendency to make conventional products and services redundant.
Upskilling is the Need of the Hour
Take, for example, the emergence of instant grocery and delivery apps like Swiggy’s Instamart, Dunzo, Milk Basket has — whether we like it or not — reduced the need for us to now step into a big supermarket or visit one of the very few local Kirana's that are still open (many have unfortunately collapsed already).
Lately, when I make a trip to my home back in Lucknow I don’t have to stop at my local grocery half a kilometre away from my house just to pick up a loaf of bread and milk. Now, I just tap a few buttons on any one of these apps and the products are delivered to my doorstep.
So, what happens to the Kirana (Grocery) Store owner or your friendly neighbourhood furniture guy? Well, they need to upskill themselves and do something different. The impetus is on the leaders of our society to look ahead and find a way for these craftsmen to do other things.
This is very similar to how a big chunk of key roles like system admin, firewall admin, and more are already embedded into the Cloud. Either it is already automated or turned into an overarching job for one skilled employee, who has upskilled himself.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” — Picasso
As a matter of fact, early in my career, I was one of the best Solaris Administrators in my circle. People had huge respect for this specific skill of mine. Today, it is merely a skill that is relevant in certain niche sectors where Solaris is still used. One needs to keep learning and reinventing themselves to stay relevant and up to speed to keep up with the pace at which technology is progressing today.
A McKinsey report had an alarming statistic where 44% of the respondents said their organisations will face skill gaps within the next 5 years.
How to Upskill Faster?
The fear of jobs being killed is a valid one but not really substantiated. Because all this automation and artificial intelligence is only going to give rise to new jobs. The LinkedIn Emerging Jobs Report ranked Data Science jobs as the fastest growing globally. So, all you need to do is to find an alternate path. Look at allied roles that can leverage some of your existing skills and build upon them to create new ones. This will help you move faster and grow quicker.
Upskilling is clearly the urgent need for the workforce of any corporate setup. The leaders in these corporates and the bureaucrats of governments worldwide have to take up the mantle of enabling that mindset and creating that change.
What are your thoughts? I’d love to hear them.
Feel free to tweet me @mwasim
