The Skill That Is Vital Today.

Growing up, most of us heard from our teachers, family, friends and communities how important education is.  And for the most part it is true:  education is important.  However, what those people almost always meant was the formal education you get in school.  There is a much wider definition of education that is one of the most important skills we will ever learn. 

When we are children, we are taught how to read, write and perform many math and science functions.  Cognitively it is important for children to learn these skill early as a solid base so that they can build on them.  However, what ends up happening as children advance in school, is that education becomes its own growing creation.  Entire classes and even years are dedicated to the memorization of facts and figures that we may never use again in our entire lives.  How many times do children ask their teachers or parents the classic: “When will I ever use this??”  Knowing the names of all the American vice presidents, as an example, might help you on a game show or a trivia game, but what actual value is it to the average person in everyday life?  The sad answer is probably not much.

The interesting thing is there is a cosmic change happening in the corporate world:  fewer and fewer companies are interested in formal education.  Some of the largest companies in the world don’t even ask what level of education you have attained at all.  Contrast this to when I began my career in the 1990s.  When I was meeting with companies to discuss job openings and joining their companies, not only did they ask my formal education background, but they gave me 16 years of work experience for having graduated with a University degree!  This meant that I was a 24-year-old, fresh out of school being put at the same level of experience as a 40-year-old 16-year employee at the company.  Did my degree really give me 16 years of experience in the real world?  They seemed to think so and I was happy to benefit from their policy.

The New Education

Happily, today, things have changed so much that even students with little work experience are being hired for positions that are not just entry level but that have real responsibility.  How is this happening?  This is because of the new education that is going on in the world.  The ability to self-educate and learn on the job.

Doctors Do It, Lawyers Too!

Interestingly, this has always been the case, and many very rigorously trained and regulated professions rely heavily on self-education and on the job learning.  Lawyers famously do not learn how to become lawyers in law school.  They learn case studies and important rulings that have shaped the law in their jurisdiction.  After 3 years of law school, they then “article” with a law firm for a year, and that is where they learn how to be a lawyer. 

Doctors go to medical school to learn about the body and how to cure illnesses, but it is when they do their residency at a hospital that they learn how to be a doctor.  In many ways, residency teaches much more about how to be a doctor than medical school does.

Attitude Not Aptitude

Technology companies are famous for hiring candidates on attitude not aptitude.  They know that the skills of the position are best learned on the job.  This benefits the company as well as they can train their staff to do things the way that the company has found to be the most effective.

One Of The Most Important Skills

Therefore, one of the most important skills to learn is how to learn-particularly in the case of a skill that is new.  There is new information out there that needs to be learned, things like social media marketing and driver-less vehicle engineering, that did not exist even a short time ago.  One of the most effective ways to self learn is to be always be innovating, trying and testing. The best way to learn about social media marketing as an example is to spend many hours on their websites doing research to see what the most popular methods are, what works and what people are interested in.  You can also learn from people who have had success or have done what you want to do. Very often companies will assign a mentor to help a new hire navigate not just the company culture, but the best resources that the new person can learn from.  Be innovative and think outside the box. Believe flexible and open to new ideas.

Self-education has always been an important skill and improving your ability at it will mean that you will achieve more success in your chosen field.