#1 – Bridge Education Gaps from Early Childhood through High School.
Engaging parents in early-childhood education is the first goal. By routinely introducing preschoolers to robots, you encourage play and learning that comes naturally to children everywhere. Schools are getting “onboard” with this perspective but, if yours has not, it is time to push!
All children, from early Middle school forward, need to formally learn financial responsibility. Wish we had! What is your debt to income ratio?
By High School, basic computer programming is a must as it is anticipated that a quarter of the new-ways-to-work will require such skills.
#2 – Overcome Advanced Education Gaps.
According to a mid-2016 study by Pay Scale, an online database of salary profiles that surveyed nearly 1 million workers, 46 percent of respondents said they were underemployed and 76 percent said they were not using their educational training in their jobs.
Consider the many advantages community colleges – not four-year institutional universities – offer most students who need to emphasize current skills and an early payday.
Choose degree concentrations v-e-r-y carefully. Unless, or until, four-year institutions dramatically change curriculum to meet market-driven needs, hundreds, if not thousands, of these once well-known institutions will collapse.
Add Expert Career Coaches, new Internet companies and rapid-results Learning Centers” in order to accommodate shorter learning cycles for those who seek to switch professions at any time during their working lifetimes.
#3 – Address Alternative Careers as solid options to one-size-fits-all jobs.
The world will see over 2 billion jobs disappear, with some coming back in different forms in different industries. Over 50% of work will be structured as freelance projects – as early as 2020 – rather than as full-time jobs.
Study the near-term future changes and schedule a career checkup to make certain you are “in sync” with new demands in your profession. Routinely explore the longer term changes – say 7 – 10 years from now – when 70-80% of today’s jobs will have disappeared or have been so materially changed that they will have disappeared for you.
#4 – Retire traditional retirement.
Full-out, full-time retirement is a word the connotes endless golf, idyllic travel and more leisure than healthy adults need, can afford or – over the extended years of increasingly longer lifetimes – appreciate. What retirement often delivers is loneliness, boredom, isolation and not enough money to sustain ourselves. There is now clear-cut evidence that 15-20% of retirees suffer from serious depression (Google it). By most estimates, 1 in 3 Americans do NOT have enough money for retirement…and so forth…
Healthcare miracles on the immediate horizon will increase longevity faster than ever. But, even if 90-100 average lifetimes don’t come true in your lifetime; you’re still here. You are meant to be a productive contributor throughout your lifetime. There is much to be done and purposeful time is your longevity ally.
#5 – Remember – You are CEO of your career! Act like it
We are your Wing-men!
Look us up on LinkedIn: Carleen MacKay :: Rob Kinslow