Career-driven Education

   TOWARDS A CAREER-DRIVEN EDUCATION

Career builders will probably disagree with the Cambridge dictionary when it defines a career as “the job or series of jobs that you do during your working life, especially if you continue to get better jobs and earn more money”. These rather obsolescent career definition fails to provide a clear picture of what the career concept involves nowadays. Careers have become the central axis around which our whole lives rotate, and career education has therefore become a strong need, especially for career change. We are compelled to increasing our career opportunities, and this means we need to be real career builders with a proactive approach towards our own careers. We cannot be passive subjects of them any longer.

How can we define career education and career training in this new century? Maybe the contrast with the old times can give us a hint on what this broad concept includes in our time. The previous generations were not so much immersed in the information era as we are. Their ordinary cycle would be to learn and then work. Climbing within a company or industry was a matter of time and experience with little supplimentary knowledge being demanded at any promotion point along the career.

Our postmodern societies have many specific traits making them enormously different from their predecessors. But the single most important difference could well be this: any statu quo is ephimerous, and your current knowledge and skills will be worth nothing very soon unless you are ready for lifelong learning. The spiral of global changes makes situations come and go leaving individuals in a less powerful position than generations ago, unless they manage to change with the world. No matter how good you are in your job, or how succesful your career has been so far: thinking that the way you work now (including the skills and knowledge you use) will be the same in two years, five years or ten years time is, for most industries, an utterly irresponsible attitude.

Things have changed. Nowadays it is not just great academic grades which get you a good career – you need experience too! And this is both life and professional experience! Life experience could be encompassed by an education in a boarding school where students are typically more independent and confident than their same-age contemporaries. Travel also promotes confidence, independence and respect for others (especially when dealing with a new culture) and thus make internships abroad ideal for boosting one’s career education. You get a taster of a job but need not commit should it no be for you. But if it is for you, then perfect! You already have experience and are ready to take on the job successfully! If you are not lucky enough to be able to find yourself an internship or find career opportunities then consider organising your own personal growth experience. This could be anything from doing volunteer work to learning a language. You can plan your trip how you like – perhaps you prefer a school to learn a language in or to volunteer in a place you can stay with family. It could be that you want to take a road trip (using Malaga car hire for example) through Spain learning Spanish or you want to be an au pair in France – the choice is yours! What’s most important is that you are learning!

We need to feel the changes ahead, prepare for them (that’s where career education and career training come in) and then just jump on the change as it passes by. Those who fail to do so will simply fall. Changes are like sea waves. When the wave is coming we need to adapt and leap, or the wave will cover us. Our age is characterized by a fast and neverending succession of such waves. Career education and career advice are there to help us cope. Learn English free online is a good example!

Career improvement through career education

Some ideas for career building

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University of Phoenix Online

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AIU Online University

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