How Self Learning can help you be Ahead of the Curve in a Fast Changing World

The shelf life of working professionals is reducing by the day. While in the immediate years after the Second World War, professionals could expect the knowledge they gained during their study to last for a decade or two before it became obsolete, the decades of the New Millennium have upended such obsolescence to less than five or ten years.

Indeed, given the rapid and exponential pace of technological change, some experts believe that programmers would find their expertise eroding every three years wherein the pressure to keep up with the latest technologies kicks in.

In other words, while in earlier decades, one could expect to last a decade or two with their current skills, at the moment it is just a few years which means that the motto “Keep Learning Continuously or Perish” is the guiding principle for the present generation.

Indeed, it can be said that the way things are going at the moment; soon professionals would have to constantly keep upgrading their skills and enhance their knowledge or find themselves laid off or given inconsequential assignments.

Thus, there can be no greater threat to working professionals than the risk posed by knowledge and skill obsolescence.

This is where self learning plays a key role in ensuring that working professionals stay ahead of the skills and knowledge curve. Indeed, sites such as this, ManagementStudyGuide.com, help professionals of all ages to enhance their skills and enrich their knowledge to keep up with the latest trends.

For instance, logging into any of the modules can help working professionals refresh their knowledge and enrich their skills as well as brush up the basic concepts so that they feel that they are fresh out of college and hence, ready to take on challenging assignments. Indeed, when the modern workplace demands constant upgrading of skills, there can no better way than to do so by using sites such as this.

Self learning is the equivalent of enrolling and attending refresher courses and the executive management programs that are offered by business schools. It is also a good substitute for classroom learning which requires time and dedicated effort that some working professionals might not have and in this respect, self learning can be better than enrolling in specific courses. Above all, self learning is valuable since the latest trends and happenings are usually in the news but not analyzed in detail and this is where sites such as this can help.

Having said that, we are not saying that self learning is the panacea or the answer to the problems of skill and knowledge obsolescence. Indeed, while self learning is valuable, classroom and discussion based learning is also a good way to refresh and update and upgrade one’s skills.

Moreover, self learning must be accompanied by face to face discussion and debate with peers and colleagues and hence, what we are saying is that self learning can provide a head start which you can capitalize on later if you want to be ahead of the curve. For instance, sites such as this can help you to learn new concepts and acquire knowledge about the latest happenings and trends in business.

You can then supplement and complement such knowledge by engaging in discussion, whether online or face to face to ensure that you get different perspectives. Indeed, the fact that self learning offers a chance for you to step out of conventional modes of learning, is perhaps its greatest strength when compared to conventional modes of learning.

Thus, on balance, it is the case that self learning offers you the chance to get off the blocks faster than your peers and then, once you have established a head start, you can then use this advantage to go up the value chain. Indeed, the concept of the skills and knowledge value chain is very relevant in case of self learning since sites such as this help you find all topics at one place instead of having to be scattered in looking in different sites.

By being a One Stop Shop for all the concepts and topics, self learning sites such as this can help you focus your energy and narrow your attention to the right concepts rather than be distracted by the noise.

Apart from this, while self learning and classroom learning are indeed as different as chalk and cheese, each can be used to complement and supplement each other and this where sites such as this can be used in conjunction with other modes of learning to ensure that you are ahead of the curve.

Therefore, what we recommend is that you make the most or the best of both worlds by using self learning to complement and supplement other modes of learning.

Lastly, given the pressures of the contemporary jobs landscape where one has to continuously learn to be able to just survive, it becomes clear that whichever mode of learning you choose, whether that is classroom based or self learning, remember not to get distracted and lose your focus or your drive.

After all, your future depends on how well you can learn by being ahead of the curve and hence, give your best and ensure that you learn responsibly and with adequate thought to the cost benefit aspect so that you do not burn a hole in your pocket.

To conclude, the changing times means that there must be changing methods of learning and this is where self learning can help you to stay ahead of the curve and be on top of the learning and skills value chain.