Keeping up to date in the jobs world – Lifelong learning is a wise investment in yourself and your career.

Adding to your skills is one way to keep your job in a tight employment market — and also when times are good.

Carol Kleiman Chicago Tribune

The U.S. Department of Labor projects that occupations with the most job growth are the very ones that require the most skills, the most lifelong learning, the most training.

That’s why employers are willing to spend billions of dollars a year, even in a slow economy, to train new and current employees. And that’s why all of us, employed or looking for work, should take advantage of every opportunity to learn a new skill.

The information age is a challenging one to live in, and it’s ours. And that’s what led me to ask the experts a question: If you could recommend just one course or area of study for job seekers and employees to take at community colleges, colleges and universities, what would it be?

To my surprise, not one person suggested getting that heavily promoted MBA degree, which is touted as the most reliable way to reach the pinnacle of any career or profession you choose. Instead, their responses were much more pragmatic, much less expensive and much less time-consuming.

Here are their suggestions:

• Burt Abrams, president of B.J. Abrams & Associates, an executive recruiting firm in Northfield, Ill.: "Every working person should take a course in communications, with an emphasis on learning not only customer-service skills but also courtesy and respect for their fellow employees and clients."

• Diane Wilson, career and executive coach, Grimard Wilson Consulting, Chicago: "Project management is essential because the nature of the way work is done has changed — and many more jobs are project-related."

• Russell Hancock, transitional coordinator, division of parole and probation, The Maryland Transition Offenders Program, Jessup, Md.:

"African-American studies is a course that all workers, regardless of race, should take in order to broaden their perspective. As a professional who is African American, I see the need for this every day in the workplace."

• Ellen Bartkowiak, director of the career-advancement center at Lake Forest (Ill.) College: "Computer courses. If you can go to your boss and say (the company is) using an Excel spreadsheet (where it ) should be using Access, you make yourself a more valuable employee. You will be saving the company time and money. And you will have learned important technical skills."

• Clyde Rundle of Lincolnshire, Ill., partner in RMG Partners, an executive search firm focusing on the metals industry, and of Labor Finders, which supplies temporary workers for light industry: "Study Spanish, because Hispanics are becoming the largest minority in the workforce. I’m not suggesting by learning Spanish that you’re magically going to be able to make it in the world of business, but it certainly will help."

E-mail questions to Carol Kleiman at [email protected] Copyright 2003, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

Copyright 2003, Chicago Tribune

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