It goes without saying that in today’s shaky economy, flexibility is something that could account for our professional success. The idea of retraining in order to launch a new career trackhas been recently gaining popularity, mostly due to a variety of changes and innovations applied to many sectors, as well as the possibilities of cutbacks or reshuffles that arise with every local economic crisis.
Why Consider Retraining
There are plenty of reasons why every worker might consider retraining at some point in their career. Learning new things might help us to compete with our younger colleagues, or point us in the right direction during department reshuffles. Another good motive is related to studying and our dissatisfaction with the positions available to us after we graduate – there’s no room for doubt that our twenties are the best time to retrain. Similarly, we might find ourselves disappointed with our present career or want to establish a private enterprise – in both cases, retraining can offer a solution for finding out what it is that we’re really looking for in our professional life by specifying our preferences and career goals.
Planning to Retrain
First off, we must ask ourselves a question: what are we going to gain by getting new qualifications? Good skills are crucial in boosting our chances to find a job, but we should never retrain in a vacuum – before deciding on a career change, let’s have a look at the specifics of the new field by talking to the industry professionals, as well as the recruitment agents that specialise in our target sector. Reaching out to people that live the careers we dream about is very important in creating a professional network through which we may find our first role in the area.
Consider Your Options
Retraining can mean many things – from getting a whole new set of qualifications to brushing up those we already possess. In either case, the retraining process will differ in duration and intensity. Knowing which skills are required in our target sector, we’d be able to devise a retraining plan that might not even collide with our present employment.
Depending on the sector, we can choose from retraining methods that are best suited for our purpose. If our dream job requires a set of specific skills, the best way to go is by apprenticeships or internships, allowing us to learn new things while job shadowing – observing the everyday job responsibilities. Sometimes we might need an official certification, available for us only after passing an external examination. In this case, we’ll need to prepare for it by taking regular or distance classes, complimented by knowledge we can get from other resources.
Not every profession requires a full-time studying period and allows us a wide range of retraining options to choose from. We might consider part-time learning or even distance learning and e-learning options, the two latter saving us the trouble of having to commute and sacrifice our weekends for studying. The web is an excellent resource for anyone who’d like to consider a career transition – there are plenty online resources and professional guides just waiting to be purchased.
Showing a great enthusiasm to become a part of our dream sector, combined with a good insight into the reality of the business, will ensure a satisfying outcome of our retraining.
Author bio: Sophia Beirne is a dedicated tutor and writer. Currently she develops her passion in Career FAQs, one of the leading providers of career and educational resources in Australia. She gives career advice for students and job seekers. Apart from that, she also works as a freelance writer.