How do I work out my best future and the path to get there?

How will I maintain my effectiveness when disruption is constant, and organisations are transforming to keep up?

Which workplace trends and developments will impact my ability to meet the expectations of my employer, colleagues and my personal relationships?

Which skills will ensure my career will be safe from automation?

Never have we had to think so hard about such questions, and never has the answers to them been so important.

What makes a good career?

When you contemplate questions like the above about your direction and future, what underpins your thinking and concerns?

Stability?

For some people jobs that offer predictability and income security that end in a comfortable retirement is more important than the nature of the work and the type of employer. Older generations who have lived through war and depressions tend to prize stability.

Status?

For many careerists, success is measured not by money, but by the status of the job titles and the responsibilities that trace the path of career progress and evidence their achievements.

Meaning?

For some people, a career is their opportunity to do work for an employer whose practices actively avoid harm and a vehicle for their positive contributions to others.

In the past, the systems of employment - written as they were from the industrialists' perspective of profit-making - were not designed for people to have all three, and people did not plan for or expect it.

That has changed with the digital age. Attitudes have been shifting as, over the decades, people have come to want more from work than a job for life. Now with technology creating new types of jobs and rewiring how organisations produce value, the potential for work that is stable, rewarding and meaningful is written into the path of all careers - only if you have the skills needed for the digital age career.

Not so long ago, there were few career options. We had few decisions to make and few occasions to make them. Changes affecting work were usually employer-made, such as the new systems or procedures we were to follow from now on. We demonstrated our employee value by staying the course of a single career direction, and only changed employers for more money or advancement. If ambitious, we undertook training, and hoped to be deemed worthy for the next rung up the corporate ladder.

Throughout most of the last century, this was the constant pattern of careers. Now, it is exactly that: last century. Today's new steady state is careers made of choices informed by our personal values, lifestyle considerations, working preferences, and the growing for work that has meaning, not just an income. Driving and shaping each career step is a world embracing digital technology.

Our expectations may have changed however management practices from the past era have left a legacy that hampers many from the opportunities of the fulfilling career.

We are all paying the price of the old hire/fire model.

Much of our approach to employment and the skills we used to back it came from a position of vulnerability. It has been underpinned by the organisation's theory that hiring and firing is key to doing business. From deciding it is easier to replace legacy employees that retrain them, to the CEO oustings when performance targets are missed, we have captured the formula in the language of 'good' business practice: 'restructuring', 'right-sizing' and 'workforce adjustment'.

The cost of those practices has caught up with us.

The acceptance of the fire/hire model diverted organisations' focus and funds from making continuous skill development the norm. It has removed or diminished the opportunity for people to absorb knowledge, build capability and gain experience, especially for those in lower-skilled jobs where such opportunities are particularly limited.

Now that technology has reduced the need for many low-skilled jobs and requires people with advanced skills, the number of jobs that organisations cannot fill with the rights skills at any price is growing.

That’s why we created UPLEVEL.

At the basic level, we want you to be in a position that you don't need to fear change, instead will see change as opportunities. Even more so, we want you to experience work as you want it.

To realise these as a reality, you need the skills for work where your abilities - not an employer - become your source of stability, status and meaning.

Stability comes from your ability to adapt your technical and functional skills in

step with any shift, whether they are slow burning like digitisation or sudden like a global pandemic.

Status comes from the freedom and confidence to change how and where you work whenever your circumstances change or environment dictates it.

Meaning comes from your emotional connection with your work or the personal fulfilment your work facilitates.

We need to drop the outdated idea of a career from being a single, linear path to one made of – not just of multiple jobs – but of many dimensions.

These dimensions can include paid employment, time out for personal interests, family, business enterprise and every other part of life’s course. Not only does opening yourself to a fluid and multi-dimensional work life make you more adaptable and insures you against employment volatility, it is how you can achieve the triple goal of stability, status (by which we mean reputation and recognition, not physical possessions) and personal satisfaction.

This ability to adapt your skills, knowledge and experience despite changes and challenges is known as upskilling.

The benefits of upskilling come not just because it increases your capabilities in the work you do, but also from the need of employers for people who have the skills to help them in their transition to more digitised ways of doing business.

The pace of change has made the lack of enough appropriately skilled people even more acute. The demand for upskilled workers will only grow as, once employers solve their immediate skill shortages, they will need to help people keep up with new skills as we face on-going environmental, technological, social, political and economic shifts that will continue to redefine the way we work.

In our current complex world, employers are adjusting to the reality that a 'good worker' is not the person who stays the longest, but the one that has the means to produce results, developing whichever skills are necessary as things continue to change. Longevity as a marker of performance has been replaced by impact.

In any field you can name, it is the people who make change happen and help others adapt to change that have the biggest impact.

Impact is not about shortcuts to riches or fame; it’s about being successful by being effective. It’s about the reasons your efforts matter: your sense of accomplishment; the security of your family; the people you inspire, support or lead; the challenges you overcome; the contributions you make to society.

It's a new paradigm, not a new job description.

Upskilling is not training for a job. It is continuous adapting so that your skills stay relevant and can serve you no matter your professional field or job title.

If you're ready and waiting for a manager to tell you what your 'new' job will look like, you're missing the point. The shift is the employer sets out their vision and expectations and provides guidance; you bring the how-to to the table.

You'll always need an UPLEVEL.

Throughout the six UPLEVELS in this program, we are going to focus on upskilling you for a paradigm shift not just of the job, but of a career.

As the image below shows, there is always a need to UPLEVEL.

The next section will take you through a short introduction to help you get the most from this program. If there are any questions that aren't answered in this section, don't hesitate to send us a message.