Professionals say retention is a differentiator, but schools and curricula still need to advance lifelong learning
People from different backgrounds and generations have incorporated the concept of lifelong learning to their daily life. What they have in common is the continuous desire to do so learning and professional development.
Fernando Murad Loli, Mccain’s regional sales director, has a degree in Business Administration from Mackenzie and began his career in consultancy, an area that required frequent refresher training. “When I left consulting and moved into industry, I decided to get an MBA in Strategic Retail Management, at USP (University of São Paulo), which helped me a lot to understand the new professional area and to acquire a strategic vision of the sales market.”
It was ten years ago. Today Loli still considers herself a sales professional, but she always needs to retrain. “The traditional sales model will be left behind. Currently, many things are done digitally.”
For this reason, he earned an MBA in Digital Marketing and Business Intelligence and noticed a big difference between now and his previous specialization. “Everything has changed a lot, from the way teachers work to the profile of students,” she says.
According to him, the course helped a lot, especially when dealing with clients who already operate in this digital niche, such as food delivery platforms. “You have to know and spread the knowledge to the team you command.”
Career turnaround
Fabiana Fragiacomo, communications manager, is an example of how lifelong learning can influence changes in career paths.
Graduated in Social Communication at the ESPM, she specialized in Marketing and began a career in the financial market. Because she really liked innovation, she immersed herself in Silicon Valley, USA. When she returned to Brazil, she went to work at the Ayrton Senna Institute as an innovation manager.
He recently created his own company, Gloppies, specializing in working with teenagers.
“Since childhood, I have had a nature of continuous education. It is the creation of a portfolio of knowledge, by taste and necessity,” he says.
At 53 years old, Fabiana sees constant updating as a necessity for people of her generation who still want to remain very active. “We need to align this relationship issue with the new generation. We live in a very disruptive world.”
According to her, the curricula applied today by some educational institutions are producing unemployed. “School must be a forever place. Every place can be a place of learning. You need to have an open mind and understand that learning is broad.”
Always in class
Originally trained in accounting, Regina Lee, 51, never stopped studying. You have a postgraduate degree in Financial Markets from Mackenzie and a new degree, this time in Law. “Less than a year after graduating, I went on to do postgraduate studies in criminal law and now I will start another, in military law at the Escola Paulista de Direito,” she points out.
Finally, an example that age is not a limit to learning is that of the psychoanalyst Wilson Cerqueira.
At the age of 76 he attended the Agulhas Negras Military Academy, where he remained a captain, worked in the automotive industry, earned a postgraduate diploma in Human Resource Development from FGV and is now the owner of a training for clinical psychoanalysts and consultant in Human Resources.
“There is a structural problem in Brazilian education. Continuous training is fundamental, it had to be a mentality. We must educate in continuous training. But educational institutions have a social responsibility with the quality of the professionals they put on the market.”
How to prepare for what is yet to come
- Transversal skills for the future
Published by the World Economic Forum, the report “The Future of Jobs 2020?? presents the prospects for the world of work until 2025.
The material, as shown in Estadao last year indicates that the gap between the skills required by the market and the skills of job seekers has been a problem and will continue to be a point of attention in the coming years. Therefore, the speed with which the professional relearns is important in the process.
The document highlights that employers are looking for a set of knowledge that goes beyond technique, also involving behaviour. These are the famous soft skills, fundamental for professional success. Emotional intelligence, flexibility, self-management and creativity These are some of the skills considered essential at the moment.
- The experts’ point of view
According to Caroline Petian, academic manager at Harven Agribusiness School, in an increasingly proactive and systemic corporate world, it is necessary to look at all aspects, interact and resolve conflicts on a daily basis.
“Propose challenges to be solved collectively, using active methodologies. Create micro-universes to understand macro-universes.”
For João Luis Barroso, director of Executive Training at FGV Centers, the world is so dynamic, concepts and tools are updated so quickly, that those who are not qualified “will hardly enter the market”.
As experts indicate, this is what has expanded the market for corporate training, or In Company, and even the adoption of their own schools by hospitals, for example.
- No age restrictions
This new reality involves a longer life in studies, which is also accompanied by a longer life in the job market.
“Contrary to what happened in the past, today we have many people over 70 who are still professionally active. And educational institutions need to be structured for this situation. Invest in short, immersive courses, in mentoring,” emphasizes Caroline.
- No income limitations
And, in addition to in-person options, there is no shortage of models that cost nothing to those interested in developing lifelong learning.
This is the case of the Coursera platform, aimed at training technology professionals. The initiative has partnerships with companies like Google and IBM and more than 200 universities, including Harvard.
The same North American university also has a portal with free online courses available: Harvard Online Courses, with more than 100 options.
Topics covered include business and management, educational and organizational development, art, programming, data analytics, and humanities. Although most courses are in English, some have Portuguese subtitles.
Source: Terra
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