Graduation

My niece graduated from KU School of Journalism this past Saturday. The keynote speaker talked about 1988, the year most the students were born. I started thinking about how much journalism has changed since then. This was pre-web. Not many people even had home computers back then and newspapers had no idea what was coming as far as the changes in their industry. The professors must spend a lot of time updating their knowledge so they can send graduates out with the latest skills, but that won't be enough. The new graduates will have to continue to keep their skills updated if they want to remain competitive in the workforce.

How much time are you spending updating your skills? Stephen Covey talks about taking time to sharpen the saw; stepping back from the day to day work and focusing on your skills. Finding the time to do this can be challenging, but the options are also increasing. Now we can attend a 1-hour webinar on a topic of interest. We don't have to take 3 days off and attend a conference just to pick up some new knowledge. There are other on-line training opportunities, self paced classes, and of course books, blogs etc. What you need to do is make the time. Block off an hour or two this week to sharpen your saw so you can keep up with the changing world.