In the modern job market, it's not just enough to find any career. You need to find one with stability and a future. If technological and social progress changes the nature of that career, you need to be ready to adapt. Plenty of articles discuss the changing job market, automation, how current jobs can disappear and change, and how the skills you learn need to stay current for you to stay employed. If you're looking to future-proof your career, here are a few steps you can take.
1. Do your research
Generally, when you're researching your career with an eye towards the changing job market, what you're looking for are salary trends, what the labour market is like now, and whether the industry you want to enter is expected to grow or shrink. Here are a few good places to start looking:
- Centennial College's Career Explorer and myCareer Guide for general information, and to find a career that suits you.
- Payscale's Salary Data and Career Research Center (Canada) for salary and financial information.
- Toronto Employment and Labour Market Information for trends and statistics about careers in Toronto.
- Work in Canada for information on how employment works when you're in the process of coming to the country.
2. Search out skills-based training
Ultimately, getting and keeping a career comes down more to what you can do than what you know. That's what Centennial College offers, hands-on skills to teach you how to do the practical things a career needs. Each of our programs has a Program Advisory Committee made up of industry professionals that make sure the skills you're learning are actively relevant to the careers they work in, and that you want to work in. More importantly, they make sure that the skills you're learning are up to date and relevant. And speaking of those job skills...
3. Keep your skills fresh
Everything changes. Technology changes, markets change, practices change and careers change. Even if you've got a career you enjoy, you need to keep your knowledge of a field relevant, particularly if it's technology-oriented. This is why Centennial College offers Part-time Learning and Graduate Certificate programs for people looking to come back to school and upgrade their skills. If you're already employed, many of these programs are offered in part-time and distance learning formats, so you can keep working while you learn. For an extra bit of research, you can look at the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development for information on government programs to help get you educated, and develop your skills.
4. Look up new programs
By new programs, I mean ones that have been recently created by the college. At Centennial, we're always designing new programs, based on the demands of the Canadian job market. For example, the college has recently created programs in Food Media, Food Tourism, Advanced Business Management - Alcoholic Beverages and Interactive Media Management, all created by teams of industry professionals who saw a need in the market for people trained in these fields. So, by looking for up-and-coming programs, you can get an up-and-coming career.
By Anthony Geremia