 By Graham Trickey, Editor, Prospects. Which would you prefer: a shiny, innovative model of career development, or a dowdy, old-fashioned one? With the dull old one, graduates progress predictably, staying with the same employer for long stretches until they gain well rewarded responsibility. With the leading-edge design, they are freed-up to manage their own careers, moving between employers and into new areas of work. But there is a catch. With the plain old version, the company encourages graduate employees to gain necessary training, as happens in good graduate training schemes. With the up-to-date model, employees decide what training they need and must try to persuade their employer to help, or else – the little difficulty - take courses entirely in their own time and with their own resources. The new version, in which traditional career paths disappear, has become the choice of employers who want flexibility. Coincidentally they have decided that an extensive layer of middle management is a luxury they can do without, so – a further difficulty - traditional promotion positions have declined. Modernisation of careers means many employees must now work harder to turn their dreams into reality. One barrier is the skill ceiling, which employees are unable to go through if they are not getting training. It is worth having early warning of this obstacle because acquiring necessary training through part-time study can take time and determination. The easiest way to start upgrading skills is to take whatever opportunities arise at work. Courses in IT, team building or giving presentations may be offered, for example. But more than this may be needed to gain advancement. Joining a professional organisation can be a more thoroughgoing but demanding way of upgrading skills and qualifications. In some professions, such as engineering and accountancy, achieving chartered membership is more or less essential; in careers like marketing, individuals may need to work out the advantages themselves. Even when chartered status or full membership has been achieved, continuing development is encouraged by professional organisations. The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, for instance, has a scheme in which members earn points for activities ranging from job secondments to academic study. Outside the professional organisations, individuals may need to explore part-time postgraduate courses. One possibility is a business Masters, which may focus on particular industries and specialisations, such as finance. Alternatively there are generalist qualifications like the Master of Business Administration. The MBA is reputed to be the ultimate career ceiling buster. It comes at a price of from £5,000 to £30,000 a year but great claims are made for its enhanced earning potential. Not every MBA gains the big salaries, of course, and there are cases of MBA graduates studying expensively full-time but returning to the job they were in before. Uncertainty about the return on study and training is one reason why many individuals would rather that employers remained involved with their development. Recently some employers have also been getting nostalgic about the old way of doing things. They are finding they cannot hang on to valuable staff members who have too eagerly embraced the idea of managing their own careers. According to a recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, offering training is one of the main options being considered by companies to encourage staff to stay. It turns out that the new career model may need some tweaking to make it work as well as the old. Further information
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