So you finished college successfully with great grades and landed that dream job. Congratulations It indeed is a monumental task nowadays – considering the fact that one has to shine in high school to be accepted to a good college or university and then burn the midnight oil, perform well in quizzes and examinations. It is tough sometimes to stay focused in college amidst all the distractions that are inevitably present. And after all that, the tremendous competition that exists in the job market means one has to work hard to get to the interview stage which itself might consist of several parts and then finally get accepted to a position. That is to be appreciated after all.
But hold on... getting that dream job is not the end of things. In order to stay ahead of your competition and to be able to hold on to the job as a minimum and potentially get better jobs or move on to higher paying jobs, one needs to get involved in adult education. You need to constantly sharpen your current skills and acquire new skills ALL the time by getting involved with adult education. Employers value employees that are constantly improving their skills by taking evening classes and weekend courses or on-line college credits. And many times employers will completely reimburse all costs associated with adult education. After all, when an employee learns more, he will be even more valuable to the employer. And in turn, the employee, namely you, get paid more. Getting paid more equates to more money in your pocket to do the things you want to do; adult education otherwise known as continual education is a big part of this.
Adult education is applicable regardless of the field of occupation that you are in. If you just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and got a job as an entry level accountant, may be a management degree with finance major would be helpful; or work towards getting to be a certified public accountant. If you graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and got that dream job dealing with aerospace manufacturing, then may be a few adult education courses in metallurgical engineering and materials would be an added value to your field of expertise; or may be a degree in business with a major in finance or information systems so you could move into manufacturing management. I know of a friend of mine who graduated with a degree in materials engineering and then painstakingly took adult education classes to get a degree in law and guess what he now works in a law firm as a failure analysis expert dealing with cases where manufactured components fail and liability cases have been filed in courts of law; he nearly doubled his income and his adult education paid off in a big way.
Adult education is not just limited to engineers and accountants. If you have graduated from a trade school and are working as a machinist, then take on adult education classes in the evenings in engineering and work towards an associates degree or diploma in mechanical engineering. A high school graduate that is working as a fork-lift operator can take adult education courses in diesel engine repair or maintenance mechanic’s course and have something more to look forward to in career. If you are working as a teller at a bank or a secretary in the office, may be some adult education classes to improve computer skills would potentially take you farther in the pay scale. A friend of mine who was a computer programmer at a nuclear power services company, gave up his job and wanted to so something that gave him visual satisfaction; so he became a carpenter. After several years, he found that he could no longer do the extensive manual and physical work involved; so he took some adult education courses in real estate appraisal, got himself a real estate appraisers’ licence and now works for a small firm as an appraiser in one of the hottest real estate markets around making nearly twice the amount of money that he was making before
In any case, continual education is very important for one’s career and potential to make more income and have job security. So keep learning and earning more with adult education.
