Developing future skills to stay competitive as an entrepreneur within the information technology industry
Tanskanen, Miia (2022)
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205179926
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202205179926
Tiivistelmä
In the past couple of years, the work life has changed faster than ever before. One reason has been the pandemic, that has forced us all to learn new ways to work and collaborate, and companies to speedily digitalise the work and the workplaces. The second reason is said to be the fourth revolution that we are already experiencing, and which is estimated to change our lives and work in ways that we are not completely able to foresee, and change faster than ever before, and faster than we can maybe understand.
As an entrepreneur within information technology industry, learning new skills has always been important, but if it was before a citation in a sentence now it has become a neon light on the wall of a building – If you do not learn and keep up with the changing world, you will not be competitive within the work market in the future. It is this need to develop oneself and stay competitive, that has been main driver also for this research.
The research objectives are to understand what the future skills in general are potentially growing in value, and further narrow down to those skills that are relevant for my self-development within information technology industry, and finally to learn through diary process how to develop the selected skills as a part of everyday life.
To answer the research questions, I chose the diary thesis process as a research methodology, which follows the autoethnography thinking. This methodology gave me the opportunity to follow the process of my self-development journey subjectively through weekly diary notes, self-reflections, and analysis.
For the self-development, I selected three future skills in which I personally found most need for development. These were Problem Solving and Adaptability, Technology and Future, and Well-being and Self-knowledge. In addition to these development items, I had weekly journal notes on my current assignment to give background and deeper context to my learning.
As a conclusion, the development of future skills as a part of demanding work assignments is not easy, but it is possible. The key learnings for myself were that the only way to pursue lifelong learning is to change. This means that I need to take ownership of the future learning and plan ahead, but also remove the strong border between work and study and become consistent by making small changes every day.
As an entrepreneur within information technology industry, learning new skills has always been important, but if it was before a citation in a sentence now it has become a neon light on the wall of a building – If you do not learn and keep up with the changing world, you will not be competitive within the work market in the future. It is this need to develop oneself and stay competitive, that has been main driver also for this research.
The research objectives are to understand what the future skills in general are potentially growing in value, and further narrow down to those skills that are relevant for my self-development within information technology industry, and finally to learn through diary process how to develop the selected skills as a part of everyday life.
To answer the research questions, I chose the diary thesis process as a research methodology, which follows the autoethnography thinking. This methodology gave me the opportunity to follow the process of my self-development journey subjectively through weekly diary notes, self-reflections, and analysis.
For the self-development, I selected three future skills in which I personally found most need for development. These were Problem Solving and Adaptability, Technology and Future, and Well-being and Self-knowledge. In addition to these development items, I had weekly journal notes on my current assignment to give background and deeper context to my learning.
As a conclusion, the development of future skills as a part of demanding work assignments is not easy, but it is possible. The key learnings for myself were that the only way to pursue lifelong learning is to change. This means that I need to take ownership of the future learning and plan ahead, but also remove the strong border between work and study and become consistent by making small changes every day.