When I started my career in journalism about 25 years ago (yikes!), the newspaper business was a lot different than it is today. While basic reporting skills such as conducting interviews and story writing haven’t changed very much, the technology that is used has changed significantly.

The internet wasn’t available for easy access to research, email wasn’t yet invented for easily sending information and images, layout was done by hand — actually pasting pieces of the page together using wax, mobile phones were around but few people had them, and social media wasn’t even imagined yet as another way to acquire new information.

And putting photos on a newspaper page was no easy feat back then. This involved a complicated process of taking photos with a film camera, loading the film onto spools in the dark, developing the images into negatives using several different chemicals, drying them, selecting the best ones, and then printing them.

I didn’t love this time-consuming and sometimes uncertain process, so when digital cameras made their way into the newsroom where I worked, it was a great advancement — eliminating many of these steps.

I was glad to learn how to use a digital camera, how to download photos, how to edit them, and how to place them on a page layout on a computer, as it wasn’t as messy, had less chance for error, and didn’t take as much time. Upgrades to the technology available forced all of us in the newsroom to learn new skills.

This is likely the same for many employees and professions, with technological advancements creating opportunities for learning. However, some skills that are necessary in workplaces today are unrelated to technology. These include softskills such as creative and critical thinking, negotiation, people management, decision-making, problem-solving, and emotional intelligence.

The common denominator is learning. In order to remain relevant in workplaces employees should make sure they become life-long learners, constantly acquiring new knowledge and skills.

Perhaps technology hasn’t changed drastically in your workplace since you started your career, but practices evolve and new procedures are always being developed.

Training is more important now than ever, and Velsoft’s latest softskills course Become a Better Learner can help you avoid becoming obsolete.

This one-day course will help you to become a better learner, and as a result make you a more valuable employee and well-rounded individual, with topics that include how to adopt a mindset for learning, how to set realistic goals, how to become accountable for your goals, and how to accelerate your learning.

It’s not too late to discover how to become a life-long learner. Start today with Becoming a Better Learner.