Introduction
Want to future-proof your career? Prepare to reinvent yourself constantly.
For the past 150 years, work has been characterized by “skill stability.” The social pact in most developed economies was characterized by a “learn, do, and retire” model that covered an average life span of 65 years. Workers could rely on the fact that an educational or technical training investment—from accounting to zoo keeping—combined with a relatively modest effort to keep skills up-to-date, would provide a 30-year return in salary, advancement, and opportunity.
Rampant digitization and the democratization of work, not to mention increased life expectancy, have rendered this agreement obsolete.
