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Continuing Education

Strategic Studies are Advantageous to Employer and Employee!

People who upgrade their work skills and knowledge not only can keep up with the latest technologies and business techniques, but they also can receive other benefits, such as the training needed to climb the corporate ladder and to realize additional career goals. Training facilities often house state-of-the-art equipment such as computers and computer-based training equipment. Computers can facilitate interactive training through computer networks such as the Internet. With this technology, learners have instant access to experts in virtually every vocation.

While continuing education is sometimes perceived as largely a means to career advancement, researchers in the late 1990s argued that continuing education was becoming less of an option and more of a necessity. Hence, one of the greatest benefits workers may derive from continuing education is simply keeping their jobs. Nevertheless, additional education still can help employees receive promotions and land better jobs.

Besides these basic advantages, some experts contend that continuing education provides additional benefits at a more abstract level. Continuing education allows workers to clarify and understand the purpose and goals of their occupations. In addition, continuing education can help advance various occupations by giving employees the opportunity to acquire both theoretical and practical occupational knowledge and to improve their problem-solving skills. Continuing education also facilitates establishing and regulating occupational standards for some professions.

Perhaps the ultimate benefit of continuing education, however, is its ability to impart an attitude or disposition that encourages workers to find and use the best techniques available at any given time and to realize that these techniques will need to be improved or replaced, according to Cyril 0. Houle in Continuing Learning in the Professions. This attitude became all the more important late in the 20th century with the persistent technological advances, the growth of competition for jobs, and the shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service based economy.