It Is Time to Embrace the Future: Why Many Americans Need to Start Training for a Self-Employment Workforce

Some people might be trying to convince Americans that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation are “not taking that many jobs.”

However, the fact is, those three technologies are quickly consuming jobs in the United States.

Positions that are not being taken over by automation are getting sent overseas, despite what political party is in control.

According to CNBC, the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, predicts that automation is threatening a quarter of the nation’s low-wage jobs. The report further stated that American men will be hit the hardest by machines.

In a two year study conducted by FreshBooks, a cloud-based accounting firm, self-employment is looking to reach 42 million people by next year.

For the younger generation – those who are not yet firmly established in a career – it is exciting to pursue dreams.

The FreshBooks’ updated report in 2018 pointed out that Millennials are the primary catalyst behind growing self-employment workforce, which has already reached close to 27 million people.

But what about those who have been in their career for a few years or more; or those who spent tens of thousands of dollars on an education that means nothing anymore because machines can do the job better and faster?

It is not easy to merely pick up and change careers once you have invested so much. So what can Americans do to have a fighting chance? Is pursuing a self-employment career worth it for you?

Or should you hold on a little longer to see how things go in your neck of the woods?

A Self-Employed Person Works Autonomously

A lot of people now days understand at some level or another that college in the traditional sense was designed to train workers for the workforce.

College was not intended to educate people on how to think and operate like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or others in their league. Maybe that is why all three of them were actually college dropouts before they founded their companies or became CEOs.

The reason those three individuals named above are who they are is because, by virtue, they never needed to be told what or how to get things done.

They were born with a mind for leadership.

On the other hand, those who plan their first steps towards a career as needing a college degree are people who inherently need someone to tell them what, where, how, and when. Thus facing the prospect of a mostly self-employed workforce can be frightening. 

However, the lightning-fast advancements in technology are not going to leave much room for other alternatives other than a change in paradigm. And this is why more educators are changing how they do things as well – training rather than teaching.

Training Someone Versus Teaching Someone

Today, you can choose to take one or two affordable training courses at an online training institute or obtain a few certification badges from various tech companies such as Oracle, Google, Microsoft, among others.

These mini-certificates are quickly beginning to hold more weight in the eyes of potential clients, who might look for them on your LinkedIn profile or ask to see them when you send a proposal.

In addition to that, more progressive companies are not asking for college degrees – instead, they want to see if you possess specific knowledge in niche areas, such as HTML5 for example.

And why is that?

Let us take a writer. He or she wants to send a proposal to some company to be a remote copywriter and SEO specialist.

But the company may require them to be more hands-on with its website. All of the sudden, it is not just about writing. Companies expect you to be able to take some control over minor page design aspects as well.

It is ludicrous for one to enroll in college courses only to fulfill such a small requirement. And in many cases, what is being taught in colleges does not include the need to actually grasp or totally comprehend what they learned.

Whereas the fast developing culture of training and coaching people is all about hands-on experience and applying knowledge in the real-world rather than theoretically.

It is time for Americans to realize that artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation is not going away – rather, it will continue to proliferate across many industries, and continue so on into the foreseeable future.