With training and skills development budgets being cut across sectors and industries, more and more professionals are reimagining new career paths where they are less dependent on their employers and potentially have more freedom in the future.

This ultimately relates to ongoing job security and job relevance – realities Covid-19 has challenged on all fronts.

With online training options increasing daily, Shireen Onia, director of ServiceGurus, believes that the future of professional development is about to get personal: individuals who want to get ahead will need to start investing in themselves.

While basic and tertiary education remain firmly fixed under South Africa’s Covid-19 spotlight, a less reported on – but arguably critical – trend is starting to emerge in the professional development space: self-funded professional development.

“With many organisations currently unable to invest in the training and development of their staff, individuals are starting to explore where and how it’s feasible for them to begin ‘owning’ this themselves and, consequently, their career path and trajectory,” explains Onia.

“This is largely being driven by the rise of digital. Covid-19 has shown employees that they are either poorly prepared to adopt relevant technology or that technology could potentially make a lot of what they are currently responsible for redundant. More are recognising that ongoing job security can’t be taken for granted – and that it’s not something employers can guarantee.”

Michelle Page, director of ServiceGurus, notes that new online training offerings are not only making self-development possible but viable for people who perhaps wouldn’t have considered this before. “Platforms like Coursera.org for example, are repositioning training in a completely new way. You’re now able to do a mini-course or study a subject at Yale or Oxford for free, and benefit from that brand association on your CV.”

Improved affordability, and the fact that “bite-sized” compact courses can be completed quickly at home through specialist training providers like ServiceGurus are also making this option very attractive for individuals who previously relied on their employer to take responsibility for training from a compliance perspective.

“Because we’re still seeing retrenchments and furloughing, as well as far fewer job opportunities available, forward-thinking employees are starting to ask how they can differentiate and position themselves as key contributors within their organisations. While training has always been a way to do this, self-funded training shows a different level of commitment and determination,” says Page.

She adds that niche courses that are very job or subject matter-specific additionally help staff to start moving themselves into specialist roles – which are typically more desirable and potentially secure into the long-term.

“This is something we’re seeing especially in service-oriented industries, where power skills around cultural sensitivity, creativity and innovation for example, are becoming more important as companies turn to their teams to help them pivot and adapt to new market conditions. This is creating welcome space for these self-funded ‘gurus”: switched-on individuals who are self-schooled in the latest trends in their space and who are able to apply them strategically in their own roles for the greater good of the organisation.”