Independent work

Continuous learning
Continuous learning is the third requirement for achieving in work for a responsible employee. There is need for employees, whether unskilled, skilled, or knowledge worker, to be trained in new skills. Continuous learning does not replace training. It has different aims and satisfies different needs. Above all, it satisfies the need of the employee to contribute what he himself has learned to the improvement of his own performance, to the improvement of his colleague’s performance, and to a better, more effective, but also more rational way of working.
Continuous learning is also the one way of coming to grips with two basic issues namely (i) the resistance of the employees to innovation, and (ii) the danger of the employees becoming outdated. The way technology has progressed in recent past, the employee’s knowledge has become obsolete earlier than expected. It is also a severe indictment of the management. An employee who starts with the proper foundation of knowledge for his work has no business to make it obsolete. Hence, the continuing improvement of his own skill and knowledge at his own job is required to be built into his daily work.
Continuous learning need not be organized as a formal training session the way it is traditionally done in many organizations. But it always needs to be organized. There is need for the continuing challenge to the employee. The present knowledge of the employee makes the job more productive, more performing, and more achieving. The employee needs the knowledge, the tools, and the information to prepare him for the job. But it does not cover him towards new needs, new methods, and new performance capacities.
Continuous learning is as needed in the office work as it is needed in field work. It is of particular importance in knowledge work. The very fact that knowledge work, to be effective, has to be specialized creates a need for continuous exposure to the experiences, the problems, the needs of others, and in turn, for continuous contribution of knowledge and information to others.