In order to bring you timely coverage of last night\u2019s presidential speech, Whitepaper Wednesday will not appear on the Purchasing Certification Blog this week. It will return next Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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In this time of dire economic crisis, I was pleasantly surprised to see US President Barack Obama stress the importance of career training in his address to Congress last night. Here is specifically what he said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity \u2014 it is a pre-requisite\u2026We know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow\u2026And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.\u201d<\/p>\n
These remarks indicate two things: one is that education and training is the driving force behind success, the other is that perhaps not all Americans are committed to their education as possible and economic challenges may have made them even less likely to pursue an education, requiring the proverbial kick in the pants.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, from where I sit, I am seeing something that is directly opposite of this second point. Despite the fact that some corporations have slashed their training budgets along with every other kind of budget due to the recession, enrollment in Next Level Purchasing\u2019s training programs continues to accelerate.<\/p>\n
Lately, I am seeing a large number of procurement professionals invest their own funds in training when their companies refuse to do so. And I\u2019m even seeing students who have stalled in their self-paced training get back into it with renewed vigor.<\/p>\n
Maybe its fear that the economy will take their purchasing jobs and make it difficult to find new work. Or maybe the value of purchasing training and education is becoming more apparent. Whatever it is, many, many procurement professionals already get what President Obama was saying: career training is a necessity for success.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing if you miss the point of continuing your education on your own. It\u2019s another thing if you still don\u2019t have educational ambitions after the President of the United States devotes valuable time during an important speech to urge you to seek out career training.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, there are some pretty smart people in procurement.<\/p>\n
Recommended Reading<\/strong><\/p>\n A Purchasing War Story About Email\u2026<\/a> In order to bring you timely coverage of last night\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-procurement"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAn Excerpt From Obama\u2019s Speech: Many Procurement Pros Already Get It<\/a>
\nAn IT Purchasing Breakthrough?<\/a>
\nAn Unlikely Leadership Book<\/a>
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