Are you ready to upskill?

Just when you thought the world was going entirely the wrong direction, along comes good news: American companies are upskilling their team members.

Or, for those of us with a more traditional view of language: training their employees.

A number of business publications and industry groups are reporting on the trend, while offering examples of companies with internal training tracks or partnerships with technical schools.

According to the Wall Street Journal article “Companies Seek to Fill Skills Gap by Retraining Their Own Workers” (Ezequiel Minaya, March 8), employers are realizing that their best solution for upgrading their workplaces might be to upgrade their workers’ skills — rather than seeking new employees already equipped with the desired skill set.

It’s too easy to take potshots at trends that recycle good ideas as if they were new. Rather than pointing out that training one’s workers was for decades the norm, let’s just breath a collective sigh of relief that employers are returning to their senses.

If you want to catch this particular tiger by the tail, you’ll need a plan. Otherwise, you might find yourself being upskilled into something you have no interest in. Here are some ideas to help you stay on top of this trend.

Look for Learning & Development departments. If you want to know an employer’s commitment to training, check for a team dedicated to this purpose. It may still be called the Training Department, or it may have morphed into something else altogether.

The name isn’t important, but the commitment is. This unit typically partners with division heads to develop training for the skills they need in their teams. A distinct department won’t be common in smaller companies, so you’ll need to ask those employers more directly about their philosophy on training.

Telescope out to define your long-term career goals. When you’re already employed in a particular company, it’s easy to develop tunnel vision. Being told that you can either stay with your current skill set or train on this other skill set implies those are the only two choices.

Indeed, that may be the case as far as this employer is concerned. But what if neither choice aligns with where you want to go in your career? You risk building the career someone else wants you to have, because it fits their needs. Once those needs are met, you could be on a treadmill to continue learning what they want you to know – or possibly being replaced if the upskill trend has faded by then.

The point isn’t that retraining to fit a company’s needs is bad – of course it isn’t. But you should recognize that the training they offer will be designed for their needs, not yours. It’s up to you to find the match between your own path and the opportunities they make available. And to do that, you need to think beyond your current organization.

Build skills that are easily transferrable. To avoid becoming overly specialized in one company’s processes, look for training opportunities you can apply to other settings. For example, becoming a specialist on a certain piece of equipment or an internal process might be extremely valuable for your current department, which is good. But the same specialization may have no meaning for other employers, which is bad. If the specialization is important for growth in your current job, then create a balance by also taking a class or online program with a broader perspective.

Create your own training program. In the absence of an internal training initiative, it’s wise to take the reins yourself. Ideally, you’d start this process when negotiating the offer: “What can you tell me about the training opportunities and tuition reimbursement?” But it’s not a critical error if you didn’t have that conversation early. After all, even a positive response has no meaning if you don’t follow through.

To start (or restart) the conversation now, go back to your career goals. Then, match your own plan against your manager’s needs to find the common areas. If you’ve been wanting to supervise others, for example, and your department is currently growing, you have a good argument for coursework in supervisory skills.

Mind the details. It’s not uncommon for employers to place conditions on the training, particularly when they’re funding degree programs or other big-ticket items. That’s not a problem in itself, but you don’t want to be caught unawares if you’re expected to repay the tuition under certain circumstances. Do your best to provide a return on your employer’s investment and you’ll be on the right track.