Vocational Education or Critical Thinking

One may think that to be successful in life a person needs only a vocational education and also some schooling to get into a vocational program. After that a person can find a job and has a stable future. There is only one issue, our future is not stable. Human history does have periods when things changed only a little. During these periods of time it was possible for whole families had the same job for generations. They might not have vocational schools but the apprenticeship worked well.

Today our world is changing rapidly. But you still can go to a vocation school, get some training, then get a job. There are a number of jobs which change less than others. I can find several of the top of my head, for example a car driver and a cook. If you got your qualification ten or five years ago in a profession like this you most likely can work today because you have to do mostly the same things. These is still a risk, if a job requires mostly the same set of skills, a number of vacancies can change greatly. And changes like this are difficult to predict. So, I can conclude if you choose the more stable profession you are still at risk of decreasing a number of jobs in this profession.

Another option is to change yourself: find new skills, new professions, and new jobs. This way is more difficult but can be more rewarding. The main difficulty is a greater number of choices: every time you want to find a skill to learn, find a course to take, find a position to apply, you face a decision. And in situations like these critical thinking can help to make better decisions and to facilitate learning and changes in your life. If it looks more complicated it is really more complicate. Still our mind can adapt fast and a complexity like this soon can be perceived as a less complex thing over time.

Of course the more you use critical thinking skills the easier they become. It will further decrease the complexity of your life and also time you spend and effort you take.