完结撒花~
Pathway dependency
路径依赖
Large companies may have the scale to offer their employees internal pathways to improve their skills, as companies like AT&T do. But many workers will need outside help in deciding which routes to take. That suggests a big opportunity for firms that can act, in effect, as careers advisers. Some are better placed than others to see where the jobs market is going. Manpower, which supplies temporary workers to many industries, last year launched a programme called MyPath that is based on the idea of an iterative process of learning and working. It allows Manpower’s army of temporary workers in America to earn a degree from Western International University at no financial cost to them. The degree is structured as a series of three or four episodes of education followed by periods in work, in the expectation that Manpower has a good overview of the skills leading to well-paid jobs.
如同 AT&T 一样的大公司或许规模大到了可以为其员工提供内部的培训来提升他们的技能。但是许多其他的员工就需要外部的帮助来决定未来的前进方向。这就为提供职业发展咨询的公司带来了巨大的机遇。有些公司在劳动市场的发展方向上看的比其他公司更加透彻。Manpower 是一家为许多工种提供临时工的企业，去年他们开展了一个称为 MyPath 的计划，计划的内在逻辑就是提供可重复的学习和工作机会。这个计划为 Manpower 的临时工大军免费去考取许多西方国际性大学的学位的机会。这些学位依据工作的不同阶段分成了三个或者四个部分，在Manpower 看来优秀的技能就是高收入的保证。
LinkedIn is another organisation with a decent understanding of wider trends. The professional-networking site likes to call the data it sits on “the economic graph”, a digital map of the global economy. Its candidate data, and its recruitment platform, give it information on where demand from employers is greatest and what skills jobseekers need. And with LinkedIn Learning it can now also deliver training itself.
LinkedIn 是另一家对这一趋势有深入理解的公司。这家专业的网络公司喜欢将其数据称为“经济图”，也就是全球经济的数字地图。它的求职者信息，招聘平台使其拥有大量诸如哪里的招聘者的需求最为强烈以及求职者需要拥有哪些技能的信息。通过 LinkedIn 学习它现在可以提供自己的培训计划。
The firm can already tell candidates how well their qualifications for any advertised job stack up against those of other applicants. In time, its data might be used to give “investment advice”, counselling its members on the financial return to specific skills and on how long they are likely to be useful; or to show members how other people have got into desirable positions.
这家公司现在可以告诉求职者对于任何岗位他们相对于其他求职者的又是在哪里。在未来，这些数据可能将用于“投资建议”，为公司的会员提供关于掌握某些特定技能的经济回报以及在未来何时可以实现；或者告诉这些会员其他人是如何获得理想中的职位的。
The difficulty with offering mass-market careers advice is finding a business model that will pay for it. LinkedIn solves this problem by aiming itself primarily at professionals who either pay for services themselves or who are of interest to recruiters. But that raises a much bigger question. “There is no shortage of options for folks of means,” says Adam Newman of Tyton Partners, an education consultancy. “But what about LinkedIn for the linked-out?”
提供大量职业规划建议的难处在于如何找到一个为其付费的商业模式。LinkedIn 通过将自身的目标人群定位于专业人士，即要么会自费来获取服务或者是那些感兴趣的招聘者，来解决这个问题。但这也带来了一个更大的问题。Tyton Partners 的 Adam Newman 指出：“对那些有财力的人来说并不缺少选择，但是那些没有的人呢？”
