This will be my last blog of 2009, and of this decade. I still remember getting so excited because the year 2000 was right next door, the gateway to the new millennium and here we are ten years later and looking back to that first decade. What a start we got to the 2000's. We saw new wars, glaciers melting, cities flooded, new diseases and a worldwide economic crisis where thousands of workers were displaced, in a lot of cases, permanently.

On the technology side, and just in the last ten years, we've seen the global rise of the Blackberry, e-mails are now a part of daily life 24/7, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have millions of members around the world and the text message is now entrenched in our society. Hard to think that only ten years ago we still thought to pick up the phone if we had a question or we faxed things to people if they needed to see something in print.

The younger generation has a huge advantage in that life-long learning is not something they'll have to actually think about doing, because they're doing it already. They are able to keep up with any new technology, embrace it happily and make it their own. I, unfortunately, am not that savvy, but I do try.

Looking forward, I wonder just what our world will look like in another ten years! Over my last few visits to the bank, it has dawned on me just how many very old people still have a passbook that they need to get updated by bringing it to a bank teller. No internet or phone banking for a lot of their generation - it was just too much to learn. Scary prospect isn't it? Who knows what we'll be using at the office ten years from now - at least in an office of sorts!

One thing I don't have to worry about is that a beach will still be a beach in ten years. And so, as I lie on the beach this Christmas, I'll try not to think about the years ahead and just concentrate on absolutely nothing!

To all of you, I wish you the best of the holiday season and a happy and prosperous New Decade.

If you have any comments or thoughts you'd like to share, do not hesitate to contact me at carol@workforceplanningboard.com