LEARNING AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE LONG-HAUL GEOSCIENCE CAREER

New graduates and emerging geoscientists need to take on even greater ownership of their career development than prior generations. The dynamic is driven by the acceleration of technology, the integration of disciplines, and that the speed of business has increased. The spectrum of both core and ancillary skills has diversified over the last 5 years, and the imperative for those skills has also increased. Whether these are core skills like advanced maths and related quantitative skills, data management or project management, or ancillary skills, such as drone piloting, machine learning design, or applied sociology, the development of capabilities to build on strong geoscience fundamentals is critical for a successful launch and resilience in a geoscience career. Additionally, we will look at the need to be prepared to continue to learn, the forms and modes of that learning, and how that learning experience evolves during a career. Even if advanced degrees are earned, workers will still need to continue learning through professional development, self-education, and on-the-job experiences. One key difference is the shift towards focusing on intentional learning methods. By looking at data related to ultimate destinations of terminal geoscience degree holders, we examine what some of the potential pathways of geoscience majors look like.