Jack of All Trades, Master of None

Dr. Dave Just, formally Dean of Corporate and Continuing Education at Community Colleges in MA, OH, PA, SC. Currently President of K&D Consulting

“Jack of all trades, master of none” according to Wikipedia “is a figure of speech used in reference to a person who has dabbled in many skills, rather than gaining expertise by focusing on one.”

The shortened version “a jack of all trades” is often a compliment for a person who is good at figuring out how to fix and do things, and who has a broad knowledge base. These types may be a master of integrating diverse knowledge topics, such as an individual who knows enough from many learned trades and skills to be able to bring them together in a practical manner to perform a task that is a subset of a craft or trade area. This person considered a generalist rather than a specialist.

There are many examples of this. The individual who can do his/her taxes each year, but would not be qualified to do others. Someone who can figure out what is wrong with the dishwasher, but reaches a point where the repair is out of reach. A lawyer who has passed the bar, but failed to specialize in an area of law to be the “go-to” guy for a particular case.

The “master of none” element appears to have been added to the phrase later to augment the meaning of the compliment; making the statement less flattering to the person receiving it. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial to all of them.

Some modern apprenticeships are so generally focused that it is unclear who they benefit. Including general industry skills and even skills that may become useful in the future is well-intended, but the primary focus should be the mastery of tasks the current or identified future employer needs performed. That is the historic meaning of an apprenticeship. Even as a secondary priority, the hedging of bets that industry-general skills will be needed in the future depends greatly on whether jobs requiring them will materialize and the apprentice will get to apply these skills before they forget them from nonuse. An over-emphasis on predictions can yield students that graduate with irrelevant skills, and employers left with the responsibility to provide more than the task-based training one would expect. Impatient employers, and employers that do not understand the deficiency in employment candidates enough to understand the impact, are left to wander through the myriad of options and false options while trying to maintain a thriving enterprise.

The emphasis these days, it seems, in adult and continuing education is that more credentials is the answer, not so much the topical relevancy to enhancing a career, or the coherency of the strategy to provide a sure-fire, sustainable career path. One thing for sure, however, is workers are played-out from wild goose chases and mounting student debt with little or no return. The risk is turning off this and future generations of workers to career preparation and education programs at a time when the aging workforce – many forced to remain in the workforce due to the high cost of living and dismal returns on savings and investments – will have to retire out of exhaustion; before they have a chance to pass on their expertise.

Workforce development efforts by education has to return to its original objective of building the core skill base of future workers and workers who want to need to reinvent themselves with always the most current and job-relevant skill base. Employers have to get engage, and remain engaged, in training the workers they select from the workforce pool to perform the tasks they need performed. Requiring each worker to master all the tasks of the job classification for which they were hired is a definite win for the employer and employee. The returns on investment for all stakeholders, including the community and region, can be enormous.

The preoccupation of many credentials for workers as if that opens up many career paths, which in a way is a good thing, overlooks the wage disparity it promotes. Wage inequality and insecurity is not sustainable as these current months of Covid has reminded us. Let us be mindful of strong, solid worker development and not be distracted by a “shotgun approach” to employee development as the only option.

If an apprentice does not master the apprenticeship in front of them to an employer’s satisfaction as the primary goal – before they move to enhance their core-shill base with future core skills that industry may need – they risk becoming “a jack of all trades, master of none” –  a disappointing outcome for so much effort and investment.

Contact K & D Consulting to learn ore about how education, workforce development agencies and employers can partner in meaningful, sustainable workforce development strategies. To learn more about Proactive Technologies, Inc.’s hybrid model of workforce development contact Proactive Technologies representative. Sign up to attend one of Proactive Technologies’ scheduled GoToMeeting presentations (to your computer) or setup one that fits your schedule. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. A 13-minute promo briefing is available at the Proactive Technologies website and provides an overview to get you started and to help you explain it to your staff.