The Need for Continuous Learning

The thing about technology is that it is constantly changing and to be any good in this world you have to keep learning.

My skill is understanding the technology that powers Oracle’s Apps, I am not a practitioner and I am sure you have heard me say I’m not technical, but I do need to learn not just what it can do but how. The technology I need to understand is the Middleware stack.

Oracle provide lots of high level briefings for partners, mainly aimed at sales and I attend the ones I think I need and then drill down through a number of routes but mainly through

• The ACE Program has given me direct access to product management and development
• The Alliance & Channels SOA Community in EMEA run by Jurgen Kress
• ODTUG 

UKOUG should be top of the list but when you are an organiser you don't actually get much time to go to many the sessions.

The time to learn through these routes is something my employer recognises as a must investment, you can’t stand still in IT, and this is my treadmill.

Then the way I know I have learnt is to share that knowledge, with my colleagues and through presenting and seeing that knowledge used internally and with customers to validate it.