A. Outsourcing

Nigel, a 30-year-old information technology specialist(IT), talks about his career so far:1 used to work in the IT department of a bank, All the IT work was done in-house. J thought l had a job for life. But then one day the bank decided to cut costs by outsourcing the work to a specialist IT company called IT Services (ITS)

Luckily, the bank didn't make me redundant so l didn't lose my job, and after a while, I decided to work for IIS instead. At first, l didn't know what to expect, but now I'm very happy. We work with a lot of different clients -I'm a consultant and l give them advice.

B. Employability

''ITS put a lot of emphasis on professional development and we often go on training courses so we can keep up with current trends in the industry.i'T'S tell us that although we may not have a job for life with the company, our up-to-date skills will mean that we will always be employable, Companies and governments talk about the importance of lifelong learning - continuing to develop our knowledge by going on courses and reading journals, for example. I really enjoy my work but in the next year or two, I may make a career move and join another company.

C. Freelancers and portfolio workers

When I'm about 40, I want to set up on my own as a freelancer offering consultancy services to different companies, The idea of working freelance on different projects for different clients attracts me.

The management thinker Charles Handy calls freelancers portfolio workers because they have a portfolio or range of different clients. Some experts say that increasing numbers of people will work this way in the future, as companies outsource more and more of their work because they want to concentrate on their core functions.

Note: People are called freelancers or freelancers, The corresponding adjective is freelance, as in freelance work.