'Used to' doesn't live here anymore: you're never too old to get an education.

LAST WEEK I was listening to someone in a networking group complain that he can't earn the money he used to make. I discovered he graduated from high school in the late 1970s and went to work in the steel mills around Pittsburgh. His wages peaked at $40 an hour, but the mills closed in the 1980s and he has since been trying to find work in manufacturing.

He complained that every job to which he has applied requires an education and computer skills. He was proud that he had had good jobs in the past without knowing how to type, but in this economy he can't find a good job without computer skills.

Welcome to the new work force!

What has been clear during the past three years is that the skills required to find a job are in flux. Your skill set has changed and it will continue to change. Continuing education will be part of every job. Everyone now must know how to use a computer, and those who do not will be relegated to low-wage jobs. Without computer skills, a worker today is functionally illiterate.

When you look at the history of our country, this expansion of skills needed to land a job has been going on for a long time. And the pace of change is quickening.

Consider this: Up until World War I, you could hold a good job without being able to read or write. Since World War I, reading and writing have been occupational mandates. Up until World War II, you didn't need a driver's license to find a job that paid well, but after World War II, driving became an essential skill.

By the 1960s, you had to have a minimum of a high school education and know how to use a 10-key calculator (we used to call them adding machines!). I can still remember when resumes boasted of the applicants' ability to type 35 words a minute. But employees with a college diploma now fill jobs that decades ago required only a high school education. The educational requirements for employment are going to continue to increase, and those seeking employment must keep pace.

In today's employment marketplace, it is assumed that you can read, write, drive and operate a computer. Almost everyone needs to be familiar with Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as any other software relevant to your particular job.

The futurists of the 1970s and 1980s wrote about the computer revolution that would take place after 2000. But the computer revolution occurred at least a decade sooner. It took 10 years for most displaced employees to realize what had happened: Their jobs were eliminated by technology. Like the blacksmiths made obsolete by the "horseless carriages" a century ago, these displaced workers will have to expand their skill set.

Likewise, the concept of how to find a job has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Most jobs used to be found in the local newspaper, but now the majority of jobs are found on the Internet or on a company's Web site. The use of screening tests administered via the Internet is on the rise. To be successful, at work and in your search for work, you will have to change as well.

And what of the steelworker from Pennsylvania? He realized that "used to" doesn't live here anymore. Luckily, his wife is employed and he has decided to go back to school at a technical college and earn an associate's degree.

Remember, you're never too old to get an education!

TED DAYWALT is CEO and president of VetJobs, the Internet's largest comprehensive military job board. He has a bachelor's from Florida State University, a master's from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Emory University. Daywalt may be reached at [e-mail].