I was recently asked by a co-worker on my team at work what he should do to keep up with changing technologies in our career field.  I was slightly amazed at the question, as I know I have made my thoughts on the matter fairly clear for several years.  My answer was the same as it has always been for the last few years.

We, as IT professionals, must keep ourselves relevant in the face of changing technologies.  We must be willing to expend some of our own resources, money and time, to keep up technology changes.  We can not depend on our employers to provide us with the training, and with tightening budgets, the first thing to go is usually money for training.  And if those training dollars are still there, employers are more likely to spend those dollars on individuals that have shown the initiative to seek out training opportunities on there own and are learning and advancing their skills than on those sitting around waiting for the employer to provide the training.

I will admit that I am behind the curve today as I haven't yet purchased a copy of SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition.  This is something I will be hopefully correcting in the near future.