My dad went from helping out at my grandfather's high street shop to designing satellite test rigs, and ending up specialising in conveyer systems of all things

My dad went from helping out at my grandfather's high street shop to designing satellite test rigs, and ending up specialising in conveyer systems of all things. My partner's dad went from painting ships in Chatham dockyards to helping design and build nuclear submarines, power stations & containment facilities, and ended up working in nuclear medicine. Neither of 'em went to university. Continual on-the-job learning doesn't seem like a terribly new thing...