Will learning old design philosophies be of any benefit to my career as a structural engineer?

I am currently taking up reinforced concrete design and structural steel design as a junior in a civil engineering program. Our professor wanted us to learn working stress design for reinforced concrete and allowable stress design for structural steel and I want to know if there is any benefit on doing that. I understand that these topics are old and don't even appear in the new international codes and ones from my country. So I'm just wondering if any of these skills are transferable in SE practice. I think we are supposed to learn ASD, LFRD and USD for the remaining of the semester but it seems too heavy for a one-semester class.