A better education always helps.
In fact, I find I am continually educating myself, and taking classes whenever I can because it will improve at my present job skills, and you never know when you will need another job.
Having extra job skills is always good insurance.
One thing I would recommend is that you always keep an eye out for a better job while you are working at your present job.
Loyalty is a wonderful quality, but is not always realistic because as soon as your company goes through a buyout or some other change in business, all loyalty goes out the door. Another thing to consider if you are in a job where you deal with other companies or customers, always try to do your very best work for them because you may want to ask them for a job someday.
If they were impressed with you when they were your customer, they will be likely to hire you or recommend you.
When I used to work construction jobs this was something I always did, and when work was slow I could always find another company that would hire me because they knew I did good work.