Tips on How to Learn and Improve Your Skills
Your skills aren’t predetermined qualities of your personality; they can be acquired, developed and improved. It is very possible to learn and improve on both soft and hard skills; and there are countless of work-based opportunities that can help you. You can choose when and how to acquire new skills so that the learning experience corresponds to your current career needs.
Extra-Curricular Activities
Perhaps the easiest way to improve your skills is through hobbies. Just think about it. As a kid, your hobbies helped you develop your interests in a couple of areas/industries.
Let’s take sports, for example. Most sports teach you what teamwork is and how important it is to work with others towards a common goal. Art, dancing, theatre, and music can help you improve your creative thinking, concentration, and lateral thinking. Reading amongst other benefits improves your writing and analytical thinking while playing chess improves your logic reasoning.
Apprenticeships
In-house training programs such as apprenticeships are a great way to learn new skills. If you are a school leaver who isn’t interested in going to university, you can benefit a lot from apprenticeships; it gives you an opportunity to develop your expertise in an occupation or trade. Having to compete with graduates for a place in the job market can be tough and you will need to equip yourself with a strong skill set.
Volunteering
It equips you with a range of skills that are useful for getting a job. As a volunteer, you can help your career a lot – especially if you choose to go abroad. Teamwork and communication skills, cultural awareness are important skill that you get to learn while spending time and working with people of different backgrounds. Such activities can look great on your CV and there are many places to find volunteer work.
Internships
As a student or graduate, you can improve your skills with a number of work-based learning opportunities. These are short-term periods of employment designed to equip you with the competencies you need to enter the job market. They can help you improve your leadership ability, initiative and other qualities that are valuable in the workplace.
Part-Time Work
Any part-time work can help improve your employability even if it’s flipping burgers or waiting tables. Having to handle your studies and work can be a difficult task. It requires proper planning, setting priorities and time management.
What’s interesting is that most students or even graduates say that they haven’t got any real work experience or anything that would be relevant to a career except some bar or restaurant work and waiting tables. But, dealing with customers, handling money, working under pressure, being responsible for organising and planning different procedures are all important skills that shouldn’t be ignored at an entry level.
Online Classes/Courses
Many online courses can help you build up your professional skill set and gain valuable knowledge about an industry or profession. They are usually applicable to a specific job or industry, which means they can help you improve your hard skills, e.g. web design, coding, photography, content marketing, etc.
Career Events
Perhaps you think that you couldn’t benefit from attending a career fair. But apart from networking and expanding your circle of contacts with some key people within the industry, it can also be a real eye-opening experience. That is what people have been saying about The Skills Show, which is an annual event for educators, employers and most importantly for young people and aims to give them a chance to become familiar with the huge variety of skills and career opportunities available to them in a fun and interactive environment.
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Culled from: Careeraddict.
