Which are the best new skills to learn for the future workplace? And how can you enjoy upskilling and learning new skills for the future of work?
The WEF Future Of Jobs 2020 Report mapped the jobs and future skills for all. It also listed the new skills to learn to prepare for the future of work based on the accelerated pace of change after the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the report, 50% of all employees will need to upskill and reskill by 2025 as the economic impacts of the pandemic, the use of automation in jobs, and the requirement to learn new technology skills and digital skills for the future take hold.
10 Future Skills For The Workplace Of The Future
Critical thinking and problem-solving are some of the most valuable skills for the future. Self-management, active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility are also some of the new things to learn as skills for the future workforce.
According to the World Economic Forum skills report, these 10 future skills will be in demand in the workplace of the future:
- Analytical thinking & innovation
- Active learning & learning strategies
- Complex problem solving
- Critical thinking & analysis
- Creativity, originality & initiative
- Leadership & social influence
- Technology use, monitoring & control
- Technology design & programming
- Resilience, stress tolerance & flexibility
- Reasoning, problem-solving & ideation
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You may notice that none of these future skills has to do with a specific job. That’s because the job for life model is dead. Today, organisations want employees who are willing to keep learning and stay relevant in their field of expertise.
Millennials understand this trend for reskilling (meaning learning new skills) as 93% of them see learning future competencies as important and are willing to invest their own time and money in learning a skill.
Because of the growth of online education during the pandemic, there are a huge number of future skills courses that offer new skills to learn at home.
How To Start Learning New Skills
Today, learning a skill is as simple as logging in to an online portal or website. So it is possible for organisations to scale up their process to upskill and reskill employees in the thousands.
There are many older people who may be serious about reskilling and upskilling but don’t know how to learn new skills online. But regardless of your age or current skills, now is the best time to find new things to learn.
Of course, learning new skills and knowledge takes some time and commitment towards your goal. But learning is an ability that all humans have and there is no better time to learn a new skill at home.
Although online courses have a lower retention rate than traditional classroom environments, there are a number of online learning tips and tricks that will help you learn new skills online.
Here are some of the active learning skills that have helped me learn new skills for free and stay at the top of my profession.
1. Find your Why
The biggest way to stay motivated in your journey of learning new skills is to know your WHY – the reason you are learning a skill. The threat of losing your job is not a good enough reason. But the joy of learning something that you enjoy is.
If there’s a new skill you want to learn to stay relevant in your profession or make a career transition, you must find some joy in the learning process or you won’t be motivated to complete it.
For a lot of people, the time when they decide to change careers is the best time to find their passion and live a life with purpose and meaning. Having a new vision for your life is often a motivating factor in learning new skills.
If you like making lists, you can start by listing out all the ways that learning this particular skill will improve your life and get you closer to your life goals.
2. Do a skills assessment
The first step to start learning new skills and knowledge is to be clear about what skills you already have. Make a list of the skills you possess and a separate list of the skills you need to learn to reach your career goals.
If you plan to make a career change, you can also get clarity on your career aptitude by doing a free career assessment that will help you learn about the best career for your personality.
If you need career guidance from experts, you can join the Glow & Lovely Career community where you can take a free career test to learn about careers that match your interests, try a free online course to learn a new skill, or create a resume with the easy resume builder.
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3. Set a learning goal
Once you’ve decided on which future proof skills you want to learn, you need to find the best way to acquire them. There are many ways to learn new skills, but only you know your capacity for learning and your preferred mode of learning.
You can choose the type of online course that works best for you based on your preferred learning style, whether you prefer to learn with text, audio or video, interactive modes of learning, or require some hand-holding and mentoring to achieve your goals.
You should also calculate how much time you will need to spend on learning a skill and completing the courses you need to learn it. Some future skills courses will require more time and effort than others.
You need to ensure that you can set aside a few hours in the day for any projects or assignments required to complete the course.
4. Start with a free course
Today, there are a large number of low-cost and free online courses with certification that will help you learn new skills online free without investing a lot of money upfront.
The reason I recommend starting with a free course is that you can change your mind at any point, if you do not enjoy the subject and decide that you don’t want to build a career in it.
This is harder to do when you’ve invested a good deal of money in an expensive course and feel compelled to complete it even when you’re not interested in the subject.
When you choose to learn new skills online for free, you have the flexibility to change your mind and change track to a new subject or study a related topic that you’re more interested in.
Many online learning platforms will let you curate their courses free and pay a small amount if you decide that you want a certificate in that topic to add to your resume or display on your LinkedIn profile.
Once you’ve completed the online course you want to study, you can decide whether you want to pay for the certificate or not. For most online learners looking to upskill and reskill for their career aspirations, this small investment is usually worth it.
5. Practice makes perfect
As Leo Buscaglia said, “Change is the end result of all true learning.” When you learn something new, it will change you and help you see the world differently.
For example, doing a free online personality development course on Glow & Lovely Careers – a popular website to learn new skills – will help you learn soft skills and transform your personality in visible ways.
Once you’ve absorbed the ideas and information in the online course, you need to start putting them into practice, either in your workplace or as a side project.
For instance, if you just completed a free digital marketing course in building your Instagram presence, you need to put those ideas into practice and start creating the kind of content that will grow your followers and engagement on Instagram.
If you’re a student, you can apply for an online internship where you can put your newly-acquired skills into practise and hone them for your future job.
6. Share your knowledge
One of the best ways to learn everything about a new skill is to share your knowledge with others. Most online course platforms also have an online forum for learners to connect and help each other out.
You can contribute by answering questions from other learners on the topics you’re studying, or even start a blog where you answer frequently asked questions by others.
Mentoring others will help you build your expertise and brand you as an expert in your subject. This can lead to new job opportunities and offers in the area of your expertise and help you build a personal brand that will set you apart from other job seekers.
As Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant,” and the most in-demand skills in future are bound to change with advancements in technology and robotic process automation.
Along with the future of skills, the list of the best things to learn online will surely change as will the most important skills for the future. What will not change, however, is the fact that acquiring new skills and being a life-long learner will be a necessity for all age groups and demographics.
One thing we can be sure of is that the future will also bring tremendous improvements in online education and learning technology, making it easier to acquire any new skill you want to learn.
For those who love learning, there will be many new things to learn every day, and those who need to learn to keep up with change will have access to many new skills to learn while at home.
Also read:
- 10 Remote Work Tips & Trends For A Post-COVID World
- Best Professional Courses After 12th To Do Online
- 21 Highest Paying Jobs For Women In India
- How To Make Your Career Transition Smooth & Painless
- Free Online Courses with Certificates to Learn English
- Study Skills for Children to Help Them Prepare For Exams
- Free Maths Online Classes To Prepare For The 12th Board Exams
- World University Rankings For The Best Universities In India
About the author:
Priya Florence Shah is the Group Editor at SHEROES and author of Devi2Diva, an emotional self-care book for women.
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