Don’t let quarantine slow your personal and professional growth! Covid may have put a lot of life on the backburner, but the need to build your skillset and earning potential has never been more prominent. With the economic impact of the global pandemic still building and increased uncertainty for workers around the world, can you afford to not keep up with your professional development.
If you want to start on top of your game no matter the situation, then our ultimate guide to upskilling in quarantine is for you. You have the time, we have the resources – here’s 5 ways you can upskill during covid quarantine.
Attend webinars
Sitting in a packed conference room with hundreds of your colleagues and coworkers may be off the cards for a long while, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still learn from other professionals in your field. With no in-person meetings happening, many businesses have switched to virtual learning via online webinars.
Webinars are hardly a new thing, but with quarantine forcing many people into working from home the need for virtual learning has exploded. Integrating online visual collaboration tools, many of these webinars offer a more in-depth and hands-on experience than your average conference and provide the perfect way to fill time in your schedule and gaps on your resume.
Best of all, many of these webinars are completely free! So there’s no barrier to joining up and learning something new.
Take an online course
One-off webinars are not the only way to keep up with your professional development. If you’re looking for something a bit more in-depth and long-form, then consider taking an online course. Cost is no barrier either as many of these online courses are inexpensive or completely free, such as Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Google Skillshop, or Udemy.
Online courses offer a lot more flexibility than traditional learning environments, meaning that it’s much easier to work around your current job and maintain a study schedule that best fits your situation. If you are stuck at home for a long period of time, online courses can also offer some much needed structure (and sanity) to your day.
Cross-skill and complementary skill sets
Specialization may be the way of the modern world, but learning complementary skill sets can be a great way to expand your post-quarantine opportunities – as well as keep your work-from-home-day varied and interesting!
Cross-skilling allows you to improve your efficiency and take on roles outside your core competency, making you a more flexible and valuable employee to your business. By expanding and developing your skill set, you can future-proof your current role and be better positioned for new roles down the line.
Networking
Quarantine is the perfect time to brush up on your online networking skills. We can’t share stories over a few after work drinks, but we can share ideas and experiences via social media. Using professional networking platforms like LinkedIn can be a great way to keep connected to potential employers and create unexpected opportunities.
By dedicating a bit of time to actively connecting with others via social media, you can build a strong network that will be invaluable when things start to turn around again. Human connection, even through a screen, can also be great for your mental health!
Get your internet up to speed
Being stuck at home means shifting the majority of your life to the digital world, and you can’t take full advantage of everything the internet has to offer with a poor connection! Having a reliable internet connection is as crucial as having a working computer to staying on top of your skills.
While you may not be able to upgrade your network, you can definitely take steps to improve it. Check out our articles on boosting your WIFI for maximum performance and our working from home IT checklist to make sure all your bases are covered.
