6 reasons why skill development is the answer to all your prayers.
“Skills don’t die; only people do.”
- Anas Hamshari
Sitting back at home during this unpredictable time of a pandemic, many of us are wondering how to utilize all of the unexpected free time. Since most of us are locked-up in our houses, this might as well be the perfect time to develop certain skills. Now, let us take a few steps back in time and travel through the memory lane. Let us all remember how we used to have fun in events like debates, spelling bee, elocution, speech competitions, relay races, tug of war, football, basketball, etc. in our schools and colleges. Try to relive the excitement, the rush, the adrenaline kicking into your system during those times all over again. Now that we have felt the enthusiasm, the rush, the adrenaline, let us focus on the reason why those activities were important in schools. Have you ever thought about the reason behind segregating students into groups for activities? The reason is skills development at a preliminary stage.
Schools and colleges have always promoted the importance of education in life. The knowledge you get from academic learning will get you good grades and perhaps a fine degree but it won’t make you a complete individual. To be a complete individual one needs skills, and it is not as simple as it might sound. Especially when it comes to soft skills, they are the most overlooked skills, and the hardest to acquire and develop.
Skills can be divided into two categories:
1. Hard skills: Some of the skills that come under this category are technical or professional skills like digital marketing, content writing, IT, etc.
2. Soft Skills: Some of the skills that come under this category are communication skills, teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, etc.
Let’s now look at the reasons why developing skills make us a complete individual:
• Important for adapting, surviving, and succeeding: Skill development at any stage of life helps in adapting to new circumstances, surviving this highly competitive generation, and succeeding in every step.
• To fill in skill gaps: Schools and colleges focus mostly on the academic development of an individual. Thus, skills like communication, problem-solving, critical observations are often left untouched forming an unseen skill gap that leads to rejections in interviews. Getting a job does not only or solely depend on the academic results, all the other soft skills are also important to succeed and thrive in the different difficult situations faced during work life.
• Development of present skills: Many people are naturally talented. For example, someone might be good at designing and have a knack for fashion and it might just go unnoticed and unrecognized if they do not develop their skills. But, if that individual understands the importance of skill development and develops designing skills through various training programs and practices, he/she might be able to utilize that skill and make a profession out of it. Someone might be born with very good communication skills and an outgoing personality. Then, he/she by honing the quality can fill up an essential skill gap that most around us fall in.
• Achieve goals: When one works on developing a hard skill then that directly contributes to achieving work-related goals. For example, by developing skills in digital marketing one can work as a digital marketer. On the other hand, developing soft skills helps to achieve the goals indirectly. For example, along with digital marketing if one develops the skill of time management, teamwork, critical observation, creative thinking it will make him/her be one of the best members of the team.
• It takes little effort and gives life-long benefits: Sometimes there are tools around that can be utilized for making us better but they are overlooked. Having a planner for example makes us organized and time-managed. Another example is the availability of the internet, there is not a single thing that can’t be learned or accessed through the internet. Thus, with minimum efforts, we can learn and develop various skills and change our lives for the better.
• Meet the demands of the industry: Each working industry have their specific demands and these demands can only be fulfilled when one has the necessary skills. And this can only be achieved when one works on developing them.
