If the last couple of years have taught us anything, it’s that the world is in a constant state of change, and this certainly applies to the workplace. With the shift to remote and hybrid work environments and the resulting increased reliance on technology, it is essential to be adaptable to achieve success in your career. And that’s where upskilling comes in. Upskilling equips you with the tools needed to perform efficiently in your current career, learn adaptable skills, expand your knowledgebase, and achieve career advancement.
The 4-course Upskill Certificate at Penn LPS Online is designed around in-demand professional skill sets that will support your career ambitions. The beauty of this program is that it combines the timelessness of liberal arts with the practicality of career training. Whether you’re looking for ways to become more competitive in the job market, revise or rebrand your skill set, or pivot into a new field, you can customize your certificate to your ambitions by choosing courses that align with them.
Read on to explore five important reasons you should consider upskilling with a certificate from Penn LPS Online.
Continuous learning is the key to career advancement and long-term employability in today’s job market. With rapidly evolving technologies and business practices the most in-demand skills change constantly. Staying competitive requires regular upskilling – the process of actively seeking out and mastering new abilities to progress professionally.
Whether you want to excel in your current role or make a major career pivot, dedicating time to upskill is essential. Follow these proven tips to create and execute an effective upskilling plan.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals
Be clear on what motivates you to upskill. Outline specific skills you want to gain or roles you aspire to transition into. Get very targeted – “get better at coding” is too vague. “Learn Python and R to do advanced data analysis for a Data Scientist job” is a concrete goal.
Ask yourself:
- What new skills will make me more effective and valuable in my current job?
- What capabilities do I need to get promoted to the next level?
- Am I aiming to switch to a new role or department? What are those required skills?
- What emerging technologies or methodologies should I master to stay marketable?
Step 2: Find Your Knowledge Gaps
Assess your current expertise relative to your goals. Making an honest appraisal of your existing strengths and skill gaps will guide your learning priorities.
- Review job postings for target roles and highlight listed requirements you lack.
- Take a technical assessment to identify hard skills needing improvement.
- Ask your manager for feedback on development areas to work on.
- Note soft skills like leadership, collaboration, analytical thinking that need strengthening.
Enlist an experienced mentor who can pinpoint your areas for growth based on your goals. Filling your skill gaps lays the foundation to reach your objective.
Step 3: Formulate a Plan
Now you’re ready to make a detailed upskilling plan. Commit to learning formats, resources, and timelines.
Choose Learning Formats:
- On-the-job training
- Online courses/certifications
- College/bootcamp programs
- Industry conferences
- Books/publications
Find Reliable Resources
- Vetted online education platforms like Coursera, edX, Udemy
- Professional associations in your field
- Accredited certification programs
- Relevant meetup groups and workshops
Map Out Timelines:
- Designate daily/weekly learning time
- Set tangible benchmarks and progress milestones
- Prioritize skills critically needed first for your goals
Share your plan with your manager. Their support can help you align learning with work projects to apply skills quickly.
Step 4: Learn New Skills
This step is where consistent action is vital Set reminders to stay on track with your upskilling schedule Mix different learning formats to keep things interesting,
Apply new knowledge right away through work projects, volunteering, freelancing etc. This cements abilities and builds proof of your upgraded skills.
Learn continuously even after achieving your initial goal. With lifelong learning, you’ll always keep your skills fresh and stay ahead of changes in your industry.
Useful Tips for Effective Learning:
- Take notes to retain key concepts better
- Participate actively in courses to get the most value
- Group learning can offer support and accountability
- Apply skills quickly to gain real competence
- Teach concepts to others to reinforce mastery
Step 5: Act on Your New Skills
Achieving your career goals requires proactively putting new abilities into practice. Upskilling gives you the tools – acting on them drives results.
Build a portfolio, create sample work projects, complete certifications to showcase your new competencies.
Apply for new roles or promotions matching your recently gained skills. Interviewers will recognize your increased capabilities.
Negotiate a raise at your current job based on the value your new skills contribute. Demonstrate how upskilling has already made you more productive.
The more you visibly use and communicate about your upgraded abilities, the more career doors will open.
Step 6: Stay Adaptable
View learning as an ongoing process, not a one-time event. In our fast-moving economy, even newly learned skills can become outdated quickly.
Keep researching emerging technologies and methodologies in your industry. Monitor job listings to notice new requirements.
Be ready to reassess your knowledge gaps and adjust your learning plan. The most successful professionals make upskilling a lifelong habit.
Upskilling is the best investment you can make in your career resilience and security. Follow these steps to constantly expand your skillset, unlock new opportunities and maximize your potential.
Real-Life Examples of Effective Upskilling
Here are some inspiring case studies of upskilling in action:
– Marketing Manager: Wanted to shift from traditional to digital marketing. She took online social media and Google Ads certification courses after work over 6 months while getting training on the job. This enabled her to pivot roles into a Digital Marketing Specialist position.
– Accountant: Took evening classes to learn new tax software and data analysis tools. He applied the skills doing pro bono tax preparation, landing him a Lead Accountant promotion.
– Project Manager: Completed a Product Management bootcamp while working. Using her new expertise, she proposed leading key product testing initiatives. This helped her change roles into an Associate Product Manager.
– Software Developer: To expand his skills, he created mobile apps in his spare time using new JavaScript frameworks. Showing these to managers got him selected for the company’s mobile development team.
Key Benefits of Upskilling
Committing to continuous upskilling through your career provides many lasting advantages:
-
Increased job security – Workers with updated and emerging skills are invaluable.
-
More responsibilities – New abilities qualify you for greater leadership roles.
-
Higher pay – Added skills boost your earning potential and negotiating leverage.
-
Promotion opportunities – You become the natural candidate to advance into more senior roles.
-
Career agility – You can easily change roles or companies by keeping your skills relevant.
-
Personal growth – Learning continuously expands your mindset and capabilities.
Proactively upskilling gives you the power to always be your best self at work and thrive through industry transformations. Invest in yourself, and the rewards will be immense, long-lasting, and completely worth the effort.
Improve your adaptability in an ever-changing job market
In the wake of the pandemic and the resulting impact on the workforce, Gartner HR Research found 58% of employees need to develop new skills to successfully perform their jobs. The research also emphasized the importance of giving employees the flexibility to leverage their skills sets in a more fluid progression, rather than the traditional ladder-like career trajectory that emphasizes traditional roles or titles.3 Adaptability in the workplace refers to your ability to change, learn quickly, and put your learning to practice to be successful. And being adaptable requires skills such as teamwork and collaboration, critical thinking, resilience, creativity, empathy, and leadership.
Employees around the globe have had to become more adaptable as they transitioned to remote work during lockdowns and, in some cases, returned to hybrid or in-person workplaces. To that end, in ORGC 2010: Virtual Collaboration from the Upskill Certificate, you’ll explore how to effectively navigate, learn, collaborate, and lead in today’s complex digital landscape. You’ll hear from guest speakers who share best practices that helped make their virtual teams and organizations successful. While in ORGC 1600: Introduction to Team Culture, you’ll learn how to become more adaptable in the way you participate in, form, and eventually lead high-performing teams through research-based insights from the arts and sciences and intensive practice.
Create opportunities to advance at your current company
When you proactively learn new skills that can help your current employer stay competitive, you demonstrate your commitment and worth as an employee. And when you upskill, you can save your company a significant amount of money by eliminating the need to outsource for new expertise. Upskilling can also give you the leverage and confidence you need to highlight your new expertise to your employers and ask for a promotion, salary increase, or both. Research supports the premise that when professionals upskill, they become more valuable to their employers. In a 2021 Workplace Learning Report by LinkedIn Learning, development professionals globally said that upskilling and reskilling were the top priorities for the year—and that internal mobility (rather than new hires) was more of a priority than before the emergence of COVID-19.1
If you’re eager to help advance your career by building your skill set, LEAD 1010: Leadership Theory, Practice, and Purpose in the Upskill Certificate at Penn LPS Online is an ideal place to start. In this intensive introductory course, you’ll explore important theories and foundational elements of leadership, including self-assessment, crisis communications, and problem-solving. Through analyzing effective public leaders, you’ll learn to develop your own unique leadership skills and strengths. You’ll also build the groundwork for a five-year leadership and communication plan that you can develop through further certificate coursework.
How to Upskill During Work ?
How can upskilling improve your career?
If you feel stuck in one place at work, upskilling can help you overcome this. Learning something new is one of the best ways to adopt a fresh perspective. Plus, your new skill sets can make you more productive at your job. This can make your job more pleasant and satisfying at the same time. 3. Discover a new passion
What is upskilling & how does it work?
Think about it as “leveling up” your skills. Often, you’ll deepen your knowledge about your role and industry as you gain more experience. Upskilling is typically a more intentional learning process where you’ll gain exposure to that deeper knowledge sooner through skills development courses, certifications, or mentorship programs.
Should you upskill your analytical skills?
Here are some analytic skills you should consider upskilling: Upskilling yourself doesn’t just make you better at your job, it helps your personal development. Upskilling can also help build out your organization’s talent marketplace. Learn to be a continuous learner and you’ll be better at life.
Should you start upskilling yourself?
When you start upskilling yourself, you become more valuable to your employer. 64% of learning and development professionals agree that workplace learning and development shifted from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” in 2021.
