Twitter is a great place to learn new things and connect with anyone you like. Apart from the usual outrage, there are enough sane voices during chats and discussions around all kinds of topics. And I was thrilled when I got an invite to be the guest at Bass Ek Raah, a consultancy involved in the field of education and career, among other services. We decided to discuss upskilling, since this is relevant to what they do and something I am passionate about too. Having been a soft skills trainer for about 15 years now, I know that developing and adding to one’s skills is important at any point in our lives. And there is no concept more pertinent to a young country like India. I thought it’ll be great to share snippets from the chat here for everyone to benefit from it.
The chat #Lifenabler is a one hour chat from 7pm to 8pm every Thursday. The chat has 5 questions which everyone participating in the chat is free to respond to. Here are the questions and my responses to them.
Question 1:
Ques 1. what is upskilling and why it is important? @Suman_Kher #lifenabler@kritimakhija @meeMeenakshi @feministariba pic.twitter.com/RNMsx1frMH
— Bass Ek Raah (@bassekraah) April 27, 2017
My responses are:
A1. #Upskilling is the key to moving ahead in one's career or one's life. It's about making ourselves more suited to what we do #lifenabler https://t.co/kaVd0Nt7MI
— Suman Kher (@Suman_Kher) April 27, 2017
A1. Upskilling can:
Increase your value in the job market
Help keep up with industry trnds
Help change careers
Get promoted#lifenabler https://t.co/kaVd0Nt7MI— Suman Kher (@Suman_Kher) April 27, 2017
Upskilling also gives you more bargaining power in a job interview since you’ll be better skilled than your peers.
Question 2:
Ques 2 Here is the second question!! share your views. @Suman_Kher #lifenabler@Singh_Vandana @imathought @naghma_khn pic.twitter.com/Oe3RnmyQYD
— Bass Ek Raah (@bassekraah) April 27, 2017
A2. There is really no short answer to this. From hobbies to work, online to offline, books to gamification – it's endless #lifenabler
— Suman Kher (@Suman_Kher) April 27, 2017
You may want to add to existing skills or add new ones. You may anticipate what’s going to be big in the future and work on it. Online courses – free and paid – like Coursera, Udemy etc are a blessing. You’ll need to devote a few hours a week to gradually master a skill. Books are a great resource to begin with if you don’t have the commitment to join a course. Watch videos. Join relevant groups.
Question 3:
Ques 3 Are there ways in which companies help employees upskill themselves? @Suman_Kher #lifenabler@NWarind @tweetynu @TanviChaturved1 pic.twitter.com/Z0wfBz3ZxC
— Bass Ek Raah (@bassekraah) April 27, 2017
A3. I’m going to refrain from the usual have-regular-trainings because as a trainer I know this doesn’t work. It is important to identify skills people want to really build on. Generic/mandatory trainings never work.
A3. A great way to ensue ppl continue working on skills is to have mentors/coaches assigned to individuals. That helps #lifenabler
— Suman Kher (@Suman_Kher) April 27, 2017
Question 4:
Ques 4 India being a young country,how will #upskilling cover the skill-gap? @Suman_Kher #lifenabler@meeMeenakshi @falgunivasavada pic.twitter.com/NGrcPfj8ZC
— Bass Ek Raah (@bassekraah) April 27, 2017
My response:
A4. I'm passionate about training and having done it for 15 yrs, I have always believed that skill training is d most imp thing #lifenabler https://t.co/aKDOpNgqcu
— Suman Kher (@Suman_Kher) April 27, 2017
A4. We are one of the youngest nations in the world. We need to work on rural population too to cover the gap. And identifying the right skill gap is very imp. A lot of people are working on employability skills in tier 2 cities. I’m glad that @NSDCINDIA is working towards building a variety of skills among our population. This’ll make a huge difference.
Question 5:
Ques 5 How can we add to skills if time and money is a constraint? @Suman_Kher #lifenabler@sunilddesai @PG_pmp @Chetna1806 @NoorNehmat pic.twitter.com/tmGEo6x43m
— Bass Ek Raah (@bassekraah) April 27, 2017
A5. Building any skill needs time, even if it is a few hours a week. A list of resources:
Books are a great way to learn new things. Free books online and 30 minutes a day can make a huge difference. Join a free online course. Be a part of local groups for your area of interest. Attend free seminars. Google – the world’s knowledge in on the internet! For free! Attend chats like these. Free information. Subscribe to blogs.
These are just a few things one can do add to one’s skills. Think it through to determine what skills you should spend your time and money on. Pick one and start with that.
You can join #Lifenabler chat every Thursday between 7 and 8 IST on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, follow me on @Suman_Kher for lots of useful content on soft skills and communication.