Want to up-skill? Here’s some amazing short courses to try!
Now into our fifth week of lockdown three, it’s all starting to feel a little…Groundhog Day-ish. Especially now that most of us are stuck in our 5km, we see the same things, encounter the same people and live the same routine day in, day out.
Our commutes are gone, our weekend excursions and nights out can’t happen, we have the same conversations and hear the endlessly looping discussion of the same events and doom mongering on the radio and TV again and again.
In lockdown #1, we were all full of hope – three weeks, max, we scoffed – and as those weeks slowly turned to months, we made the best of a topsy-turvy time. We baked, we took up exercise routines, we caught up with old friends and learned new skills.
But now the novelty has worn off. It’s hard to summon the enthusiasm with which we initially met this challenging time with. Where has all the time and frivolousness of lockdown #1 gone? Is it worn down by the terrifying numbers, and slow, slogging adaptation to working from home?
Now, more than ever, in this dull January, we need to summon some of that enthusiasm. People’s hope is dropping like flies in an awful combination of the January blues and lockdown #3 ennui. Unmotivated, slumping, bored – why feed this slump?
It’s time to break the cycle. Greet the day with enthusiasm, approach your work with purpose and create joy in the small everyday moments. Make time for the things you want to do, strive to improve and use this time – an unprecedented time of very few distractions – to learn something new.
Upskill with your local library, by having a browse through their hundreds of online courses, available to take in your own time. With over 500 courses compiled and formatted for e-learning, there has never been a better time to check out that thing that you’ve always wanted to! While there are plenty of fantastic courses that could allow you to upskill in your career area, it might be good to branch out and try something totally different!
I’m definitely going to be checking out their Greek mythology and creative writing classes!
Self-guided learning means that you decide what hours and times to work on it, and when you want to complete assignments. Quizzes keep you on track and refreshes your memory, while the course outline available in each description summarises your learning goals and outcomes from each lesson.
The categories range from parenting and family skills to crafts and hobbies, psychology to entrepreneurship, history to languages – it really covers every base imaginable! Check out more here!
Some of the most popular courses you’ll find are;
- Accounting and Bookkeeping 101 (32 hours)
- Assertiveness training (8 hours)
- Emotional Healing 101 (6 hours)
- Positive Parenting Techniques (5 hours)
- Cake decorating (14 hours)
- Anxiety Therapy 101 (5 hours)
- Strategic planning (8 hours)
- Dog Psychology (6 hours)
- Workplace sensitivity training (7 hours)
- Child Psychology (7 hours)
- Advanced Excel (16 hours)
- Interior Decorating (8 hours)
- Marketing Introduction (9 hours)
- Health Education 101 (13 hours)
- Goal Setting for business (6 hours)
- Astronomy (7 hours)
- Behaviour Management (8 hours)
- Early Childhood development (8 hours)
- History’s Greatest Conspiracies (7 hours)
- Dream Interpretation (7 hours)
- Journalism (14 hours)
- Introduction to CSS (11 hours)
- Criminology Basics (3 hours)
- Creative Writing Workshop (14 hours)
The classes allow you to amass a certain amount of CEUs, or Continuing Education Units. A CEU is a unit of credit equal to 10 hours of participation in an accredited program designed for professionals with certificates or licenses to practice various professions. These credits are part of the internationally recognised standards of continued education and training, recognised by the International Association for Continuing Education & Training (IACET).
According to the IACET: One Continuing Education Unit (CEU) is defined as 10 contact hours (1 hour = 60 minutes) of participation in an organised continuing education experience under responsible sponsorship, capable direction, and qualified instruction. The primary purpose of the CEU is to provide a permanent record of the individuals who have completed one or more non-credit educational experiences.
Which courses will you be trying out? Let us know in the comments!
