- Sometimes your dream job requires learning a new skill,
but how do you do that without going back to school?
Hi, there I'm Melissa from Answer in Progress,
where we make videos,
taking people along a journey from question to answer.
In this video, we speak to a skill building expert
and find alternative ways to learn new skills
without formal education.
Okay, so full disclosure,
I studied creative industries in university,
and now I run a media production company,
a creative industry.
But even though I'm apparently
one of those rare cases of people applying their degree
in their work,
I often find myself needing to learn new skills
that they never mentioned in school.
And I'm not alone.
According to this white paper by Ellucian,
only 39% of students feel very prepared
to join the workforce.
And that's kinda startling 'cause that's less than half,
but you know, I think that's because school isn't supposed
to teach you everything that you're ever gonna need to know
for work or life.
And I know that I can't deal with the mental
or financial burden of university again.
So.
I've heard that upskilling,
but I'm not exactly sure where to start.
How can we gain new skills without going back to school?
So to help answer that question,
I spoke with Bailey Parnell.
- My name is Bailey Parnell,
and I'm the founder and CEO of Skills Camp,
my international soft skills training company.
There are a ton of other learning opportunities
that you can engage with to learn any skill
and especially soft skills and career skills.
- [Melissa] More than 2/3 of adults
want non-degree education.
And a year ago only 50% wanted this.
- I can put in a skill
and I can take my own version of it just in time.
I can get that badge on the other end,
and I can take what I've learned
and ideally put it into practice in my life.
- [Melissa] While a degree can increase
your job opportunities,
just having a degree in a field that doesn't serve you
isn't helpful.
It's about leveraging what relevant skills you have.
This study concludes that employers rank
traditional education as on par with other credentials,
such as knowledge based, technical skills, and soft skills.
So if a degree isn't a must, how do we build new skills?
- If you wanted to start your journey learning any skill,
the first thing is to just start.
That's rule number one,
because most people get ahead of themselves in their head
and then they never even open the book,
open the link, start the journey at all.
The second thing you need to do
is work on your growth mindset and your confidence,
because what we see, especially with adult learners
is that they find that their skills are already set
or that they've already learned all that need to learner
or that they are already the person
that they're going to be for the rest of their life.
I think the most important thing would be,
once you cultivate the growth mindset,
everything can become a learning opportunity.
- Learning new skills gives us purpose
and also makes us desirable to hiring managers.
66% of employees rank the joy of learning new things
and developing new skills as the top upskilling motivator.
74% of employees think their managers need reskilling
and upskilling training.
So regardless of position, title or rank,
we could all use some developing of skills.
According to this HBR article,
there's five main steps to learning a new skill.
Step one, decide whether it's needed.
Step two, figure out how you learn.
Step three, find someone who can help you.
Step four, start small.
And step five, teach it.
So a school didn't really teach me all of the skills
required to run a rapidly scaling business
with people who looked you for direction
nor how to manage several projects all at once.
It can feel a little overwhelming.
So project management is definitely a skill
that I need to run in media production company.
To determine how I was going to learn it,
I looked into several options available online
that were accessible and had some guidance.
I looked through a couple of project management courses
on Coursera
and ultimately landed on this Google Career Certificate,
a program taught and developed by Google employees
that provides professional training in project management.
And you need no relevant experience to start.
So my goal was to complete
10 hours of the coursework in a day.
And let me tell you, that was a tall order
because I decided to start on a Monday,
which is a day that I also have like five hours of meetings
that I couldn't skip.
So I had to complete as much as I could that day.
And I eventually realized that this
may not be the best approach and needed some help.
I just tried to do 10 hours of work
in three hours.
- But you don't need to rush.
It is better to just go slowly
and succeed at your own pace
than just burning out and not finishing.
- So that brings us to step four,
break it down into manageable chunks, which I did not do.
I learned that one the hard way.
These lessons in the course helped me keep my learning
semi-structured.
Now I was almost through my course.
I decided on what skill I wanted to build,
determined how I wanted to learn it,
found someone to help me,
and broke it down into manageable chunks.
All that was left to test my knowledge
was to explain it to somebody else.
Now, since I don't have classmates,
I just forced Taha to listen to me
while I explained agile project management to him.
Agile project management.
I think he enjoyed it.
And with that, I had completed my course.
She is a project manager now!
I earned this certificate that I can't hold up
because it's digital.
I do feel like I am better equipped
to manage these projects.
And I hope that people will recognize that.
So.
But there is this small part of me
that just can't stop thinking
that this doesn't feel as impressive to somebody besides me.
But you know, I did do the work,
even if I did do the work in front of a computer
in the comfort of my own room.
So how do you beat imposter syndrome?
- If you're feeling imposter syndrome,
as it relates to getting education,
that would be to say, non-traditional,
try to remember that the work does still speak for itself.
For me, I get confidence through competence.
So what I know that I know a lot about something
and I've looked up what's happening in the news,
and I feel really willing to talk about it with someone,
that's when I feel my most confident.
Hiring managers, ask for the degree
because it's very quick way for them to check off
that you were able to do certain hard skills,
certain soft skills.
You clearly have some diligence.
You're able to go through the rigor of the full program.
You were able to succeed throughout hardship
and throughout a long period of time.
So it's easy for them to check that off,
but now 96% of hiring managers
are going to Google search you
before they actually hire you.
So what are they finding?
Are they finding like a really clean,
nicely put together detailed LinkedIn profile
that explains the exact kind of work that you've done.
- So I guess just a couple things that I've taken away
from this whole experience here.
One, it's never too late to switch careers
and there's so many options out there
for learning that aren't formal education.
Now, whilst formal education can provide some benefits
that other types of education can't.
I think that the most important thing to remember
when you're in the workplace is to just be kind to yourself.
I would say that nobody really cares
what kind of piece of paper you have.
It's really about the skills
and the teamwork that you bring to the table.
So I was inspired to learn about other people
who have taken Google Career Certificates
and made a career change.
For example, there was Melinda who was a hairdresser
and cosmetology teacher who switched careers
to doing IT support
after taking Google's IT support certificate.
So in the end, you don't need to go back to school
or get a degree to learn a new skill.
Learning can be a lifelong journey
and there's so many ways to do it,
whether it's online or in person.
It's really about figuring out what skills you need
or what you need to specialize in,
setting goals,
figuring out how you wanna learn it,
finding a mentor,
setting the time aside to practice it,
finding a learning method that works for you,
and not giving up.
So if you're interested in seeing what other certificates
Google has to offer,
be sure to check the link in the description
or you can visit grow.google/certificates.
If you like this video,
be sure to subscribe to this channel
and give it a like.
And also check out the other videos in this series
that we talk about career capital,
time management for skill building,
and also assessing whether your job is right for you.
That's all.
I'm Melissa.
Now I have a project management certificate.