It’s easy to improve your employable skill set and earn power with after-hours training, even with almost no money to spare. Includes tips!
Off the job, training methods can be initiated either with the assistance of a worker’s employer or by the workers themselves to increase their marketable skills and, therefore, income. Typically, off the job training refers to ongoing training conducted while still employed after regular business hours.
Informal Self-Directed Learning
Self-directed learning as a method of the job-training presents a double-edged sword of sorts for both employers and employees. On the upside, self-directed skills training can drastically improve the initial capabilities of workers who can systematically interpret and retain the information they source themselves through means such as videos and skill books.
Enhanced skills for the worker may eventually translate into a better work situation and earning potential. However, the downside of informal self-directed learning for both the worker and employee is that it can be challenging to establish and test the effectiveness of the skills obtained through self-directed studies. To validate their self-directed study, workers can either find direct work experience in the subject matter, thus proving their study was successful, or complete third-party skills testing from an accredited source for added legitimacy.
Formalized Distance Studies
Formalized distance studies combine the convenience, flexibility and self-determination of the informal approach with the backing of certificate, diploma or degree accreditation, which can in some cases establish a more easily marketable set of skills. Typically, distance learning programs have some interactive components with their issuing organizations.
For example, distance courses can be taught via Internet broadcast and assignments are graded and submitted digitally. Moreover, after regular work hours, workers taking part in formalized system studies are likely to combine textbook reading with Internet media coursework and workbooks online or paper form. As a result, formalized systems studies command a higher level of recognition from employers than entirely self-directed informal learning.
Night Courses
Night courses are generally provided by community colleges and sometimes universities and are aimed at just these sorts of off the job methods of training that many workers are looking for to improve their earning potential. One of the critical advantages of night courses is that they do not offer the same technical difficulties for students who are not particularly adept with computers and may encounter problems with the computer usage aspect of formalized distance studies.
How Learning New Skills Raises Earning Potential
According to Sharif Shakrani, co-director of the education policy centre at Michigan State University, “In today’s economy, education is closely related to economic growth.” While critics might question the neutrality of such a statement given its source, it is a reasonably safe assumption that extra education will eventually translate to higher earning potential for individual workers, mainly when backed by widely acknowledged educational institutions.