Learn rewarding new skills during lockdown

The ongoing disruption to everyday life caused by lockdown has meant that many of us have more free time than we normally would. Whilst it can be tempting to make the most of the opportunity for extra rest and relaxation, this free time also gives you an excellent chance to learn interesting and rewarding new skills to develop your employability. As a University of Birmingham student there are lots of free resources available to help you with this.

Free Online Courses and Resources

• LinkedIn Learning is an amazing resource that gives you access to thousands of online courses about a huge and diverse range of topics, including things like programming, product photography, personal branding and online reputation management, photoshop, and developing a business plan. Best of all, it’s free to current University of Birmingham students – visit the LinkedIn Learning page on the Library Services intranet site for information about how to access the service.
• The Department of Education have also put together a new resource call The Skills Toolkit. Designed to help furloughed workers, The Skills Toolkit gives you access to free, high quality online courses.  
• Other online learning platforms include FutureLearn, Coursera and Udacity. They also offer lots of great free courses and resources, however they may also have features and content which are only available to paying members.
• Duolingo is a free mobile and web app that can help you to learn another language in an interactive and self-paced way.
• The Academic Skills Centre based in Library Services provides resources and training in a number of areas that can help boost your employability, including maths support, advanced Excel skills, and research skills.
• The Open University are currently offering a free online course on Developing Career Resilience that can help you to develop strategies to adapt to change, take control of your career and manage setbacks.

Not sure where to start?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of options available to you and aren’t sure where to start, you might find it helpful to engage in some self-reflection to determine the types of careers you’re interested in. Once you have a rough idea of where your interests lie it will be easier to identify the skills you’ll need to be successful. Here are some tools and resources available to help you in your reflection:

• The Explore Your Options section of our website contains loads of useful information and tools to help you identify careers of interest, including sector specific resource lists, information about the destinations of previous graduates, business start-up information and career planning tools
• We also offer a number of free personality questionnaires such as the Type Dynamics Indicator and the Careers Interest Inventory which can help you to learn more about your interests and motivations, and the types of work and working environments that might suit you.
• Contact us at careersenquiries@contacts.bham.ac.uk to talk to an adviser about making career choices and developing the skills to help you achieve your career goals.