To be relevant and make sure that you can still be on par with other people, learning new skills is important.

When the pandemic happened, the casual job closes too. Most people got laid off because the set of skill sets that they have are not that needed.

Imagine you are a factory worker from an electronics company. Lockdowns happened and you may not leave your home. Because of that, you cannot go to work and the business dwindles.

Since working in the factory is the only job that you knew, you had a hard time finding a job that is near or almost identical to what you have lost.

In this day of age, because of the booming increase of new technology, everyone is being pushed to learn new skills so that they can upsell themselves.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” -Nelson Mandela

Changing the world may be a grand scheme but you can focus on "your own world" and how you want things to happen in your life two or three years from now, in a decade onwards?

Learning keeps your mind sharp:

_{Photo by Wes Hicks on Unsplash}

As we grow older, our minds become less engaged and more prone to laziness.

This makes it easy for us to fall into a cycle of not doing much of anything at all when we have time on our hands, which leads us down the path of becoming bored with life.

I remember myself dozing off, and even spending my time reading some webcomics to kill some time. I am not saying it is bad. I spend more time learning new things which can help me improve further.

Are you bad at using excel/google sheets? Might as well try to learn more about it in your spare time. Play with the formulas, etc.

Being aware of new skills can help you become more employable.

_{Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash}

It's a fact that the more skills you have, the better your chances of getting hired. Employers want to hire people who are self-motivated and can learn, so they look for candidates who have earned some certifications.

I remember landing a job at my current company. They need, at the very least, a graduate of an accounting course or anything related to the finance field. I haven't completed my degree yet but had experience and a skill set relating to finances.

When the interviewer asked me certain questions relating to tools that I am familiar with using, they confirmed that what I use and their system is the same. Hence, the hiring process went .

When you have more skill sets, you have options to search for other opportunities.

As the trend for technology and such is booming, being familiar with that can help you land a better job when you apply for work. I remember a post from @eybyoung sharing that she landed a writing gig on a freelancing website, even though she doesn't have any solid experience in writing. Her blog has been her main portfolio.

@anonymous02 a young blogger here in Hive and readcash also shared some opportunities that opened for him because he had learned many skills. He is still a student btw, but he beats other adults in landing a job at Upwork.

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When a post from UPOU Massive Open Distance e-Learning was shared on social media, a ton of folks flooded their website and tried to register the soonest.

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The reason is that the University of the Philippines is one of the premier schools here in the country and their offering classes for FREE is something worth checking.

Upon checking their calendar and seeing their calendar, I got excited about the following courses:

• Basics of Graphic Design
• Understanding the Child Better
• Scriptwriting for a Video Material
• Basic Animation using Powtoon
• Video Editing Using an Open-Source Video Editing Software

These programs are available on YouTube and other websites such as Udemy, etc. Some may have a premium cost, but others don't. But what is important is having an extra credential/certificate given after the course that can be included in the portfolio that I am building.

How about you? What are the things that you are trying to learn nowadays?