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With most of our regular routines being disrupted by COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place order, many of us have quite a bit of extra time on our hands. But, it’s an opportunity to improve on things we may have been putting off before the quarantine – and a great time to take advantage of continuous learning opportunities online.
Is there a skill you always wanted to learn? Or something you want to improve on that might help you advance in your career?
Several outlets online have been offering discounted or even free courses on a plethora of topics. Toni Stinson, director of Apex Academy, shared some of her favorite resources for continuous learning:
- LinkedIn Learning offers a one month free trial subscription to access over 15,000 business, technology and leadership courses online. Subscriptions start at $19.99 a month thereafter.
- Coursera offers hundreds of online courses taught by university professors from around the world on topics ranging from business and personal development to languages and humanities. Many courses are free to audit, and if you want a certificate or to unlock additional content, courses start at $39.
- Udemy offers over 3,000 courses at prices that range from free to over $100. Topics include office productivity (training on many common office software applications), personal development, business and even lifestyle.
It is a great time for you and your team to look at personal development plans and see what goals you can accomplish while staying at home. You can even make it a group effort by gathering colleagues together online to study.
Continuous learning is just one of many ways you can help your employees avoid burnout at work. Providing new chances to advance will hopefully encourage your team to work harder and make themselves better.
“Tap into your subject matter experts with lunch and learns. Topics could be work/industry/business-related or just an opportunity for employees to present on a personal hobby or area of expertise. Knitting, cooking, or even why the victory at Vicksburg was more important than the victory at Gettysburg (I am a certified—and certifiable—Civil War geek),” said Stinson. “Not only does this time at home offer people an opportunity to learn new things from trusted colleagues and build employee morale, it helps people develop personally as they learn presentation skills with content very familiar to them.”
Next time you are sitting at home feeling bored, think about something you want to learn and challenge yourself. Consider skills and hobbies you enjoy or have never had the chance to try and encourage your employees to do the same. Viewing this time as a learning opportunity could also be a mood booster that leads to more productivity during work hours.
To learn more about how to help avoid work-at-home burnout, check out this Apex blog.