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Making sure that we’re keeping up to date with technology and developing digital skills is important in today’s world. Among other things, it helps us to stay connected with loved ones and discover a variety of new and exciting opportunities.
With this in mind, we’ve come up with eight very different digital skills that you can learn from home.
1. General office skills
These days, most companies expect employees to be familiar with standard office tools like Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But if you’ve never had to use them before, it can be tricky to know where to start.
There are hundreds of free online courses promising to take you from a novice to an expert in a few hours – so which are the most worthwhile?
2. Photo editing
Today, being able to take beautiful photos is only one part of creating great images. Editing, enhancing, and manipulating digital images is an essential part of photography. These skills can turn an average photo into an astounding one.
It’s something that once you’ve mastered, you’ll probably use far more than you might expect. After all, who hasn’t wanted to remove red eyes from an otherwise lovely family photo?
On a professional level, photo editing allows you to enrich a presentation and improve website images (as well as add another ability to your CV’s skill section). It’s also just a fun way to express yourself and enjoy some quiet time.
3. Coding
In simple terms, the practice of coding involves writing in a language that a computer understands. Being able to understand and use a language that tells a computer to follow a set of instructions brings huge potential.
The ability could lead to you developing a mobile phone app, starting a new company, or even landing a role as a software engineer or IT specialist.
It’s true that coding can seem like a skill that requires a background in IT and/or a computer sciences degree to master, but this isn’t the case. Anyone can learn to code at any time and many master the basics by teaching themselves at home.
For more insight into what the learning experience is actually like, have a listen to this BBC interview about a whole family who learnt to code during the first Covid-19 lockdown.
4. Copywriting
Copywriting may not instantly spring to mind when you think of digital skills, but every great site requires decent copy – and in the world of digital marketing, “content will always be king”.
There are plenty of reasons to improve your copywriting skills, and you certainly don’t have to be an established writer to take a class or course. Whether you want to spruce up your CV, write compelling copy for your website, or simply add another string to your bow, copywriting is a useful skill to have.
5. Design
Let’s say you’ve built a website and written the copy. What does the site need next? Good design, of course.
The importance of design cannot be underestimated. In fact, 94% of first impressions of a website are design-related.
The ability to design digitally can also be just as helpful in your personal life as it can professionally. For example, you can just as easily use these skills to design invitations for a loved one’s anniversary or a party that you’re planning, as you can to design a work-related website.
6. Video production
Whether you’ve always dreamed of making your own films, would like to use video to promote your business, or just want to shoot family videos that look professional, video production can be a fun and useful skill to have.
There’s a lot involved in the video production process. You’ll need to figure out which editing programme you want to use, which camera is the best fit and whether to use lighting and audio equipment.
7. Digital marketing
Over the past decade, businesses have digitised the way they work, and as a result of that, jobseekers today will really benefit from having some digital skills on their CV.
Digital marketing and everything it encompasses (search engine marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and so on) is one of the most useful skills to have.
Whether you use it to promote the book you’re working on, help your business to gain visibility, or give your job applications a serious boost, everyone can benefit from having a better understanding of digital marketing.
8. Social media
Whether you use it or not, it’s impossible to minimise the impact and influence of social media. In fact, globally, there are 4.7 billion active social media users, and it has fast become the main source of information and communication between content creators and consumers.
Being able to use social media and understanding how it works is a skill that can be learnt like any other. It can benefit us professionally – and, of course, in our personal lives too.
If you want to learn how to set up Zoom video calls with loved ones or create an Instagram account to stay updated with your friends’ lives, there’s never been a better time to learn.
If you’d prefer to read some quick tips on how to video call your friends and family, check out our handy guide.
