Short Courses are a smart investment in your future and Autumn is the ideal season to start. We look at some of the reasons why this time of year is perfectly suited to acquiring a new skill and gaining additional certification, for you or for your employees.
Season of mists…..
Everything changes in Autumn.
The holidays have ended, the leaves start to change colour and the young have returned to school. As the nights gradually draw in and the weather worsens, we look ahead once again to wrapping up against the cold on our commutes, with the prospect of icy traffic jams and cancelled trains.
Producers assess the output from the year’s growing season and make key decisions on their harvest’s ongoing viability in the marketplace.
As employees gradually return to their places of work, companies begin to refocus their activities after what has often been a quiet trading period over the summer.
With so much change in the air at this time of year, many people’s thoughts naturally turn to their own longer-term objectives and what immediate steps they could take to achieve them.
What better way to start that journey than by learning something new that can benefit you personally and professionally?
Why learn a new skill?
As with self-improvement in general, there are very good reasons for upskilling, and they generally fall into two distinct categories – the personal and the professional.
On a personal level, gaining new knowledge contributes to your own self-confidence, your sense of accomplishment and provides valuable mental stimulation.
In the professional arena, new skills represent the prospect of career advancement, they demonstrate your workplace adaptability and equip you with the most up-to-date tools in a competitive jobs market.
Why this time of year?
There are two key points in any year when people most commonly decide to grasp the nettle and make changes in their lives. The first and most obvious is the first week in January. The whole concept of New Year Resolutions is predicated on looking at which aspects of life you wish to improve and the process of setting goals to address these.
The other time of year when people tend to re-evaluate their direction of travel is right now, a fact commonly confirmed in the pages of self-improvement and wellbeing publications. The changing season engenders life reflection on a spiritual plane, allied to the practical realities that day-to-day routines are being re-established after the summer and most training providers are now recruiting.
So now that you’re giving serious thought to augmenting your CV with new and relevant knowledge, the next question is often “where on earth will I find the time to do this?”
Bite-size, convenient learning
A seismic shift in upskilling has occurred following the emergence of the Short Course phenomenon. With an innovative approach to skills delivery and transfer, Short Courses have transformed the training landscape in recent years.
The great success of Short Courses is rooted in their ‘baby steps’ approach to building a skillset gradually. Just choose the course that teaches the first new skill you want to learn and within weeks you’ll have done so, with an official certificate to prove it.
Your own investment simply consists of a small course fee and around 20 hours of learning time set aside over a 5-6 week period. It’s incredibly time- and cost-effective and your reward is to see your accreditations gradually building, along with your self-confidence.
Birmingham City University is the go-to for Short Courses
Birmingham City University (BCU) offers a powerful Short Course portfolio, which provides training in a variety of single specialisms from across its faculties, ranging from Python Programming to Immunisations & Vaccinations, and from Digital Marketing to Studio Sound Recording.
BCU Short Course attendees benefit from attending an institution already renowned as a leading training provider in the Midlands region, and attend Short Courses delivered by some of the foremost specialists in their respective disciplines.
A new body of BCU courses is due to launch in October, including AI for Data Analytics, Media Training for Businesses, Occupational Mental Health and Industrial Internet of Things.
Make this the autumn when you take that step! To enrol, find out more, register an interest or simply ask a question, simply click below.
