Online Skills Toolkit Launched

The Department for Education has launched a new online learning platform – the skills toolkit to build skills in the UK during the Coronavirus outbreak and beyond.

With more people expected to be working and studying remotely in the coming months, the platform offers a great opportunity to learn new skills to help to get ahead online and gain the knowledge we’ll all need for the future.  The platform gives adults easy access to free, high-quality digital and numeracy courses at home to help them build up their skills, progress in work and boost their job prospects.

The platform also offers employees who have been furloughed an opportunity to keep up their skills development while they are at home.

Courses on offer cover a range of levels, from everyday maths and tools for using email and social media more effectively at work to more advanced training.  All courses are online and flexible, so people can work through them at their own pace these include –

  • how to create great online content developed by the University of Leeds and the Institute of Coding,
  • to understand the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing from Google Digital Garage and
  • to learn how to code for data analysis from the Open University.

Courses on offer will help people gain skills that employers demand and help kick start the UK’s economic recovery.

For those currently furloughed, you could use some of your time to improve your skills for when you go back to work, or even to explore ideas for a career change. Remember that during a crisis, you’re practising the kind of soft skills most employers look for, like:

  • resilience – the ability to bounce back when things go wrong
  • communication – like using the internet to stay in touch
  • problem-solving – from finding new ways to shop or cook, to getting medicines to an elderly relative
  • decision making – for example, planning how to manage your finances, make extra money or spend your time
  • time management – like staying in a routine, home educating children or organising regular exercise

You should not feel pressured to do anything extra unless you really want to. If you do feel like developing new skills you could:

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