The Most Efficient Ways to Build New Skills: Fast, Global, and Sustainable

New skills must be learned within our forever changing world to ensure maximum progression within the economy. Considering it suggests that learning a new skill takes roughly six months (depending on the complexity), ensuring optimal efficiency is crucial to learning.

There are many tried and tested methods that aid skill-building. Some work much better than others, but we recommend you consider the below:  

1. Digital and blended programmes

Both digital and blended programs are an excellent way to build new skills fast. Both work similarly, but the blended options combine online and classroom teaching, not just online, unlike digital programmes.  

Either option is superb, as you’re able to learn a skill from a professional within that sector. Additionally, digital programmes allow you to work from wherever in the world and from whoever. Each of these is highly important, especially in today’s restricted society.  

They can help build skills fast because of their convenience and quality. You can learn from the best without meeting them, making it highly valuable for most individuals who benefit from this type of learning strategy.  

2. Focus on a singular skill at a time

We’ve all heard this time and time again, “jack of all trades, master of none”. To break this down, it’s a figure of speech used to reference a person who’s tried many skills rather than becoming an expert in one. Focusing on more than a singular skill can quickly showcase adverse effects.  

Luckily, avoiding this isn’t complicated at all. Pick a skill you desire, learn, and gain experiences that can help aid the progression of that ability. Don’t get us wrong, it doesn’t mean you have to focus on a single skill your entire life. However, it does mean that you need to learn the core fundamentals of a skill before moving on to the next.  

The most significant problem people have with building skills this way is that they become bored with a subject. To increase productivity and engagement while learning, consider using the Pomodoro technique. It’s a learning strategy to guarantee optimal efficiency by resting your brain every 25 or 55 minutes while learning a new skill.  

3. Understand your current skillset

Additionally, develop an understanding of the current skills you already know related to the new one. Doing this can quickly skip a huge chunk of learning, which will speed up the progress even more. Undoubtedly, it’ll save time, guarantee you’re not overcrossing pre-existing skills, and allow you to focus on what matters, learning a new skill.  

4. Learning-by-doing

Learning-by-doing refers to a theory created by John Dewey. He believes that the most efficient approach to learning is for students to be hands-on. By doing this, you’ll learn how to interact with the skills environment, adapt, and improve while you go along.  

For example, if you want to learn about SEO marketing, reading pages and pages of books might help but creating a website yourself is more beneficial, as you’ll physically experience what it takes to perform good SEO.

About Timeo-Performance

We were founded with a vision to improve the world of work for everyone

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We are in the Skills Business!

Through recruitment, training and consulting, Timeo-Performance provides solutions for increased performance of companies, teams, and individuals. As our clients are in the center of global business and often serve the APAC region, our solutions need to be sustainable in a multicultural and remote context.

Our joint venture with Akteos, the European leader in intercultural training, and partnership with digital learning solutions provider CrossKnowledge have therefore been organic and logical additions to our service. Timeo-Performance has been helping companies in APAC increase business performance since 2008 with offices in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.

We love what we do, feel the Timeo-Performance experience!

THE AUTHOR

Isabelle Larche

Managing Director, Recruitment & Executive Search at Timeo-Performance

Isabelle is a Human Performance expert, with over 10 years of professional recruitment experience, and 15 years of Business Management Consulting experience. Isabelle is the Vice President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Trade Counsellor (Singapore Chapter) to the French Embassy.

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