Introduction
Academic skills are critical not only for students or academicians but also for anyone who wishes to learn anything. These are evergreen skills that help you through all your endeavours. You might want to learn a new language or improve your cooking skills. Maybe you are even preparing yourself for a PhD at 70. All this requires that you have several of these academic skills refined, mastered, and practised. In our case, professionals who are considering resuming their education need academic skills. These can help you balance your life and work with your learning.
Top academic skills you need as a senior professional
1. Resources Management
Mille Sanders
Managing resources is not exclusive to workplaces but applies to academics as well. Knowing about the resources required for a task, and creating and sticking to a plan, are valuable academic skills. It paves the way to professional success as these skills prove invaluable in the workplace. Here are three major management skills that every professional must be adept at learning.
Time management: Time is the most highly valued resource. Anyone can make up for lost money and efforts, but never do the same for lost time. Managing time is a critical academic skill because higher education requires certain hours of learning every day for the learner to succeed. In the case of SNATIKA, even though the learner has hands-on experience in the industry, they still need to put at least 2 hours of effort into learning every day. This is why planning ahead of the learning schedule helps balance work-life with academics. Scheduling time that does not get in the way of other important commitments is a skill learnt through practical application. Certainly, SNATIKA's UK Masters Degree programs teach or enhance this skill in professional learners.
Prioritisation: Pursuing academic qualifications while having a family and a full-time job is all about making priorities. Without productive, well-thought-out prioritisation, any of these areas can crumble, making the learner prone to anxiety, depression, and a myriad of other stress-related issues. This is why making a plan or schedule before the beginning of the program is essential. This can help learners give well-deserved time to the tasks. Without prioritisation, learners are prone to procrastination by spending little time on important tasks and more time on less important tasks.
2. Research and brainstorming
Research: Higher education, especially self-education, is all about research. Researching has become easier with the internet, but it is also exhausting for those who are unfamiliar with researching online. The huge amounts of clickbait, misinformation, fake news, and hypotheses without evidence are tiresome to sift through. The ability to see through a study for its authenticity is a gift while researching online. Improving research skills is essential for every learner who wants to be successful. There are different ways to improve your research skills, and the most effective approach depends on your program.
One way to improve your research skills is to attend research seminars and workshops. These events can provide you with the opportunity to learn from experienced researchers and to discuss the latest techniques and methods. Reading research papers is another way to improve. This can broaden your perspective and assist you in understanding the various approaches taken by researchers and developing your own approach.
Brainstorming: Brainstorming ideas is a critical skill for learners. This skill comes in handy when writing assignments, preparing for exams and making hypotheses. The ability to connect knowledge and create an academic piece requires brainstorming for ideas and the organisation of thoughts. Brainstorming also helps in expanding the horizons of understanding of a subject and thus helps in identifying competing thoughts. For a senior learner, brainstorming can be an invaluable skill.
3. Better reading comprehension
There is a popular opinion that the brain stops growing during the 20s and starts deteriorating afterwards. However, even after it completes its growth, it can still mature (Source: NIMH). It functions well regardless of the age of the learner. Hence, learning is never strenuous for adult learners.
Reading comprehension is a major skill that can help learners. It is one thing to read everything and another to understand it. Effective reading skills are mandatory to complete any program at any age. One can not always depend on rote learning. It barely comes to practical application. Understanding through reading, on the other hand, can give you in-depth application knowledge.
4. Digital literacy
Christin Hume
As the education system is increasingly leaning towards the digital world, especially after the pandemic, digital skills will be a major academic skill in the future. The ability to use and manoeuvre through computers, smartphones, and their applications effectively helps academics become easier and more enjoyable. Online learning has enhanced the importance of digital literacy as well. A learner can do anything related to their program on the internet. Research papers and how-tos for degrees and PhDs are all available on the internet. Good computer literacy can not only ease your academic journey but also boost your employability.
5. Self-discipline
Pursuing any academic qualification requires a huge amount of self-discipline from the learners. Self-discipline is the antidote to procrastination and disorganisation (Source: Medium). As senior learners are hard-pressed to be attentive to their family, friends, and workplace commitments, procrastination can become a lure that can lead them away from their academic goals. However, for senior professionals, their self-discipline and commitment are enough to help them through their academics.
6. Critical thinking
The purpose of education is to enhance an individual's thinking capacity, challenge assumptions, evaluate situations, and make their own decisions. Education helps one to effectively communicate their thoughts and ideas without hurting others' beliefs or morals. Developing critical thinking skills forms the foundation of all these skills. While many confuse education with schooling and end up choosing popular opinions instead of thinking, it has become more relevant, especially in the age of social media. Enhancing your thinking capacity must be a priority to stay grounded in a society that follows misdirection. It can also help you in your academic and professional aspects.
7. Presentation and public speaking skills
Marcos Luiz Photograph
Presentation skills are essential for any professional. In an academic setting, you must present your assignments or research papers to your educators. Many programs incorporate ways to enhance these skills because they always come in handy in professional settings. They can help you stand out from the competition, reach new audiences, and build relationships. There are several ways to improve your presentation skills. Here are a few:
Practice. The more you practice, the better your presentation skills will become. Make sure to find a presentation style that is comfortable for you and practise frequently.
Be prepared. Always be prepared for your presentations. Make sure you have all the materials you need, including charts, graphs, authentic sources, and images.
Use visuals. When possible, use visuals to help your audience understand your ideas and research materials.
8. Goal planning
Effective goal setting is a must for all academicians. You will encounter large or complex syllabi based on your program. All these need different approaches with different scheduling plans. Hence, set reasonable and manageable goals. You must be vigilant not to over-exert yourself as well as not settle for mediocre goals. Effective goal setting helps not only in your academic endeavours but also in your career and life as well.
9. Multitasking
Before we continue, the fact must be clear that humans cannot multitask (Source: ScienceABC). Focusing on more than one task depletes energy and produces subpar work results, or it can destroy the project. But there comes a time when you must give equal preference to equally important and urgent tasks. Hence, having the idea of multitasking can always come in handy. The keys are, again, prioritisation, focus, and planning. When you properly use these, you can effectively multitask and complete several tasks simultaneously. In theory, this is a great skill to have. However, in practice, multitasking can be difficult or next to impossible.
10. Note-taking
ConvertKit
Note-taking can change your learning and comprehension. The power of note-taking is in its personal aspect. Because these are always your words talking about your personal comprehension of the subject. One way to improve note-taking is to try to get into the habit of taking quick notes during class. This way, you won't spend as much time thinking about what happened during the class, and you'll be able to more easily refer to your notes later on. Also, develop a system like colour coding or flashcards to organise your notes. This way, you'll be able to more easily find information when you need it, and you'll be less likely to lose your notes altogether.
How to improve your academic skills?
1. Self-learning
In recent years, there has been a growing trend in self-learning. The corporate e-learning sector alone is expected to grow by $38 billion from 2020 to 2024 (Source: e-student). This, of course, excludes free online learning platforms like YouTube. Whether it is learning a new language, cooking a new dish, or starting a new job, it is becoming increasingly common for people to learn on their own. One of the biggest benefits of self-learning is that it allows you to tailor your learning to your own needs. If you are a fast learner, you can focus on learning new material quickly.
Certification programs can indirectly boost your academic skills
Many institutions and government bodies are offering skill enhancement courses across the world (Sources: NSDC India, Texas.gov ). If you only look through your local government education office for a skill enhancement office, you may find plenty of certification programs.
Use Apps to get better at any skills
There are several apps like SkillShare, Coursera, and Udemy on the app store that can teach you new academic skills. Due to their mobility, smartphones are a daily necessity and a commodity in the modern world. You can easily access these apps and improve your skills according to our standards.
Enrol in Online courses
Samantha Borges
There are several skill enhancement sites on the internet. The primary and most cost-effective platform is YouTube, where you can learn any skill if you know where to look for it. YouTube is the world's second most popular search engine after Google (Source: BinPress). There is also some clickbait and substandard content as well. Again, the advertisements and the possibility of getting distracted through other entertainment are high. Hence other highly sophisticated sites exclusively dedicated to learning that offer certificates are on the rise. Websites like edx, Udemy, SkillShare, and MasterClass are all examples of this. Here, not only can you improve or learn different subjects, but you can also enhance your academic skills.
2. Participate in Competitions
Nowadays, there are competitions for everything. Whatever you learn, whatever you are good at, there is a competition for that. Everything from Rubik's cube, Go, chess, to writing, robotics, and hacking has competitions in which you can practice and improve. You can choose to compete to improve yourself, compare yourself to others, or form a community with other learners. Every competition helps you to build your overall skill set in some way. A cooking competition can teach you the importance of multitasking and prioritisation, while a sports competition will teach you collaboration, planning, and coordination.
3. Use blogging and microblogging platforms to teach
One of the fastest and most effective ways to learn is by teaching it to others (Source: Jean-Pol Martin). However, you don't have to go searching for pupils so that you can teach them what you have just learned. One of the blessings of the modern world is that you can teach anything to anyone online. The Internet has made it easier for us to teach our ideas, knowledge, and thoughts to others. Many industry experts are opening up online through blogging or microblogging platforms.
While individual tastes may vary in choosing the medium and the platform, blogging, YouTube videos, online courses, and LinkedIn are some of the more popular ways of conveying your ideas as well as teaching what you have learned to others. It can not only identify gaps in your knowledge but also provide you with authentic feedback in the form of comments and suggestions from social media users.
Conclusion
As we can see, academic skills are not only exclusive to the academic aspect of your life but can also help in other aspects of your life as well. Researching the field, management of precious and scarce resources like time, organising the tasks based on their priorities, and managing them are all important academic skills. In addition to these, critical thinking, goal-setting, self-discipline, and presentation skills are also important. Effective note-taking and multitasking based on priority can also lead to academic success. Finally, you may gain mastery in all these skills through practice, online self-learning, and teaching others.
If you are new to SNATIKA, you might want to check out our prestigious UK qualifications. We offer globally recognised UK qualifications to senior professionals. All you need is managerial experience to apply for our super-flexible, high-quality UK programmes and advance your career! If you need a professional boost for your academic skills, apply for our Level 6 Certificate in Academic and Professional Skills Development! The program is short, concise, and illuminating! Check out the program syllabus now.
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