Lately, there’s been a trend among companies to look at skills rather than a certificate, this includes big companies like Google and IBM. So, even if you have successfully graduated and achieved a milestone, it’s never a bad idea to further invest in yourself by taking up some new skills.
Continuous learning is the process of learning new skills and knowledge on an on-going basis, either in a formal classroom, a casual social learning or more recently through digital platforms. As humans, it is impossible to go even one day without learning something new be it consciously or subconsciously. Learning has also been linked to maintaining a healthy brain as it provides a good exercise for the brain. Through various studies, it has been identified that people with more education are less likely to have dementia in old age.
Aside from long-term results, taking on new challenges and learning new skills can also help renew a sense of motivation within yourself, simply by experiencing personal enrichment. This could be from pursing extracurricular interests or reading up on new developments in your field, taking time to study and enhancing your knowledge will give you greater insights, open the door to new opportunities and also motivate you, both personally and professionally.
Making the effort to adopt new skills can improve complementary skills as well. So for example, you may improve on your creativity by taking up a software or skills course on graphics design, or developing interpersonal skills in a language class. There are many more skills you can improve on such as time-management and critical thinking, especially if you are taking time from your busy day to continue learning.
Lastly, being more knowledgeable can have a positive effect on your self-confidence, both professionally as well as personally. Confidence can stem from either the satisfaction of devoting time and effort to learning, improving and accomplishing, or the feeling of trust we have in our knowledge and the ability to apply what we learned.