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By Abby Rolfe, Digital Marketing Executive at Professional Academy
As a marketer currently experiencing all the joys of working from home combined with studying my Level 4 CIM course, I wanted to share some of my thoughts around studying during the coronavirus pandemic and the uncertainty that comes with it.
For many of us, our home is now our office. You’ve swapped colleagues for pets and you don’t have to queue for the microwave at lunchtime anymore. It’s starting to feel a bit more like the new normal, and although we’re all itching to get back into the office, it’s important to think about how you can use this time to grow professionally. This will mean you’re rearing to go and ready for anything when you do return to work.
The economy is facing a hit. With millions of companies struggling to keep afloat and employees being furloughed left right and centre, the future post-lockdown will be a challenge. But the economy will recover - and so will you.
The key is to think about the areas you can control.
How can you help? You can do your part to help drive growth in your industry by upskilling or fine-tuning your knowledge. If you’re a manager, maybe you need to focus on how to navigate your team and business through times of change. Or a salesperson? You could learn how to better handle objections and negotiations to close more sales.
It feels a bit like that period between Christmas and New Year.
You don’t know what day it is, you haven’t left the sofa in weeks, and you’ve watched all of the TV that was ever invented (probably). But there are more productive things you can be doing than talking to your plants and eating cereal at 3am.
Studying a short course or qualification allows you to use your brain for good. It’s even better than rearranging your sock drawer in order of colour and style. This is something that will make you feel more useful, motivated and ready to tackle those future challenges in your career.
We now have many tools at our disposal to make learning easier and interactive.
There’s no waiting around for dial up internet like 20 years ago, and everything is instantly available with an ‘always on’ culture that works well for studying a course via distance learning or even though virtual workshops.
Professional Academy has its very own eLearning portal which helps to break up your studies with important information accompanied by interactive scenarios and quizzes. If you choose the premium option, workshops will be virtual until later in the year and core textbooks are still being posted out as normal – so you can get started whenever you’re ready!
As we head into uncharted waters, innovation is more important than ever.
We don’t know for sure what’s out there – a flux capacitor would come in handy right now – but coming up with new and exciting ways to work and develop your business is a sure-fire way to accelerate through challenging times.
Whether you’re a marketer, manager or salesperson (or aspiring to be one), studying is a way to ignite those lightbulb moments and shows commitment and tenacity to your career. In addition to sparking ideas, courses also show you practical ways to put plans into motion and monitor their results.
You may have had a plan in place for your career progression before lockdown happened.
It might be easy to put it off until this has all blown over, but it’s counterproductive. Many of us have more free time now; whether it’s from being furloughed, not having to travel for work or having to stay home on weekends and evenings.
Using that time now to help in the coming months and years is more important than you think. Future you will be eternally grateful when you have that desired promotion or new job because you put down the TV remote and chose to work on your professional development during lockdown.
Since our environment is changing, we need to keep up. Constantly upskilling and refreshing in your field is essential to career success and progression.
If you are interested in Sales, Marketing, or Management then Professional Academy will help you progress further into your career! We offer both electronic and printed copies of learning material and the chance to undertake a professional qualification within a time-frame that suits you.
If you would like to find out more you can speak to a qualifications advisor today or download a prospectus.
