While COVID-19 restrictions have certainly disrupted our lives, it has also triggered an interest in gardening, sourdough, DIY, and other hobbies. Although tending to your personal life is well and good, you must also need to remember to brush up on your workplace digital skills.
Working remotely during the lockdowns has highlighted the importance of workplace digital skills. Regardless of the type of work you do, this is a great chance to brush up and improve your digital capability. Here are some ways you can do to grow your skills.
Self-assess your needs
Due to the change in working style that was brought about by the pandemic, you may have learned a lot about yourself. Achieving self-actualization is necessary for an individual to grow and improve.
Thus, it is important to take the time to review where you are, where you want to go and the gap between those two places. You can assess what can help you maximize your productivity, determine your hidden skills, aptitudes, and preferences as well as work on the areas where you need to improve.
Professionals Australia also provided a 4-step, cyclical assessment of one’s development needs, which is useful for identifying your own gaps:
- gain knowledge about yourself and your preferences;
- collect information from a variety of sources;
- analyse your development needs; and
- reflect on progress and changing circumstances.
Start learning now
Once you know what you want to develop, there are plenty of no-cost learning and development options available. The APSC’s Centre for Leadership and Learning has translated a lot of its face-to-face courses into online courses.
They have also launched the APS Academy for its employees, containing courses that provide the necessary foundations to deliver high quality, respected and trusted solutions to Australia’s challenges.
Through these, you can take courses directly related to digital capability such as data literacy, creative thinking at work, dealing with change, managing remote teams, planning and managing change, SFIA (Skills Framework for the Information Age), and transitioning to remote work.
There is also a GovTeams section where you can access resources so you can learn at your own pace and in your own way rather than sign up for the courses.
The APSC also has a range of information about Learning and Development opportunities and have launched a beta version of their APS Career Pathfinder tool in order to help people explore digital career options in government.
Develop your digital skills
The DTA has provided many ways for individuals to develop their digital skills such as the Digital Profession website. The website, currently in beta, aims to lift the digital expertise of individuals and organisations to prepare Australia for the digital age.
They also have the Digital Service Standard, which is a set of best-practice principles for designing and delivering government services. Organizations can apply for this Standard in order to create digital services that are simple, clear and fast.
The DTA also provided the Little Book of Digital, a PDF file that gives practical tips and tricks on how to think and work digitally. This PDF is available on their website.
Aside from these channels, the DTA also provides events, news, and workshops on developing digital knowledge and skills.
Another way for you to improve your skills is through the Australian Government’s Learnhub. Learnhub is an online learning and development platform for the APS that can help develop one’s digital knowledge and skills. The website can also help you gain access to an external library of video tutorials from LinkedIn Learning.
Through LinkedIn Learning, you can do the following:
- access courses in business, tech, and creative
- develop your own list of recommended courses
- access and watch at your own pace
Linkedin Learning can be useful for those who cannot stay in front of their computer for too long as it can be easily accessed through their mobile app.
Conferences are another way to learn and develop new skills. Although the current circumstances may not allow such huge gatherings, many conferences are now available online. This makes it easier for people to attend when they have previously not due to other commitments.
Face-to-face external courses are now also delivered online. Take some time to look at what is available and find out if there is an opportunity in the next financial year to meet your identified skills gap.
Plan for your future
Despite the setbacks brought about by the pandemic, this is also the perfect opportunity to improve upon the skills and capabilities you know you need.
With the world becoming more digital-dependent, it is necessary for you to develop your workplace digital skills in order to make the most of your career at every stage.
Source: DTA Blog. Content has been edited for style and length.
Nicole Murphy is the delivery manager for the Digital Profession team at the Digital Transformation Agency. The team is supporting the Digital Professional Stream for the Australian Public Service, which has recently been established.
