More than academic on-paper success, what one needs is a skill-set that lacks in most people. As Elon Musk rightly pointed out, having been to a top B-school is not a definite indicator of one’s potential. And, having not been to a B- School is also not a definite indicator one’s failure. A person’s potential is shown from his/her ability to perform, which ultimately depends on what skill-set he/she possesses. Take our Prime Minister Narendra Modi for example. Although I do not approve of most of his decisions, what I do think incredible is his public speaking skills. In this post, you will see a list of important skills for students that can make or break you.
Skills are those things no one ever forces you to learn, not even your school, college, or your post-graduation programs. They are always optional, and it’s up to you whether to learn them or not. The ones who keep learning new skills during their school life as well as college life eventually end up achieving their goal, be it a high paying multinational job, or a startup, or a youtube channel, or whatever. It may take more time, but they never have to settle for what they despise doing in the first place. What you need is guidance and skills for students to acquire at the right age.
Skills for Students, so that you never have to settle for something you don’t love
English Fluency
This should never have been called a skill considering most of us are from English medium schools. Sadly, due to leniency in most English medium schools, students do not improve their language. Simply understanding, speaking and writing English is not enough. You should be able to converse in English as if it were your mother tongue. With a fluent conversation, you stand a better chance of leaving a great impression. Take note that I do not oppose the use of Hindi, but given a huge number of people speaking English worldwide, it has now become a must-have skill. Your grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, everything should be given equal importance and you should devote at least 2 hours a day to learn English Speaking Skills. This can be one of the easy skills for students to acquire if you stay consistent.
Foreign Language
A foreign language skill may not be a must-have for all, but it is definitely a perk. If you are a school student, you can take up French or German in your curriculum. Keep in mind that you should keep advancing to the new levels even after your school life, don’t just leave it in school only to forget it. You can land a lucrative job if you are able to able converse fluently in a foreign language. Learn a foreign language by getting a home tutor from this learning portal. This is one of the most underrated but yet very useful skills for students.
Technical Skills
There is no age to code if a child knows how to use a computer. In our schools, coding begins only after 10th grade, or sooner (in some boards). But, if your child has an interest in computers, coding may be his/her next big thing. There are hundreds of examples of children developing an app that gets noticed by big corporates. By the time your kid passes the school, she will already be a pro coder, maybe she already would have developed something astonishing that could set a path for her career. This is one of the core skills for students that witness a lot of job opportunities in the industries worldwide.
Video Editing and VFX
Most people do not pay attention to the cinematic graphics, or the details of any movie they watch, they rather choose to enjoy the overall feel of it. But, that overall feel is only made possible with the help of creative minds that are involved in video editing, motion graphics, VFX, etc. A normal person doesn’t even know how a movie is made, what kind of special skills are required to edit a video, etc. At the same time, there is now an ever larger market to showcase your video editing skills.
India is the second largest YouTube consumer in Asia, which means more and more YouTubers are coming forward with their special skill-set and making it big on YouTube. Just like Casey Niestat in one of his videos asserted, “Filmmaking is a sport”. Earlier people had to wait for their so-called big break to enter Hollywood or Bollywood and end up disappointed, but now with YouTube’s huge audience, every creator gets a fair chance of proving himself/herself.
Critical Thinking and Decision Making
Gone are the days when you just had to show your degree to get a decent job. Today, you have to prove your metal with your critical thinking, decision making, and problem-solving skills to land a lucrative job of your choice. This is the reason why exams like CAT, XAT, have become tougher than ever. But, every year there can be seen toppers who never study day and night for months but still manage to grab a top B school to pursue management studies. How? you ask! The answer is simple, exams like CAT, XAT, etc simply test the work done by your brain for years (during your school and graduation). If you are the person who reads a lot of different varieties including news, magazines, fiction, and what not, then you have a high chance of sailing through the Verbal and Reading section of these examinations.
Critical thinking, decision making and problems solving are one of the core qualities of a successful entrepreneur.
Similarly, if you solve puzzles on a daily basis, play Sudoku, chess, etc, then you have a high chance of sailing through logical reasoning section. Of course, you may still need coaching to cover all areas of the course, but in order to crack these exams, your mind needs to be equipped with strong basics and years of practice during your school and graduation. Your job today doesn’t require you to do what’s expected of you, it requires you to do more, think out of the box and solve problems under pressure, for that, you have to start today. Get a home tutor for aptitude MBA entrance exam preparation or any other competitive exam.
Public speaking and presentation skills
Imagine you get an idea of your life and you want to startup. You start budding your team, get the work going and started hunting opportunities to get your startup funded. How will you make an impression in front of the investors? No matter how amazing your idea is, if you are not able to get impress the investors, they won’t invest in your startup. Similarly, if you have a job, you must come across opportunities where you have to speak in front of your team or give a presentation. While you speak, your boss observes you and judges your performance and possibility of a promotion.
The epitome of benefiting from public speaking skills is our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Improve public speaking skills by joining various clubs such as The Toastmasters which is present in almost every city and country worldwide. These clubs help you overcome the fear of public speaking and also give feedback for you to improve.
Find a hobby, don’t ever leave it behind
During schools, we may have more than one hobbies that we just love. But, as the time passes you come across a lot of work with the stress of career, you tend to distance yourself from your hobbies. This is one of the worst decisions of your life. You should always make time to pursue at least one hobby. For me, working out is my hobby and I make time for it. For you, playing guitar could be your hobby and you should definitely keep playing guitar for your whole life. Not just because it’s your hobby and it takes your stress away, but it can also be a game changer for your career.
My hobby allowed to me to go beyond the usual routine of working out. I started reading and researching on fitness and after years of knowledge, I now provide personalized fitness consultancy and training during my free time. Everyone can get a job after completing a degree, but not everyone can do something from their specialized skill-set. Get a home tutor for dance and take it to the next level.
Time management and discipline
Playing is very important, so is studying, and so is entertainment, and so is sleeping, and so is staying healthy, and so is everything else. But, if you do one of them for a little bit more time, it creates a ripple effect and disturbs your whole day. Keep doing it every day and it will disturb your whole year, and before you realize it, you will end up with either low grades, or a health problem, or no medal in sports, or myopia, or more than one of the above.
Do not think that you can learn to manage your time when it’s time to get a job. It doesn’t work like that. Time management is again a skill which requires years of practice and discipline and transforming your personality completely, for good. People write time management as a strength in their resumes because not everyone is good at it. And trust me when I say this, or rather write this, without time management skills you will lose a lot, miss out on a lot of big opportunities that may make or break your career.
Blogging and SEO
Do you know that there’s a 90% chance that a top food blogger in your town is not even 23 years old but is already probably earning lakhs in a month? Have you ever wondered how they do it? Food blogging mainly relies on photo-blogging on social media such as Instagram and requires good photography skills and an action plan prepared in advance for the upcoming month.
You can start your own blog and learn SEO (search engine Optimization) side by side. SEO skills will increase your website traffic drastically and after a sufficient amount of time, you will witness a good traffic and subscription to your blog. Then it’s time for you to start earning from your blog, click the link to know more about ways to earn from a blog. SEO again is a skill not everyone can master the right way, if you teach yourself this skill from an early age, you will become a pro during or after college. In fact, I believe it’s high time that schools started teaching it.
Data Analytics and digital marketing
Data plays a big role in the growth of every organization these days. There are a lot of types of data that needs interpretation so that we can make an informed decision, formulate the future strategy and execute the plan. For instance, I analyzed that I get maximum views on my YouTube channel during 9-11 pm every night, so I now upload a new video at 7 pm, my viewers will get a notification and they are more likely to watch my video. This, however, is a very simple example of what data can do for you. It goes very deep and is definitely one of the specialized skills for students to set themselves apart from the crowd.
Data is the new oil and one of the most important skills for students
With enough analytics, you can know how many people come to your website, which countries they are from, what is their age, how many of them are spending more time on your website, how many of them click actually and go to your product for viewing or buying, who are your repeat viewers, etc. Then you prepare marketing and advertising campaigns to target your core audience. There is no limit of data, you only need to have a skill-set to best comprehend that data and use it to your own advantage. You can start by joining Google Analytics Academy which is free of cost and keep advancing to the higher stages.
If you manage to enhance at least one specialized skill-set, you can become your own boss, become a freelancer and live life on your own terms. But of course, for that, you have to be a pro freelancer, chances of which drastically increase if you start learning during or even before your teenage and continue ahead. These are some of the top skills for students you must learn. Click the above link on freelancer to know the ways to start freelancing and earn money.
Download this learning app or visit the learning website to get a home tutor today and start learning something new today. Learn the skills for students.
