Five Panda Pointers: How to maintain learned career skills

Have you ever been to a training session to learn career skills, or perhaps have been trying brush up on a work skill with some self-training? The main challenge is to come away from a period of learning and maintain what you have learned.

From regular practice to memory techniques, there are plenty of ways to do this. As this is Panda Pointers, we have collected five tips to help you make the most of learning new career skills.

1) Train your memory

So, you’re training your brain to remember your career skills training…that hurts our heads a bit but hear us out! Improving memory and organisation is a skill itself, so it’s a perfect place to start if you have some training coming up. Have a look at our blog post from memory world cup winner Jake O’Gorman! While it is focussed on using memory for job interviews, his wonderful tips can be applied in many situations.

2) Practice at least once a day

If you’re serious about learning and perfecting a new career skill, then a small part of the day shouldn’t feel like a burden. Whether it’s on your commute, at home or somehow tying it into your daily work schedule, there are plenty of ways to keep your mind fresh. If there are tasks at work in which you can incorporate learning and maintaining a new skill, you should embrace the chance. It might take a bit longer at first as you get used to it, but it will really help your development in whatever career skill you want to broaden.

3) Diversify your learning

It might not always be easy to work on career skills, depending on what skill it is you’re learning. For example, let’s say that you are working on your Photoshop skills. You might not always be able to access it, especially if you wanted to brush up on the commute. So, find quizzes and theory tests on your career skill to see what areas might still need some work. Use a classic pen and paper to jot down notes or technical lingo so you that you are always learning.

4) Determine how you learn best

This ties in perfectly with the panda pointer above. There are many types of learning; visual, verbal & written to name a few. Which of these appeals to you? Think back to the days of school or university and recall what worked for you during the dreaded exam days! Try diversifying these types of learning too; even if you’re a visual learner at heart, try some verbal activities to see how it might help. Even if it doesn’t, you’re still working towards perfecting a career skill in a way that works for you.

5) Set yourself a challenge

The best way to round off career training is to push yourself. Don’t think of it as putting pressure on yourself…instead, embrace a challenge so that a career skill is learned and retained quicker. Perhaps try making a how to guide for someone else to see just how effective your efforts have been. Find someone who is keen to learn the same skill and offer them the guide, getting feedback on how it has helped them. Even more daunting, why not volunteer to lead your own training session to present everything you have learned and what you have achieved from it!

Career skills are important...

So you should always be looking for ways to refresh, improve and memorise them. We hope our five panda pointers will set you on your way!