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Career Skills for the 2020s: Navigating the Online World of Work

Find your purpose and identify the career skills you need to upskill in your sector or to seek a new job online.

1,980 enrolled on this course

  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    4 hours

Develop the digital skills employers are looking for in the 2020s

In this rapidly changing world, it’s important that you’re confident about working online and embracing technology in your professional life.

On this course, you’ll assess your strengths and weaknesses and explore the skills you need to build to progress in work or to seek a new job in the 2020s.

Learn how to set goals for your professional development

You’ll be introduced to digital tools and analytical frameworks that will help you to set goals for your future career and identify the skills you’ll need to get there.

Whether you need to enhance your communication skills, increase your digital capabilities, or boost your problem-solving abilities, this course will allow you to explore your skills, strengths, and areas for development.

Create an online CV and build your professional online presence

Alongside expert progression coaches and student experience officers, you’ll build valuable knowledge around how to use technology to your professional advantage.

You’ll explore what makes a successful online presentation, how to write a CV and covering letter to share online, as well as digital tricks and tips to help you find your purpose and identify what employers want.

You’ll benefit from access to an online community of learners to support you along the way, as well as the professional resources you need to help you take control of your career.

What topics will you cover?

  • Identify your skills, strengths and areas for development
  • Discover what motivates you at work
  • Investigate what employers want
  • Identify your personal objectives for career development
  • Improve your communications skills
  • Practice presenting online and write covering letters
  • Harness the power of teamwork for problem-solving
  • Develop your professional online presence
  • Investigate the benefits of a social media network
  • Create an online CV that you can use for life
  • Explore how to research different organisations and their job roles online

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Discuss key characteristics and requirements of the 2020s workplace, including how digital technology is changing practices at work and in education/training
  • Summarise your work skills and strengths, identify areas that need development, and plan how to address these in order to achieve your career goals
  • Explore how digital communications are designed, e.g. for particular audiences, purposes and effects
  • Interpret and respect the different norms of communicating in different spaces, e.g. professional, social, personal
  • Describe the features of an effective presentation and use this knowledge to design and develop your own presentations
  • Identify key factors that are associated with motivation and engagement at work
  • Demonstrate that you can use the internet to find information and resources to help you make decisions and solve problems based on digital evidence
  • Collaborate actively in discussion forums: post reviews, comments, ‘likes’ etc
  • Identify, choose and use digital learning resources and tools
  • Explore techniques to manage your emotions by strengthening your emotional intelligence (EQ)
  • Assess the term resilience, recognise the skills you can practise to increase your resilience and identify strategies that allow you to adapt to challenging situations

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who would like to improve their online and digital skills, as well as their soft skills like communication, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, adaptability and resilience.

What software or tools do you need?

You should be able to complete the course using just a mobile phone, but it would be beneficial to have a tablet or laptop with a keyboard to enable you to write longer documents such as CVs and covering letters, for which you will need word processing software such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

There is also at least one optional activity in which you are encouraged to video yourself giving a short presentation. A mobile phone that allows you to record short videos will be sufficient for this.

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

  • Established

    1992
  • Location

    Coventry

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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