Expert Opinion: This Lockdown Period, Avoid Falling Into a ‘Learning Trap’

During COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a tsunami of people wanting to opt for online courses/certifications through various platforms like Coursera, Edx, UpGrad, LinkedIn Learning, etc. to ‘upgrade’ their skills. This is the period in which the “Learn, Un-Learn, Re-Learn” phenomenon has been on the rise for good. Platforms like above which are offering free courses or discounted courses/certifications, so that maximum professionals & students can take benefit and skill or re-skill themselves for better growth opportunities, internally as well as externally.

When almost everyone is loving this period in a way, in which they can learn new skills, re-learn skills or maybe un-learn too, as an Educationist, Career Coach & NLP Master Practitioner, I would like to give professionals & students a piece of advice (actually a word of caution) – Avoid falling into a Learning Trap!

It is but natural that professionals (including freshers and about-to graduate students) can get excited & overwhelmed (highly at times) about the e-learning options available and can get inclined to enrol for online courses/certifications for gaining skills as much as possible. But they should not do this in haste.

Just as learning is important, one must also understand that there is no use of ‘overlearning’ and ‘varied learning.' Cautious choice of online courses/certifications is important.

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Professionals and students should take the below points in consideration before enrolling for a particular online course/certification in this lockdown period and avoid getting into the Learning Trap:

1. Self-assess your current skills/knowledge/certifications in terms of their time validity, their relevance in your current job or prospective job, and if they really require an update
2. Speak to your immediate manager or professors in case of students to know which course/certification will be useful for the department or a job
3. Speak to career counsellors/external industry experts to get their opinion on skills/certifications that will be useful in future for growth
4. Connect with people who have already taken the same course/certification and take their opinion and experience
5. Carefully read the contents of the course, duration, certification details, fees and do not go just by the title of the course
6. What you learn through these courses/certifications needs to be proved later and it will serve no purpose having it on just paper (and for showing on social media)
7. Avoid attending unnecessary webinars and get into collecting over-information about a topic or subject

According to me, FOCUS is important while enrolling yourself in any course. Happy Learning!

Dr. Anand Wadadekar
Educationist | Career Counsellor | NLP Master Practitioner