In modern times, learning skills is more important than just having a college degree or getting passed out of school. You need to have some real life skills in order to be successful. Here are a few skills you can learn while you are in school:

Communication Skills

Good communication skills are not just about being able to speak fluently. They ensure that everyone around you understands you. Possessing them automatically makes you confident, assertive and a natural leader. it also helps prevent misunderstandings. You can improve your communication skills by following these simple tips-

  1. Being brief but specific
  2. Ask questions instead of giving orders
  3. Be aware of your body language

You can also improve your speaking skills by pushing yourself to take part in debates, speeches and other speaking activities and/or competitions.

Decision Making Skills

In a workplace, it is no less of imperative to have the ability to make a quick, yet good decision. It serves as motivation to others to be more independent and even reduces conflicts. And it goes without saying, that it hugely increases productivity by saving loads of time and efforts wasted on mulling over or pursuing a wrong decision or path. You should keep these tips in mind to improve your decision making skills-

  1. Make a plan. to be aware of your aim
  2. Limit your choices, and
  3. Weigh your options

Personal Management

To be able to manage others, one needs to first learn to manage themselves. This refers to being capable enough to manage your time and stress by planning and organizing your work. One needs to hold themselves accountable to complete their work without relying on anyone else. To improve these skills, you should-

  1. Practice being patient.
  2. Not Multitask, and focus your attention on only one task at a time.
  3. Plan ahead and write down things that you feel you’ll forget.

Technological Skills

All businesses now rely heavily on computers. Thus, having a basic knowledge of them and the most used softwares is essential to boost your profile. It even makes your work ten times easier once you learn to use them properly. You should have a basic understanding of-

  1. MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint)
  2. Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms)
  3. Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets)
  4. Email (mail merge, filters, folders, rules)

Collaboration Skills

Collaboration skills refers to the skills that you use while working with someone else for a common objective. And it is not a skillset in itself, but rather made up of different soft skills and other behaviours that enable collaboration. To develop these skills, you should-

  1. Work on projects that are outside your comfort zone or area of expertise, so that you have to rely on the expertise of others to collaborate.
  2. Participate in team-building activities
  3. Trust your teammates, and be tolerant to their mistakes, but also
  4. Set up some strict ground rules