how to improve your technical skills education and training
here are five steps to help you gain or improve your technical skills identifying your career goals is critical in determining what technical skills you need if you re not in your desired career your goals will likely differ from those who are established in their careers professionals who seek to stay in the same career might have goals of securing promotions or enhancing their performance examples of goals for those seeking a career change include examples of goals for those in their desired field might include because some fields such as marketing are multifaceted it might be helpful to narrow your career goals to specific roles that you wish to pursue for example instead of establishing a goal to pursue a career in marketing you could set your objective as a career in digital marketing once your goals are established research what you need to do to accomplish them begin by searching online for a job with basic and sophisticated technical skills job postings can shed light on the required qualifications for different roles however you can often glean more from direct interaction consider interviewing or shadowing someone in the field you wish to enter firsthand accounts from experienced professionals and direct observations can give you more insight than what can be gathered online from your research you should be prepared to document the skills you need to realize your goals consider the specializations certifications and education needed to obtain them create categories and list all the associated skills that fall within each for example under the certification category you could list lean six sigma or prosci certified change manager some skills are more important than others consider listing them in order of importance spreadsheet programs such as microsoft excel are great tools to organize your lists from your inventory reorganize the skills list according to what you have versus what you need you might be surprised to find that you already possess some of the skills needed identify what you need to do to acquire or enhance technical skills for example if a career requires a bachelor s degree in a specific field of study research what institutions offer that degree program if seeking a promotion in your current field and a specialization is required find institutions that offer the specialization before enrolling in an academic program or pursuing professional certifications consider what alternatives may be accepted in lieu of a specific requirement for example some jobs may list a certain degree as a requirement but will accept a degree in a related field or work experience in its place now that you know what is needed it is time to plan and build develop a plan itemizing the skills you are pursuing how you will obtain them your timeline for completion and resources to help you accomplish your pursuit some skills can be acquired on the job while others must be obtained through a formal program or training if the latter enroll in the program that helps you develop the skills needed and accommodates your lifestyle some employers offer training courses to help their employees develop technical skills sometimes you may have enough critical technical skills to qualify for a job or promotion many employers will invest in skill development for the right candidates explore what the employer will do to help you develop your skills before undertaking expensive and time consuming training and academic programs 