Upskilling During Down Time – How to Add Value to Your Skillset

Whether you’ve got your sights set on a promotion at work or are launching a job search, your skillset is one of your most powerful assets. The skills you possess are a reflection of your capabilities. By honing your existing ones and adding more, you’re positioning yourself for greater success.

Upskilling is an approach that can help you move your career forward. The primary goal is to add skills that are relevant to your profession, particularly those that represent common skill gaps in the workforce.

By upskilling during your downtime, you’re making yourself a stronger employee and candidate. If you are wondering how upskilling can benefit you, here’s what you need to know.

Upskilling as Futureproofing

No career path is immune to change. Best practices, technologies, and other aspects of every role shift over time; it’s inevitable. If you don’t keep pace with your field, your skillset can quickly become obsolete. When that happens, you’ll struggle to find opportunities or advance and may even find yourself unemployed.

By upskilling, you’re essentially futureproofing yourself. You can ensure that you have the skills today’s and tomorrow’s employers’ needs, giving you the ability to keep your career moving forward indefinitely.

Enhancing Your Value

Every employee represents a unique value proposition. Often, employers favor employees who bring as much as possible to the table. Additionally, they typically prefer workers who take training into their own hands, ensuring they maintain or acquire skills without having to be told to do so.

By upskilling during your downtime, you are enhancing your value. You’re more likely to be viewed as a crucial asset, something that can pave the way for promotional opportunities.

Access More Opportunities

The right skillset can open doors that were once closed. When employers hire, they typically look for specific skills. If a candidate doesn’t bring what they want to the table, they move onto the next applicant.

Whenever you upskill, you increase what you have to offer. In some cases, this allows you to qualify for roles that were previously out of reach. In that way, upskilling is a career-boosting venture, ensuring you can reach new heights faster.

Igniting Your Passion

Upskilling means introducing yourself to something new. As a result, you create an opportunity to find a passion that you may have missed otherwise.

Often, you can’t tell if you’ll enjoy a skill until you acquire it. By upskilling regularly, you’re giving yourself additional chances to discover something you may ultimately love, and that can be invigorating.

Plus, it may help you determine if your career is headed in the right direction. If you acquire a new skill that you adore but don’t get to use it in your current position that could be a sign that it’s time to move onto something new. That way, you can pursue a job that does involve a skill you enjoy, giving you more satisfaction in your career.

An Opportunity to Grow

In honor of Hamilton-Ryker’s 50-year anniversary, our TalentGro division will be awarding “50 for 50” Earn & Learn Scholarships for training. The scholarships will provide 12 courses from ToolingU-SME that will introduce participants to the manufacturing industry. Our goal is to provide career pathways for students who are interested in Manufacturing. Follow the link to TalentGro to learn more.

Are You Looking for a New Career-Boosting Opportunity?

At Hamilton-Ryker, we pride ourselves on our ability to help professionals access opportunities that align with their career goals. If you would like to learn more about what we have to offer, including our current openings, contact us today.