4 Real-World Skills You’re Learning Through Online Learning - MedCerts

Is Short-Term Online Career Training Right for You?

The things you learn in college can affect the kind of person you become and how you solve the problems related to your professional and personal life. Surprisingly, how you handle real-world situations depends a lot more on soft skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, and patience – which aren’t always an obvious part of lesson plans.

MedCerts, makes sure soft skills are tied into each program they offers you, here are a few you’ll learn:

1. Patience

Patience encompasses learning how not to lash out or lose your cool, listening to your peers, knowing that it's okay to make mistakes, and having the courage to learn from them. It essentially helps you understand others and yourself better.

This skill is also helpful when your work gets criticism or negative feedback. Rather than lashing out, using that feedback for personal improvement shows maturity and sophistication, which is highly respected in every field.

2. Collaboration, Communication, and Networking

Building a relationship and networking with people often proves helpful because of how much value it adds to one's personality. It shows that you're not afraid to speak up and that you're a people person if the situation demands it.

Networking can also lead to a better social life because, if done correctly. Communication leads to long-term personal and professional relationships, beneficial to all involved.

There are many ways to build an interpersonal relationship, but collaborating and communicating is the best way to go. It allows your peers and potential acquaintances to get familiar with you and gives a chance for a person to showcase their real-world skills like:

  • Teamwork

  • Communication

  • Creative ideas

Not only does it help you to build a useful network, but it also allows other people to get a picture of who you are as a person and how you would be an asset to one another.

3. Prioritizing and Problem-Solving

Having a few goals for your life is crucial. The best way to achieve these goals and keep your life in order is to prioritize your tasks. This is a part of prioritizing yourself and adding more value to your personality by learning a new skill. Soft skills don't always come on their own sometimes — it's essential to work on yourself and develop those traits.

For example, learning how to analyze situations better and finding the best possible way to solve an issue is a part of creative problem-solving. This skill doesn't always come naturally to everyone, and it is crucial to set your priorities straight and work on developing skills that might come in handy.

It's important to focus on your professional and personal lives equally and set your priorities accordingly. It also portrays your skill to handle and balance several things simultaneously.

4. Self-Discipline

Among the real-world skills useful in the classroom, self-discipline is the most important — and it's self-taught in most cases. Self-discipline plays a crucial role in every aspect of life as it keeps you grounded and works as a tool to ensure reasonable control over yourself.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, developing this skill has become essential for remote workers, particularly to avoid procrastination and related delays.

The world has changed in the past few years, and now, many people admire real-life skills more than what's on paper. Online learning has progressed and improved substantially. This has helped people learn new things and gain new skills while at home. While there might be a few things school doesn't teach you, online learning platforms help you achieve those specific goals.

Portrait of Julie Campos
Written by Julie Campos
Vice President of Student Success and Career Services

Julie Campos is the Vice President of Student Success and Career Services at MedCerts. She brings over 14 years of experience in Online Higher Education in both Student Support and Enrollment and started her career at the University of Phoenix, serving most of her tenure as a student-facing leader.

Julie has her Bachelors of Liberal Arts in Political Science from the University of Texas at El Paso, and her Masters in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. Her areas of expertise are student support in online higher education environments and working with nontraditional students. At MedCerts, she is focused on creating a pro-active student central support model for MedCerts students to reach their goals and has developed the MedCerts Student Support and Outreach Model, created MedCerts Student Success Advisor reports and Dashboards, as well as the Student Success Advisor Playbook. Her proactive approach to student support has been crucial in meeting MedCerts’ student’s needs, as well as completion and certification goals.

Julie has three children – a 10-year-old son and 12- and 4-year-old daughters, who keep her and her husband busy with sports. She is also an avid crafter with an entire room of her home dedicated to the hobby. In her free time, she enjoys teaching wreath making and even has a few “how-to” YouTube videos on the subject!

Published on February 24, 2022

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