The new technologies have been a great challenge for many people who have had to learn to use them and incorporate them not only in their personal lives, but also in the workplace. Knowledge and experience in the use of these technologies is essential today for most jobs; but not everyone has the necessary resources to develop their digital skills.
What Benefits Does Developing Your Digital Skills Bring You?
As we said, we live in a digital society in which it is essential to achieve minimum standards of skills and abilities in order to fully develop within it. Knowing and improving our digital skills we will be able to assess the strengths and weaknesses that technologies can offer us.
Let’s find out what benefits digital skills bring:
- Increased productivity and time savings. The use of different technological tools helps you improve productivity, both in personal and work tasks, as well as to perform them in less time, making your work more productive. For example, knowing how to use a computer correctly allows you to work faster and more efficiently than if you didn’t know how to do it.
- Improvement of autonomy. Having sufficient knowledge about the technology necessary to carry out your work makes you a much more autonomous and effective person, because by knowing how to directly solve the simple problems that you may encounter on a day-to-day basis, you will not need to depend on the help of others people.
- Connection with the world. Managing the many tools that technology makes available to you is essential today to communicate easily and immediately with anyone in the world through: social networks , email, video call applications, etc.
- Job opportunities. Today, for almost any job, companies demand a certain level of digital skills such as basic computer skills, use of online work applications, online group meeting tools or information management in the cloud.
- In the words of Andrus Ansip, Vice President of the European Commission in an interview for the Mercado Unico Digital magazine, “in the near future, 90% of jobs – in careers such as engineering, accounting, nursing, medicine, art, architecture, and many more – will require some degree of digital skills.”
- Adaptation to changes. Technology advances at a constant and unstoppable pace and the way we know the world does so with it. Therefore, it is very important to have a good ability to adapt to changes. The knowledge and use of digital skills and your willingness to continue learning will help you to continue advancing into the future.
What Digital Skills Do We Put Into Practice On A Daily Basis?
As we have seen, most jobs and aspects of our lives in the digital society in which we live require knowledge of basic digital skills. What are they?
- Information search. Know how to use an online search engine. Being able to know what information you want to search for, use a browser to do so, and filter the information that suits you.
- For example, would you know how to use Google to search for information?
- Use of email. Use an email manager (Gmail, Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.) to be able to communicate with other people, either at work or personally.
- For example, would you know how to choose an email manager, create a new account and send an email?
- Share files. Knowing how to share multimedia content through digital tools with other people.
- For example, do you know how to send and download photos via WhatsApp? And start a new conversation with a contact from your mobile phone book?
- Data management. Being able to process, organize and order digital information.
- For example, when you download an image from the Internet to your computer, do you know where it is saved? Do you have a backup of your files?
- interaction. Know, understand and know how to use different social media such as Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp to interact with other people around you.
- For example, do you have an account on any social network? Do you know how to create it? How do you post a message next to an image for your contacts to see?
- Create digital content. Generate and edit material in different formats (photos, videos, etc.).
- For example, do you know how to take photos and videos with your mobile phone?
- Device Protection. Being able to protect your electronic devices from threats.
For example, do you use antivirus to protect your computer or mobile from possible attacks? Do you know how to install it?
These skills are just a small sample of the infinite possibilities that technology makes available to you. Adapting and using them in your life, as well as knowing how to use them responsibly, is an essential need in today’s society.
How To Acquire Basic Digital Skills
We already know the basic digital skills that we should know. To acquire them, the main tool at your disposal is training, since knowledge and study of a subject is always the best way to learn about it. For this reason, we invite you to continue training to be up to date with the latest technology.
Also Read: Digital, An International Development Accelerator