Must Learn Digital Skills for School Students

Important Digital Skills for Students: As we mark the beginning of a digital era, gaining skills that help you survive and create money through the use of digital applications becomes necessary. Every profession has shifted or is on the verge of shifting to the use of digital applications, skills, and technology. In today’s day and age, acquiring digital skills is crucial for better jobs, better knowledge, and a better understanding of the functioning of the world. But, let us first understand what digital skills are and how they can be important for students.

What are digital skills?

Digital skills can be defined as the ability to work online. Using digital applications and technological devices such as smartphones or computers, to do work online through digital mediums is called digital skills. It involves finding, using, analyzing, creating, and disseminating information or content digitally. Digital skills stay away from manual handling of things. With time, there has been a major shift from manual work to digital work. Companies look for students with digital skills while hiring new candidates.

Importance of Digital Skills

Since we live in the 21st century, it is important to possess skills of the current times. At present, having knowledge about something is not enough. Students should have the capability of practically putting that knowledge into practice and be able to bring something fruitful to the table. Let us now discuss what are the importance of digital skills:

• The most vital role of digital skills is that they get you high-paid jobs and positions at reputed companies around the world. Nowadays, possessing some digital skills is mandatory for students to get jobs.
• It keeps you updated and relevant in accordance with the current world. You don’t lag behind or miss out on opportunities due to a lack of digital skills.
• Opens doorways to new opportunities and job roles. If you ace a digital skill, it can be an additional benefit to your CV and might open new opportunities for you.
• Digital skills bring self-growth. People don’t always learn things to derive some benefit from it. Sometimes, gaining knowledge is important for your self-growth. If you know basic digital skills then you don’t have to depend on someone else for getting your work done.
• Digital skills ease your life since you can make effective and efficient use of technology available to you.

Now that we have understood what digital skills are and why they are useful for students, it is time to know which digital skills must be learned by every student before completing high school. These skills can prepare you better for the competition that you will have to face soon after finishing your school. We have also provided information about where you can learn these courses and how much they cost. Also, find out what career paths can be chosen by students after possessing these digital skills.

 Must-Learn Digital Skills for High School Students

1. Social Media Marketing and Management- Our lives are completely intertwined with social media. From the start of the day till the end of it, people spend most of their time on social media apps. As we all know, companies want to be where their people are, so they have started using these social media platforms as a tool for marketing and promotions. Social media has opened the way for multiple job opportunities. Students should not limit themselves to using social media platforms for chitchats and posting updates, they should utilize their interest and learn the art of social media management and marketing to excel their career in this domain.

Source: Freepik

Online Courses: Introduction to Social Media Marketing by Meta (17 hours), Social Media Management by Meta (less than an hour).  

Cost: Free

Career Path: Learning social media management and marketing can help you make careers in Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Influencer, Copywriting, and Media Planning.

2. Digital Marketing- Digital marketing is the most crucial form of marketing, as of now. It is a larger umbrella and covers aspects of social media marketing as well. Students should learn the art of digital marketing to excel in their career domains since this digital skill possesses a lot of career potential.

Source: Pixabay

Online Courses: Foundations of Digital Marketing and E-Commerce by Google (18 hours)

Cost: Free

Career Path: Digital Marketing, Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing

 3. Web Development - This is an essential digital skill for students in high schools. It is a critical course but should be learned by every student. At the initial stage, the course will deal with teaching students about the development of websites. As you take a step ahead, it starts with app development and coding.  

Source: Adobe Stock

Online Courses: Web Design for Everybody: Basics of Web Development & Coding Specialization by University of Michigan (For 2 months at 10 hours a week)

Cost: Free

Career Path: Project Management, Computer Programming, Applications Developer, Game Developer, Web Content Manager

4. Graphic Designing- Another essential digital skill for students to learn is graphic designing. This skill is required in every company for packaging, marketing, promotions, and more. It can be added as an additional advantage when you apply for jobs since it is an important role.

Source: Freepik

Online Courses: UX Design by Google (6 months at 10 hours a week)

Cost: Free

Career Path: This skill can help you become a Graphic Designer, Creative Director, Multimedia Programmer, Web Designer, Animator, and Illustrator

5. Video Editing- The consumption of videos has increased manifold, over the past five years. The public has started consuming content in the form of videos. Companies have also indulged in the art of marketing through videos. Video editing is a critical activity. It might look easy but is exhaustive work to do. Since we are living in a world that relies on video consumption, it is important for students to know about video editing.

Source: Pexels

Online Courses: The Art of Visual Storytelling by University of Colorado Boulder

Cost: Free

Career Path: Video Editor, Content Developer, Film Editor, Multimedia Designer, Broadcast Engineer, Videographer

These are some basic digital skills that students must learn before they pass their 12th. Learning these skills and owning certificates in these domains can increase your chances of getting a job, open your interests in various fields, and create a good impact on your CV. The courses mentioned above are free of cost for students to easily learn these skills. We hope this article proves to be useful for you. For more educational informative content, keep tuning in to Jagran Josh.