To connect and interact well with other colleagues at the workplace, one needs practices or rather tools that will help them sail through this with ease. Workplace skills, career experts believe are the most important skills especially when it comes to advancing to higher-level positions. Workplace skills include verbal and nonverbal communication, empathy, self-awareness, and leadership among others. Joan Mugenzi, a career life coach says these could range from completing an online course on a specific area depending on what you are targeting as far as your area of interest is concerned. She says workplace skills help one develop a new skill set, explaining that this means that one is able to grow professionally and at the same time expand their areas of interest. Whatever skill you choose to develop, the career coach says, all depends on your area, job, and personal preferences. Developing skills could range from taking up online or in-person courses, going back to school for higher learning to learning new things at your workplace. She says that it has been indicated that in-demand skills across the job sector in 2021 include cloud computing and data analysis skills like artificial intelligence, among others. In today's competitive job market, according to Andrew E Ivang, a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine, it's so important that one keeps learning and growing whenever there is an opportunity. He says if you prioritize your career, there will be always a way of advancing it despite the tight schedules and the limited time most people have nowadays. He says workplace skills help one develop more skills and knowledge at the same time. “This can be achieved by trying to take up higher difficult roles within your organisation, which will shape you to be a successful person in the future. He goes on to explain that having a mentor at work is crucial to attaining new skills and knowledge, adding that if you find a good mentor, they will help you solve some of the challenges you come across as you learn. “As an individual, I believe in mentorship, especially when it comes to learning workplace skills. They are important to advancing your career as they can expose you to new experiences that will help you grow professionally,” he says. Mugenzi, says finding a good mentor, means one is ready to move to the next step in their career, meaning that this will not be beneficial to you as an individual, but also to those around you. She also advises that when it comes to developing workplace skills, there is a need to grab every opportunity that comes your way, especially if they are to do with learning any new skill. It’s also paramount to inform your managers or supervisors of your interests, this will help them guide or provide assistance on time as well as be able to guide you on how best you can go about any opportunity that surfaces within their organisation.
