Whether you’re keen to get ahead in your current role or are looking for a fresh opportunity, it’s always important that you stand out from those who are, effectively, your competitors. And if you seek out and take up opportunities for personal development, making yourself your own best investment, you’ll soon start to reap the rewards.
Here are just some of the advantages you can look forward to:
Earn more: Enhanced professional skills can lead to a higher rate of pay. plus other benefits.
Better job security: If redundancies are on the horizon – and recent official figures have shown the UK rate of unemployment has risen – you’re potentially less likely to be affected.
Greater career opportunities: You’ll make climbing the career ladder easier for yourself, stay ahead of the latest developments in your sector or industry, and have other critical job knowledge.
Confidence building: With the right personal development and training, you’re more likely to have the confidence you need to perform at your best, earn the respect of your colleagues and maybe even transition into a leadership role.
Helping boost profits: Ultimately, you can drive efficiency and help bring costs down within your organisation, whether that’s your own business or your employer’s.
Here are a couple of ideas for investing in yourself which you may not previously have considered:
**1.** **Teaching assistant training**
According to Schools Week, three in four headteachers are struggling to recruit teaching assistants. So if you train as one of these educational professionals, you’re likely to be in demand.
Certified teaching assistant courses can often be done via flexible home study so that they fit around other areas of your life. What’s more, you can often enrol at any time of year, and get cracking when it suits you, without having to fit in with the academic year. For some courses, you may need to be already working or volunteering in a school, other may offer entry-level training.
Plus you’ll get all the support and tuition you need to become a fully-fledged teaching assistant and start working in a school. Just check that you choose a training provider which has been properly accredited by a body such as OFQUAL.
**2.** **See what a wellbeing coach could do for you**
A wellbeing coach can help keep you on track for success, and ensure that the decisions you make for your career are the right ones. It’s about you taking responsibility for your life, wellbeing and circumstances as well as your own actions and choices.
There are so many areas a coach can help with, including recognising stress and its causes, developing self-awareness, building confidence, setting and meeting realistic goals and striking the right balance between your personal and professional lives, thus reducing the risk of burnout.
More broadly, wellbeing coaches are probably most effective when used as part of a robust workplace wellbeing strategy, and so it’s a good idea to identify any gaps in your current provision first.
But, ultimately, you’ll be investing in yourself – the best investment you’ll ever make to improve your own life and that of those around you.
