7 skills you can learn for free as a college student, if you want a good job

This is the right time for you to learn and explore new skills. It doesn’t matter what you’re studying, you need this.

If you are about to enrol in university or any institution of higher learning (IPT), you need to learn more skills that are not part of your classroom education. There are lots of skills out there but you obviously cannot learn them all.

If you are already in college, it is not too late to learn new skills and make a good impression after graduation.

Here is a list of skills that will make your resume look great and attract employers:

1. Learn how to use Photoshop; and don’t stop at the basics

Photoshop is a great tool and these days – regardless of your role – you will need to use it because you will have to edit images and fix them to fit a certain template or format.

Not to mention, if you get really good at it, you might even earn money from photoshop.

Bonus: You might want to learn Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and document editing with Adobe Acrobat.

Don’t stick to the basics. Learn beyond them. YouTube has a huge library of video tutorials to teach you photoshop skills for free. If you like, you can pay a small amount of money to get better quality courses from websites like Udemy and others.

2. Microsoft Excel

If you’re studying business, finance, accounting or just simply any other course, you need to have a great handle on Microsoft Excel and the spreadsheet solutions. Also, don’t stick to basics. Learn how to create Macros and learn about Excel VBA skills.

Again, your free solution is YouTube tutorials and Khan Academy.

3. Proficiency in another language

In Malaysia, you need the basics: English and Bahasa Malaysia. But, employers are always on the look for someone who speaks a third or even a fourth language, particularly if you are studying marketing, business, international relations and other courses.

Learning Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese, Russian, German, French and/or any other languages can open bigger doors, thus bigger opportunities.

You will have the opportunity to study extra languages in college. Keep an eye on your elective subjects and pay attention during your orientation.

If you’re already a college student, mix with the students on your campus and learn a thing or two about the different languages over there.

4. Mobile and Web Development

Do you know how to build a simple web page?

Well, if you don’t, here is a good start: Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PhP, MySQL, and other programming languages.

How much time do spend on your phone?

Keep in mind, this is the era of mobile, so prioritise learning web development for mobile devices.

You don’t have to be an IT student to do learn this. If you’re studying any course or about to study any course, this skill is very valuable. You can even start your own little business with such capabilities.

Start learning with YouTube, w3schools.com and Khan Academy.

5. Explore Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress

If you are going to develop a website, you will need a content management system like WordPress. Many websites run on WordPress because it is user friendly.

Now, if you want to learn how to use it, you can sign up for free and start your own blog. You can explore blogging, writing content and even learn about how to make money from running your own blog.

6. Social Media Management

Managing social media isn’t as easy as it sounds. There are many things to learn like how to manage a page, how to reach to bigger audience, how to connect your page to your blog, how to increase traffic, and learn about boosting social media content. There are also strategies and methods of operation that will make things much more efficient.

This is a serious field. This will be the job of the future. Average salary for social media managers is RM3,750.

7. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

This is the icing on the cake. If you know how to build websites, how to do blogging, and how to use social media correctly, you must learn SEO and how it works and how can you get the most value from it.

This skill allows your web content to appear in the first page when you search for things on Google.

This is an extremely important tool in the digital media industry.