Employment: how computer courses and language courses, or preparatory courses can help

In today's reality of global internetization and computerization, it is hard to imagine a person who has absolutely no computer skills. Usually such an image conjures up a 90-year-old grandmother from a remote rural area. Nevertheless, such people exist even in large cities. Perhaps they once tried to learn to use a computer on their own — once, twice — decided that "computers are not for me, maybe later," and live quite happily without trying to approach a computer again.

The situation with typing is a little better. People whose work involves processing large volumes of data type fairly quickly, and yet among them less than half type "blind" with ten fingers without looking at the keyboard. Note that the average typing speed in Russia is still about 30% lower than in Europe and the USA. Do you think this is because the Russian alphabet has more letters than the Latin one and typing in Cyrillic is more difficult? Not at all. In developed countries whose languages contain more letters than Russian, typing speed is also higher than in Russia. The reason is that Russians attend various courses — for example, typing and computer courses — far less often than Americans and Europeans, where the necessary skills are taught on a fundamental basis.

How long has it been since you last took any courses? Sewing or Photoshop courses, cross-stitching classes or a foreign language course, speed-reading or Flash classes? Many of us will struggle to remember when that last happened, while at the same time the excellent ability to learn is one of the main factors that distinguishes humans from other mammals.

These thoughts lead to the conclusion that to acquire fundamental skills, knowledge, and abilities in working with computers, it would be extremely beneficial for most of us to visit an appropriate training center. There you will acquire skills that do not develop by themselves (remember those Excel formulas) and that in the most inopportune moment may be useful in the future, as well as skills you developed incorrectly and therefore insufficiently (how often do you look at the keyboard while typing?). Thanks to computer courses you will not only learn the basics of computer literacy but also learn to handle easily all devices that require connection to a PC, such as a video camera, digital camera, and GPS navigator.

Computer courses can ultimately help with finding employment, since most employers look not only at the applicant's stated knowledge but also at relevant certificates. A certificate of successful completion of computer courses in a particular program not only certifies your skills and knowledge in this area but also shows your future boss that you are capable of learning new technologies. And the ability to learn at any age is the most important factor when searching for a job.