Corporate Training Solutions Australia

There are many ways to maintain your technical skills, but it all boils down to practice.

While you can practice your skills in formal training sessions and form many new abilities, your practice needs to extend beyond a short training session. This is what our Training as a Service (TaaS) is all about. It provides you with training over an extended period of time.

This provides you with the opportunities to continuously practice your existing skills and continuously learn new skills and abilities.

Our training sessions are followed-up with our Save a Million Minutes email series – helping you to remember all the features and shortcuts that Microsoft Excel and Word offer.

Our TaaS also offers free refresher courses so you can stay up to date with the software you use.

If you want to feel confident and proficient with your technical abilities, and want to become an innovator, learn more about our TaaS offering here: https://ctstraining.com.au/courses/taas

It is important to keep up with technical changes in the software you use so that you can maintain your technical skills.

Here are five tips to stay up to date:
1. Read the release notes that you can find in the platform, online or via email
2. Learn what is new in each version
3. Speak to colleagues and peers
4. Be part of community forums to be notified of updates from the ideas/suggestion forum
5. Sign up to the software newsletters
At least one of these methods will help you to keep up with technical changes.
Which method do you already use? Do you use another method? Let us know in the comments below.

Continuous learning is both a value and a skill.
When we generally speak about the topic, we usually are discussing the value of continuous learning and its importance in professional development.
Otherwise, when we provide recommendations on how to continuously learn we usually are discussing the skills required to continuously learning.
See - Continuous learning is both a value and a skill.
At CTSA we focus on helping you build both the value and the skill. Learn more about the value of continuous learning here: https://ctstraining.com.au/contact/update
And how you can build skills in continuous learning here: https://ctstraining.com.au/courses/taas

Continuous Learning: Skill or Value?
When you think of continuous learning, do feel that:
1. it is a value one must have to continually learn, or
2. a skill that one needs to continually learn
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Attending training sessions is one continuous learning method to build your efficiency.
Another is to continually practice the fundamental keyboard shortcuts you learn.
While you may frequently copy and paste content through keyboard shortcuts, do you know about these shortcuts?
Microsoft Excel
• [Shift] [Enter]: Moves the active cell up to the previous cell
• [Shift] [Backspace]: Collapse the selected range to the active cell
• [Ctrl] [D]: Duplicate
Microsoft Word
• [Ctrl] + click in the sentence: Select a sentence
• [Ctrl] [Delete]: Delete a word to the right
• [Shift] [F5]: Return to previous edit point
Imagine the improvements to your efficiency when you learn shortcuts like these.
This is the type of continuous learning we offer at CTSA. The above is part of our free email series called “Save a Million Minutes”.
We are so confident that you, along with your peers, will save a million minutes with these time saving shortcuts.
Sign up for the email series here: https://pkw4mbrphtv3.swipepages.net/CTSA-MM

Do you know the difference between proficient and efficient?
…
Proficiency = skilled and experienced in a task
Efficiency = good use of available resources
..
For example, to be proficient in software, you need to learn its features and practicalities.
To be efficient in software, you need to practice the keyboard shortcuts for the features you are proficient in using.
At CTSA we have built continuous learning opportunities to help you build both your proficiency and efficiency.
Learn more here: https://ctstraining.com.au/courses/taas

Last week, we shared the 4 stages to learning:
1. Unconscious Incompetence
2. Conscious Incompetence
3. Conscious Competence
4. Unconscious Competence
With continuous learning, you can move through these stages.
However!
Without continuous learning, you can easily regress through these stages and lose competence.
What is more important to you: Quickly regressing to stage 4 or maintain a stage 4 level?

Microsoft Programs release new features help you to finally stop manually completing tasks.
For example, splitting text between columns is a task that manually can take hours! Or, with literally 3 clicks, you can automatically split text from one cell over multiple columns.
Yep – that is splitting first names and last names that were exported from a platform into separate columns.
This was a feature released in Microsoft Excel 2013. But, we have seen so many people still using the manual method over the past 9 years.
Why? Because they do not attend regular training or focus on continuous learning.
Computer skills is not something that you practice once and it sticks with you. It is a skill you need to continuously practice.
Are you ready to stop feeling like you are wasting a lot of your valuable time in manual computer tasks? Enrol in one of our computer training sessions today and say goodbye to time wasters! See the full list here: https://ctstraining.com.au/courses/desktop-applications

Continuous learning starts with a reset of your mindset. Like many of the tasks that we do, if we are not in the right mindset, they are difficult to achieve.
The first step when starting a continuous learning plan is to really understand why you are commencing it in the first place.
Reflect on the following questions:
• Why do you want to continuously learn?
• What will it help you to achieve?
• How will it make you feel?
• What will it help you to avoid or stop feeling?
• How would you feel if you don’t achieve your goals?
When you feel imposter syndrome kicking in, having these answers readily available will help you to remember that it will get better through your learning, but not if you quit!
Ready to start your continuous learning? Explore the training services we offer here: https://ctstraining.com.au/courses/taas

Did you know that there are four (4) stages you go through as you learn?
Stage 1: Unconsciously Incompetent
Stage 2: Consciously Incompetent (this is where imposter syndrome kicks in)
Stage 3: Consciously Competent
Stage 4: Unconsciously Competent
As you continuously learn and practice, you can progress through the stages. The opposite is also true. The less you learn and practice, you can regress through the stages.
Now knowing this, how important is continuously learning to you?

Is there really a point in attending training if you do not work on retaining what you learnt?

This is why we at CTSA recommend regular training so that you can retain your knowledge.

Additionally, we are advocates of continuous learning. We feel that attending a one-hour training session once a year is not enough.
You need to time practice and apply the new features you have learnt.

This is part of your continuous learning. Through practice, you will retain your knowledge and skills.
To help you, we have put together a Save a Million Minutes email series that are helpful reminders of shortcut keys and time-saving features in Microsoft Programs so that you can avoid wasting time.
Find out more and sign up here: https://pkw4mbrphtv3.swipepages.net/CTSA-MM

Here at Corporate Training Solutions Australia (CTSA), we focus on providing you with continuous learning opportunities so you can stop feeling frustrated with Microsoft Programs.

Here are our top 10 tips to avoid wasting time in any Microsoft Program.

Tip 1: Practice using keyboard shortcuts
Tip 2: Practice using time-saving features
Tip 3: Attend regular training sessions
Tip 4: Stay up to date with your current version
Tip 5: Retain your knowledge and skills
Tip 6: Create the habit of sharing tips with peers
Tip 7: Read blogs and articles to stay current
Tip 8: Join community forums
Tip 9: Challenge yourself
Tip 10: Revise current work, is there a better way?

Which tip will you start with?
https://ctstraining.com.au/contact/update/10-tips-to-avoid-wasting-time-in-microsoft-programs