Every contractor knows that professional and skill development are crucial parts of their careers. To stay competitive and desirable, contractors need to continually update their skills to win the best contracts.
Seeking out training and skill development opportunities opens up many new opportunities for contractors. From opening up new contract opportunities and filling skills gaps to offering more value to the client, there are many reasons contractors should continually sharpen their skill sets in order to stay competitive.
In this guide, Umbrella Search outlines our top tips to help every contractor develop their skills and career in 2024.
Set out your objectives
Whatever industry or sector you contract within, contractors will always identify areas for improvement.
Whether it’s new technology you need to master, a set of specific skills you need to learn, or a training course that would be beneficial to advancing your career, there’s always something to learn, but it can be difficult to know where to start.
We would advise that contractors start by researching any training that would help their careers. Then, you can make a list of all the courses in these areas, whether online or in person. Once you have a list of courses, rank them in order of priority. After all, taking on too much at any one time can be overwhelming, so start with your top one or two courses.
Work out how much money and time you can realistically spend carrying out these courses in order to ensure you can commit to the plan.
Training courses
Now you have identified what training courses you need to attend to upskill, it’s time to start learning.
Some contractors will find training courses they can attend locally in places like higher education institutions. Others may struggle to find suitable courses near them, which is where online training courses come in handy.
Online training courses have become an increasingly popular option, allowing you to learn at your own pace and giving you access to thousands of courses from the comfort of your own home.
There are many courses out there to suit all budgets.
For those on a tight budget, it is worth checking out resources such as Edx.org or FutureLearn, which are libraries of free courses created by the universities, or Udemy, which offers thousands of courses across all industries aimed at upskilling.
If your budget stretches a little further, you may want to consider paid courses cation opportunities such as those offeredoffered up by the likes of the Open University where you can obtain diplomas, postgraduated, and master's degrees in your chosen specialism.
Networking
As well as enrolling on training courses, another invaluable way of developing your career, learning about new opportunities and keeping up to date with the latest in your industry is to network.
Networking not only allows you to make new contacts in your industry and meet potential clients, it also allows contractors to identify what’s important in their sector at the moment and identify how they can fill these skills gaps.
Contractors may find it useful to keep up to date with events and continual professional development opportunities in their local area that they can attend in order to widen and strengthen their network. This could include conferences, seminars and networking events.
As well as attending events in person, there are invaluable spaces online such as online communities and places like linkedin where contractors can network remotely.
Soft skills
In addition to identifying the hard skills that you need in order to progress further in your career, contractors shouldn't neglect the soft skills that are crucial to succeeding in the world of contracting.
Soft skills such as communication skills, listening skills, collaborating and management skills are crucial to success. These skills determine how well you work with clients and colleagues which is important for contractors who will often work in several different workplaces, meaning the need to seamlessly fit in to a new environment is key.
Contractors will find it useful to identify areas in which they can improve. This might be communication, leadership, working in teams, managing your time, problem-solving or adaptability. Whatever it is, identifying areas for improvement will mean you can take the steps towards progressing in this area. Again, you will find courses online or in person, as well as plenty of resources online to help you improve your chosen soft skills. Check out this government guide to improving your soft skills.
Now you’ve got the skills, find an umbrella company
Now you know how to develop your career and skills as a contractor in 2024, you will next need to find an umbrella company you can work well with. After all, using an umbrella company means that the contractor doesn't have to worry about time-consuming tasks such as admin, paperwork, invoicing and taxes. The umbrella company takes care of all these tasks, giving the contractor more time to develop in their careers.
Thankfully, Umbrella Search makes finding an umbrella company quick and easy. After chatting with our team, we will find out your requirements and priorities in order to find only the best and most suitable umbrella companies for you.
We do the hard work and research to find your perfect umbrella provider, freeing up more of your precious time and energy to focus on work and career development.
To see how we can help you, and to have an initial chat with our team, get in touch today.
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