This month, learning is top of mind here at WP Hosting, but we’re choosing to tackle it in a very different angle, apart from what we experienced growing up.

My daughter is sitting next to me today. She’s on her Easter break and not old enough to have been given any homework, so she’s drawing mermaids and reading chapter books instead.

Fortunately, her school gives her little homework during term time. I’d be happier if she got none at all as I think that a 7-year-old learns as much from playing as school work. Kids spend enough time at school – surely they can cover all they need in the classroom. Or, perhaps not.

I wonder how relevant some of the materials are and whether they’re learning skills needed to survive the digital age. And I’m not thinking only about coding here, but core skills such as project management, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Big words for a primary school pupil. Actually, I’m talking about the educational programme in general.

Kids need to learn… how to learn. By the time they join the workforce, they will need to continue to better themselves to be one step in front of AI and bots.

Our generation doesn’t have to worry as much about AI as the next one (unless you subscribe to Elon Musk’s thinking), but there is still great value in learning.

As Steve Sammartino says in his book, The Lessons School Forgot, people who invest in themselves now will own the future.

So, how do you invest in yourself? Indeed, you could go back to school and learn a new skill in a structured environment. You can find any kind, of course, you want online – we subscribe to Udemy to ‘learn anything, on our schedule’.

Here are some alternative methods that you, too, should consider:

• Listen to podcasts. There are over 500,000 active podcasts – find and follow a handful, not necessarily the ones aligned with your expertise. I do so when carrying out my chores at home, listening to Freakonomics Radio, Stuff You Should Know, Customer Experience Leaders and Tim Reid’s Small Business Big Marketing show. Here’s a few more you should subscribe too, care of guest blogger Adam Jaffrey of Wavelength Creative.
• Join local Meet Up groups, including ones that discuss topics at the other end of the spectrum. If you’re heavily involved in data… find a meet up of creative writers, perhaps.
• Learn something new and teach it. This will force you to unpack a subject matter to a point where you know it well enough to be able to put it together as an eLearning module, for example. Could this be part of a work project?

You can also just maintain a healthy reading habit, hoping that you’ll bookmark the WP Hosting Blog as a source to get back to regularly.

We’re kicking off the Learning theme this month with Joel Gershman’s piece on How To Rapidly Grow Your Business (Without Cutting Your Prices). Joel is based in Melbourne, has helped hundreds of businesses to prosper and he is the author of Amazon bestseller titled The Mindful Entrepreneur. He’s been kind enough to offer 12 month’s worth of FREE access to his Growth System to one of our readers. More information about this here.

We will also be covering Continuing Professional Development, podcasting and WordPress Learning Management Systems. We’re hoping by the end of April, we have helped you become a little bit wiser.