5 of the Most Profitable Skills to Learn in 2022 — For Free.

By Miriam Karanja

If I asked you to list 5 of your most Marketable Skills today, what would you say? No, really, think about it; What makes YOU marketable? You just went into stunned silence, didn’t you?

Before we get into the definition of what Marketable Skills are, I think it is important to note that while job hunting, very few people know the different types of skills required. Hiring managers know. Recruiters know. Sourcers know. Employees, not so much.

Getting the different types of skills straight and knowing exactly what the recruiter is asking for not only helps you with your resume and applications but also helps you nail the interview.

To Do: Google the difference between: Hard Skills , Soft Skills Transferable Skills & Marketable Skills

Today, we focus on Marketable Skills.

Marketable skills can be defined as hard skills you already have that employers want most. Marketable skills are not necessarily the five things in which you have the most experience. These are five hard skills you have that are the most desirable to employers right now.

The job you are applying for will also determine greatly your Marketable Skills.

Here are 5 of the Most Profitable Skills to learn in 2022:

Graphic Design

Very few of us can do what Victor does, but you know what, we can learn & we can make money off of it.

Graphic designers create the visual elements of both online and offline advertisements. They are the logo creators, banner designers and artists who create images that sell products.

How you can use this skill: Graphic design is a highly marketable skill. You can hang out your shingle as a freelancer or work for an ad agency, newspaper or magazine. Anything that requires a visual element requires a graphic designer. There are multiple freelance sites to display your work and land jobs portfolio.

How you can learn this skill: Youtube University will always be a great source of information for anyone who wants to learn anything. However, if you want a more detailed course, you can always check out Canva, Udemy, SkillShare and any other certified online resource.

Web Development

Web developers are the technical gurus behind websites. They are versed in CSS, JavaScript, and other platforms like Joomla or Ruby on Rails and can build a website without a website builder like WordPress or Wix. This is a much more technical approach to websites than web design.

Microsoft boasts some of the highest median wage salaries for web developers in the corporate sector.

How you can learn this skill: Online classes will teach you the technical skills encompassed by web development.

How you can use this skill: This is an excellent skill for freelancers. There are jobs for web developers at most major companies as well. However, if you have the resume and work experience to back up freelance pricing, you can make even more as an independent contractor.

Writing

Writing is one of the most in-demand skills for job seekers and will increase your value immensely for almost any position.

Writing skills are required for both external and internal communications, including reports, presentations, blogs, web content, white papers, and more. Even if you’re pretty good at it, you could probably get better.

How you can learn this skill: Read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, there are also online resources like the Academic and Business Writing course from the University of California Berkeley. https://www.edx.org/course/academic-and-business-writing

Online Course Creation

Online course creation is where you create an online course and sell it to people who want to learn about what you know and how your knowledge can fix other people’s problems.

How you can learn this skill: You can learn how to create a course and increase your yearly income by following the tutorials on any learning platform such as Udemy. Each specific platform has its course creation method, and other software companies have course-builder software you can implement on a website.

How you can use this skill: Once you learn how to use the various tools to create online courses, you can sell course creation services to those who have the expertise but do not have the technical skills to complete a course. If you have any skills as a video editor, you can quickly push yourself into the next income bracket with a substantially higher income.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is when you write informative content and sell the content itself or sell advertising on the site you’ve created content for

How you can learn this skill: If you have graduated from high school, you have the skill required to become a content creator or content marketer. You don’t even have to have expertise in something to create content. You need common sense and the ability to research any given topic.

There are also online companies that will provide specific training in content marketing from a business perspective, but the base skills are research and writing.

How you can use this skill: You are a content marketer if you can write compelling content that will bring people to your website to sell them e-books or advertise on your site. This is closely linked to affiliate marketing, but the difference here is that the content you are selling is your work, not the work of others.

While we are almost done with the Q1 part of the year, it is never too late to learn something new. The above courses can be learned in less than 6 months if you dedicate at least 2 hours of your time each day to learning.

Start today!