Foundation Year Study Skills Essay: COVID-19 Impact and Skills

This essay examines the importance of study skills in higher education, emphasizing their role in personal and career development. It explores how students can enhance their skills, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to increased online learning and a focus on virtual classes. The essay highlights the significance of an attractive curriculum vitae (CV) in securing job opportunities and discusses various strategies for skill development, including virtual internships, language courses, and engagement in social groups. The conclusion emphasizes the need for students to adapt to changing environments, leverage virtual resources, and proactively acquire skills to succeed in their careers. The essay references several academic sources to support its claims.

STUDY SKILLS FOR
HIGHER
EDUCATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Study skills are the important aspect of every students life, as they will help in the
development and the improvement of personality of the students. Development and improvement
within the study skills is a long process, as learners will slowly adapt to the changing needs of
the environment. Enhancement in the skills of the students will help them in boosting their
confidence and succeed in their career. Study skills are required by every student so that they can
study effectively (Mason, 2019). Enhancing study skills will help build confidence and self-
respect among the students. Good study skills increases the competition among the students and
also helps in reducing stress and anxiety which is build by the high pressure of the assignment
deadlines. Proper time management is also required so that the students can manage their
activities and cut down the study time, by focusing better on their learning skills. This report will
provide the suggestions, which will help in boosting the CV of an individual. It is important to
have work experience and required skills which will help a student in enhancing their CV.
Attractive CV will help a student in having good impression on Human resource team and the
managers.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals are more concerned about the skills they
pertained. It is important for every individual that they enhance their skills and interests
according to the requirement within their career. Due to the pandemic everybody is forced to
stay at their homes and they have to maintain social distances with everybody. The students
which have recently passed from their universities have to rethink about their courses so that
they can move ahead with their career with no obstructions (Sera and McPherson, 2019).
For individuals it is important that they enhance their skills to succeed in their career,
thus during the pandemic many students have enrolled for online courses which are helping the
students in upgrading their skills (Bracewell, 2020). The main important part for getting a job is
attractive curriculum vitae of an individual. Organizations nowadays are highly involved in
acquiring best employees which are having several skills and are best in their fields. So for

individuals it is important that they enhance their CV, by getting some new set of skills and
techniques which will help them in getting more pay from others. The students are now opting
for virtual classes which help them in learning from remote areas or from their homes (Elfeky
and Elbyaly, 2021). Virtual trainings and internships are for short duration and they can be both
paid and sometimes not paid.
There are many students which are learning along with their current jobs. This will help
them in supporting their finances and learning at the same time. It is seen that due to high
competition among the students, they have to likely acquire new set of skills according to the
changing needs of the businesses. It is important for the students to have a real life training of
how the job is done, so that they will not face any hardships while working in their coming
future (Varank and Kuzucuoğlu, 2020). During the pandemic the students are active on their
social media sites, as they have more time to socialise with their peers and have gossips.
Due to the social interaction, the students come to know what other students are learning or what
opportunities they are grabbing. Students are engaged in exchanging their thoughts and values,
which had helped them in getting more exposure of their careers in the coming future. Students
have also worked in the time of pandemic with the local businesses. This had helped them in
learning what are the jobs which are provided by the organizations during the time of pandemic
(Gouda, 2022). The students which have passed their graduation recently are engaged in taking
voluntary work so that they can get some experience, which they can mention in their CV.
Students have also provided their services in the NGO's which had helped them in
showing their soft skills like creativity, decision making and communication. I have also
benefited from the skills which I have learned during the time of lockdown. I have also joined a
foreign language course which had helped me gaining extra points in my university exams.
Learning new languages is important as the student can enhance their CV by mentioning that
they have been knowing many languages. I have learned many skills during the time of
lockdown with the help of online learning (Villarreal and Martinez, 2018). Online learning had
helped me in learning new skills, through which I was able to interview for some big firms for
job opportunity. The managers were quite impressed by me as I was able to speak foreign
language and had cracked interview. I had also joined some social groups and NGO's which had
helped me in getting new connections and several opportunities to know new people (Mello and
Wattret, 2021). The interviewers are also happy with my communication skills and networking

ability, which had helped me in getting job. Thus the students and the individuals are
recommended to gain new skills, which will help them in excelling in their career.
CONCLUSION
From this report it is concluded that during the pandemic the students as well as all the
individuals have to stay at home. Their is no way to go to the universities and learn new skills
and enrol for new courses. Thus, the students have utilized their time in getting new skills by
virtual classes. Virtual classes have helped the students to learn from their homes and enhance
their skills and interests. It is important for the job seekers to have an attractive CV so that the
Human resource managers are influenced by the candidate.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bracewell, R.J., 2020. Investigating the control of writing skills. In Reading Empirical Research
Studies: The Rhetoric of Research (pp. 436-463). Routledge.
Elfeky, A.I.M. and Elbyaly, M.Y.H., 2021. Developing skills of fashion design by augmented
reality technology in higher education. Interactive Learning Environments, 29(1),
pp.17-32.
Gouda, H., 2022. Exploring the effects of learning abilities, technology and market changes on
the need for future skills. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning.
Mason, H.D., 2019. Evaluation of a study skills intervention programme: A mixed methods
study. Africa Education Review, 16(1), pp.88-105.
Mello, L.V. and Wattret, G., 2021. Developing transferable skills through embedding reflection
in the science curriculum. Biophysical Reviews, pp.1-7.
Sera, L. and McPherson, M.L., 2019. Effect of a study skills course on student self-assessment
of learning skills and strategies. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 11(7),
pp.664-668.
Varank, İ. and Kuzucuoğlu, G., 2020. The Effect of Learning Together Technique of
Cooperative Learning Method on Students Mathematics Achievement and Cooperative
Study Skills. Elementary Education Online, 6(3), pp.323-323.
Villarreal, V. and Martinez, A., 2018. Assessing study skills in college students: A review of
three measures. Journal of College Student Development, 59(5), pp.629-635.