Transferable digital skills you can apply from your personal life to work

We look at some of the digital skills you may make use of regularly in your personal life that you can also apply to your role in adult social care

If you don’t work in a digital, data and technology role you may not think of your role as being digital, and you may not think of yourself as being particularly digitally skilled. But in fact, digital technology can be applied across most roles and if you’re using digital regularly in your personal life you probably already have lots of digital skills that you can apply to your role. Whether you’re a regular Facebook scroller, or you use your Alexa to check the weather or how many days it is until Christmas – knowing how to use these tools provides you with some great digital skills you can apply at work.

Have a look below to find out more about transferable digital skills you could apply to your role.

Managing social media profiles

If you use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, or any other social media platforms regularly you’ll already have many of the skills needed to use these platforms for work. You know how to create new posts, how to tag posts with relevant hashtags, how to add images or videos to your posts, and how to use the direct messaging functions. Having social media channels for your organisation which you regularly keep up-to-date is a great way to keep people – whether that’s relatives of the people you support or potential new colleagues – up-to-date with your organisation’s achievements and values.

Taking and editing photos

For many of us, rarely a day goes by without snapping a photo with our phones. Thanks to the different pre-set filter options on most phones and on photo sharing apps like Instagram, editing photos has also never been easier. You might not think much about the photos you take of your family, pets, and weekend activities but every time you take, edit, and share these photos you’re developing your skills of how to capture a good image. Bring your photo skills to work to regularly capture engaging photos of activities at your organisation which you can share on your social media, website, brochures, and other communication materials.

Sending emails

Sending and receiving emails is something you might have been doing for many years now, and being able to apply your email skills at work makes communication with colleagues and stakeholders quicker and easier. Being familiar with using emails will also mean you have lots of wider administrative computing skills – such as typing, organising files, and navigating different interfaces – that you can apply to other computer-based tasks at work too.

Creating word documents and spreadsheets

Whether it’s to-do lists, budget tracking or creating invites for your birthday party. If you regularly create word documents and spreadsheets to manage your personal affairs, you’ll have all the basic understanding of these tools needed to be able to use them at work too.

Using digital assistants

If you use Alexa, Google Nest, Siri or any other digital assistants to ask questions or perform activities you’ll have a good understanding of how assistive technology can work and how it benefits people. These skills means that you can support with introducing tools such as Alexa into your organisation for use by the people you support. Being familiar with these everyday digital assistants will also provide you with the basic grounding to be able to easily learn more about other assistive technology – such as falls prevention technology – which could innovate the way you support the people who you provide care and support to.

Streaming music and video

If you regularly use Spotify or YouTube, you’ll be familiar with the concept of streaming music and videos. You may even be adept at creating different playlists and watchlists to suit different moods and events. You can use these skills and experience in your workplace by setting up playlists for each day and providing access to apps such as Spotify and YouTube for the people you support – showing them how to use these services to find entertainment tailored to their different interests.

Filming your own videos

As well as watching videos, you may also enjoy capturing your own videos. If you use your phone to capture clips of what your children, partner or friends are up to you’ll already know the fundamentals of video production. You may even be adept with editing videos – such as cutting the length, adjusting the speed, or adding music over your videos. Using this knowledge, you can create videos of your organisation to share on social media and other platforms. You can also share your skills with the people you support so that they can enjoy capturing their own videos too.

Find more information and support about building your #DigitalConfidence on our spotlight page.

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