Nowadays, a lot of young people say that they don’t have enough time. And this usually strikes me because we all have 24 hours in a day and yet, we think that time is what is limiting us from fulfilling our dreams and goals. My name is Surobi and I am a 14-year-old teenager and I’m not going to lie to you when I say that I think I have some extra knowledge outside of my school curriculum thanks to the free facilities I have around me.

By using these free skills, I have been able to make my own podcast, website and build 2 Instagram pages that are growing.

Before you think about starting to learn a new skill, you need to ask yourself three questions:

• What skill do you want to learn?
• Do you have time to learn this new skill?
• What value will it add upon you?

If you feel that you need more time, get your priorities straight, remove your distractions and build a routine. It may be difficult at first but you will stand out.

So here are the 5 TOP FREE ways you can learn new skills.

YouTube

Absolutely the best way that I could think of to learn free skills was YouTube. YouTube is where you can watch free videos and little do many teenagers know that there are so many skills and knowledge available. Even if you can’t decide on any skill right now, you could watch documentaries and also speeches like TEDTalks. One of my best shows that I watch is Dragon’s Den, where I have learnt key terminology like ‘net profit’ ‘margin’ ‘turnover’. You have no excuse to learn at least one new skill if you have YouTube.

Free Apps

Many apps nowadays are absolutely free and getting the premium version is not really necessary. Duolingo and Memrise are great examples for those of you who want to learn the basics of a language. If you want to memorise a religious book such as the Quran or the Bible there are free apps out there with the whole text. You can learn from these apps from 5 minutes a day to hours, the choice is yours.

Volunteering In Your Local Community Or School

Some people don’t realise the potential of their own local community or school. If you especially live in a developed country, your borough or school may be holding events for young people which you may not even know. Try to research about your borough or ask one of your teachers about clubs and if you find some events, ask your parents if you can join them. For example, some boroughs/schools have a basketball club, drama club and other activities to teach and give opportunities to young people.

Blog Posts

How many times have you not known something and you Googled it? If so, you may know the wide access to blog posts that are absolutely free. In fact, you are reading about how to learn new skills in a blog post right now. Some say that you can even learn how to master using Microsoft Excel through a number of free blog posts that are out there.

Free Courses And Audiobooks

A lot of people think that the only way to get access to a SkillShare class or a Udemy course is to pay but some recommend to start with the free trial and if you really like it, you can actually pay later. If you are a teenager with a budget, you could save up some money if you really like the free trial but if you can learn what you need within that free trial, that’s not wrong too.

These were some of the ways you can learn free new skills. I am very privileged to be able to buy facilities if I need to but I understand other teenagers may not be able to do that.  Use these tips to your own risk as it is your choice. And remember, that you should never give up because that is just not worth it. Stay safe, happy and well.

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!