“Never stop learning.” It’s a mantra used by many successful entrepreneurs, and for good reason.
There are many proven benefits to lifelong learning, from better self-esteem to bigger paychecks. In our recent eBook, “Efficiency Unleashed: Exploring Transformative Trends for 2024,” we looked at some of the potential solutions for inefficiency in modern workplaces. No. 1 on the list? Upskilling. We noted that employees who regularly sharpen their skills are more likely to deliver higher-quality work, bring fresh approaches to problem solving, and enjoy increased levels of job satisfaction.
In the workplace, upskilling is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s a must. As noted by the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2023, almost a quarter of jobs (23%) will change by 2027. That’s why both employers and employees need to be constantly monitoring trends and keeping pace with new developments such as AI so they don’t wake up one day and find out that their skill set is suddenly obsolete.
Here at Wrike, we practice what we preach. Our own content team has adapted our processes to accommodate the speedy arrival of ChatGPT, and the wider corporate marketing team attends a weekly ‘reading time’ meeting, where we catch up on all those industry-focused articles, newsletters, and other resources we’ve bookmarked during the week.
We are actively encouraged to seek out new opportunities for professional growth, and our recent participation in the Wrike Certified Professional program is a notable example.
Wrike Certified Professional
One of our highlights of 2023 was the introduction of the Wrike Certified Professional (WCP), which replaced the Wrike Product Mastery Silver certification. It’s a 12-hour course split into five sections:
- Getting Started (Wrike Workspace)
- Organizing and Managing Work
- Monitoring and Tracking Work
- Optimizing Your Work Process
- Personal Account Management
The WCP is ideal for people who haven’t been using Wrike that long (a minimum of 1.5 months is recommended) and want to gain hands-on experience with the platform, which can often be the best way to learn.
However, it’s also a great course for seasoned Wrikers who want to refresh their knowledge of Wrike’s software and get to grips with some features they may not have used before or be overly familiar with. That’s why we decided to give it a go!
What our marketers have to say
I’ll get the ball rolling here and say that, from my own personal experience, this course was very accessible for people with busy schedules. While many of us might be eager to upskill, it’s often too hard to find the time for something that’s not exactly deemed essential.
Because the WCP is split up into different sections, you can easily slot it into your workday. The trick is to treat it like any other task in your dashboard. Create subtasks to match the course modules, add a final due date, and use the time tracking feature to log your hours. I aimed to do about an hour every day for two weeks but I finished sooner than planned. And here’s the proof!
As any bonafide gym bro will tell you, a buddy is a great motivator. That’s why you should make training a team activity! Knowing my colleagues were undertaking this course alongside me spurred me on to complete it. Here’s what they had to say:
“The course was absolutely worth the time and I’m so glad I did it. Even though I’ve been a Wrike user for several years now, going through the course helped me get more hands-on experience with features I haven’t used as regularly, but absolutely will now. It also gave me lots of ideas about how our team can improve our processes — I definitely recommend it!”
Cheryl Johnson, Senior Manager, Content Marketing
“This course was so enlightening — and I don’t use that description lightly! I really appreciated that it paired instructional sessions with hands-on tasks so I could immediately put what I learned into practice. That really helped me learn intricacies of Wrike that are already saving me so much time.”
Emily Westbrooks, Content Marketing Manager
“This training initiative is a valuable investment in professional development, navigating the platform with a hands-on assignment session and a multiple choice session that will put your knowledge to the test. Since completing the course, I’ve used tools and resources in the platform more than ever before.”
Morgan Jones, Content Marketing Manager
Clockwise from left: Emily Westbrooks, Morgan Jones, and Cheryl Johnson
Some of our design pros even got in on the action:
“It’s a nice course with a lot of helpful information … I loved the final task/exam. It was nice to work in such a simple hierarchy and folder structure.”
Alexander Terekhov, Motion Team Manager
Learn more with Wrike
If the WCP doesn’t float your boat, there are a bunch of other courses you can check out on Wrike Discover. You can also peruse our Help Center’s knowledge base, and our resources section is chock-full of good reads if you want to set up your own team reading time session.
The best bit? Most of our training materials are completely free, which helps if you’re on a tight budget.
See you at school! 🤓
