Continuous learning is the career catalyst everyone needs. Regardless of your field, you must adapt, innovate, and cultivate new skills to stay relevant in the workplace. Skillshare is a transformative platform for the insatiably curious.
However, traditional educational institutions might only sometimes offer the flexible, hands-on experience that today’s creative minds crave. Enter Skillshare. This online learning community is a dynamic digital space where instruction and continuous learning happen.
Learning Curve, an education software pioneer with many years of experience in South Africa and beyond, has brokered a special arrangement with Skillshare featuring an 80% saving for African students. Featuring some 4500 Adobe courses, the Skillshare package also contains many other skills courses suitable for the design and creative world.
About the CTCA
The Cape Town Creative Academy is an environment that celebrates the individual and helps its students develop in-demand skills. CTCA is where complex problem-solving, critical thinking, creativity, emotional intelligence, teamwork, and cognitive flexibility can be found. Its registered and accredited degrees in communication design, motion design, interaction design, and contemporary art focus on the individual, above all, helping its students develop career-ready skills that will allow them to shape the future rather than live in it.
Skillshare brings continuous learning
Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people. Topics include illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more. On this platform, members come together to find inspiration and take the next step in their creative journey. Learning Curve is proud to offer African students this much-needed modern resource.
With Skillshare, creating can be a force for growth, change, and discovery in people’s lives. Its lectures and educational videos focus on interaction and help students achieve their learning goals by completing a project.
The main course categories include creative arts, design, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, and technology. Skillshare courses help close the professional skills gap by providing universal access to high-quality learning. Learning Curve successfully provided Skillshare licences and support to the CTCA, marking a productive partnership.
Walt Wonderwolk, Programme Coordinator for Interaction Design at CTCA, speaking on how Skillshare has impacted the learning outcomes of his students, “Some of my students excited to spend time on it learning just makes me feel more secure in the notion that our students have the resources available to them to bolster their knowledge and skills and become excellent.”
Inspiring discovery through creativity
At its core, Skillshare is more than just a platform. It embodies the philosophy that creativity is a driving force for growth, change, and discovery. Whether you’re a student trying to hone your craft or a lecturer seeking to infuse your curriculum with fresh perspectives, Skillshare’s vast repository of classes offers a treasure trove of knowledge. Covering a spectrum from illustration to video production, there’s no limit to the creative horizons you can explore.
Commenting on the platform’s usability, Wonderwolk says, “I appreciate the home UI that allows you to seamlessly jump back into courses you are busy with – useful progress indicators and disclosure of remaining time and lessons help manage students and help them complete classes. The class setup itself is also a good example – it is not just video-based but includes a discussion form and the ability to do and submit projects for feedback from the teacher. It is much more personable than just straight-up learning tutorials!”
A community-driven approach
What sets Skillshare apart is its emphasis on interaction and community-driven learning. Courses aren’t mere lectures but immersive experiences where learning is achieved through projects. This ‘learning by doing’ approach resonates deeply with the arts and design ethos, enabling students to gain knowledge and apply it in tangible, meaningful ways. By the end of a course, you don’t just acquire a new skill, but you often have a masterpiece to showcase.
Empowering all stakeholders
Skillshare’s model isn’t just beneficial for students. It offers a dynamic platform for teachers to share their expertise, derive earnings, and give back to the community. Moreover, it’s not confined to certified educators. Any professional with valuable insights can transition into a teacher, democratising the flow of knowledge. Meanwhile, employees at Skillshare are encouraged to be inquisitive, make a significant impact, and lead fulfilling lives, ensuring that the platform’s core remains innovative and vibrant.
Beyond the conventional classroom
For the graphics, arts, and design schools at university and college levels, Skillshare presents an opportunity to complement traditional teaching methods. It can serve as a supplementary resource, providing students with diverse perspectives from global professionals. We explain more about the importance of digital literacy here. Moreover, Skillshare’s emphasis on practical, project-based learning is invaluable for institutions focused on producing industry-ready graduates.
Walt Wonderwolk on which features of Skillshare he appreciates, “There are so many. Firstly, the learning categories for creative skills are so numerous, one cannot help but to get excited. It feels like Skillshare is particularly aimed at us and I recommend using it to my students as often as possible because I see the value in learning from the Skillshare teachers who are masters of their respective crafts.”
The bottom line
Skillshare bridges the gap between professional aspirations and personal passions. It is more than just a platform; it inspires and allows students to fuller, more creatively charged lives. Students can produce much richer portfolios with diverse projects. Lecturers can boost their teaching efforts and outcomes with enhanced learning materials that students can use on their terms. Empowered by Learning Curve, Skillshare helps close the gap between formal education and real-world skills.