In the winter months it’s often hard to motivate yourself to gain a new skill. But if you are thinking of moving jobs or changing careers, it could be the right time to get your brain in gear. Lots of us make a new year’s resolutions to change careers, but interestingly, January is actually the month in which people are least likely to make a career change. Perhaps this is because of the cold weather in the northern hemisphere, with grim, grey days which make us just want to curl up in front of the TV when we get home in the evening.

More people tend to look for work in the summer and September, which of course is also the time of year that many of them head off to evening classes in the hope of gaining a new skill which will improve their options in the labour market. However, once we reach January, the dark nights and dismal weather have drastically reduced the number of attendees.

Instead of just dreaming about your summer holiday, you could dream about a better job, and actually do something about it in January - without having to brave the elements. Getting some solid new job skills by distance learning, learning online on your own computer solves the problem of bad weather and in fact, also helps with time management as you won’t have to commit to attending a course on a specific night every week of the term. 21st century learning skills in themselves might take a bit of mastery, but taking an online training course will help you improve your it skills as well, introducing you to audio and video applications and other more recent trends.

What you decide to do will depend on a number of factors, including the type of job you are in or considering moving to,the learning resources available to you and your preferred learning strategies. Think about the job you would like to be in this time next year, whether you’re aiming for a promotion where you are currently working or looking for something completely different, do a bit of research to ascertain type of education and training would get you there most quickly. You might find that you could combine workplace training with web-based learning . it will also depend on what you want to learn – is it something specific to your profession a more generic skill like another language or some more advanced computer skills?

If you are contemplating taking up a completely new subject, choose a free course initially. It will provide an introduction to the field before you plunge into more indepth study and will give you a chance to see if you enjoy it or have an aptitude for it. This way you can avoid wasting a lot of money on a course which you hate or a subject you have little chance of mastering. If you haven’t studied for a while, check out our study tips.

Once you’ve found a course, had some experience with the subject and decided you’d like a more extensive knowledge of the topic, be sure to find out if it is properly accredited. If there are qualifications involved make sure they are valuable. Either check with the HR department where you work to see if they accept this qualification from this college, or if you are planning on professional training in another area, ring the professional body which governs the career. Then compare the course with equivalent courses elsewhere - just because it is the most expensive doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better than others and there will always be different modules and emphases within courses leading to the same end result. So make sure it fits in with your individual interests or those of your employer. Draw up a few questions and look for answers on the website. If you can’t find them, email or ring the company to ask your questions and note how quickly and how thoroughly they answer you. Is it possible to get a free lesson to try out?

Check the availability of study support and that the course will fit around your existing commitments. Start off slowly and if you find yourself enjoying the challenge, you can step things up and gain a new skill and a new profession with an online degree or even a qualification in a new profession

In many cases, students opt for an online education in order to save money. By studying at home part-time they are still able to work, and many plan to keep their full-time jobs. However, studying for an online degree will eat up a lot of time and energy and although full time work is great in theory, it may be necessary to modify your working hours as you progress through your course.

This could mean cutting back to part-time employment or taking some time out. Before starting on your degree you should look into the possibilities of flexible working. Many employers will be happy to allow you to cut back a little if the degree is going to enable you to do your job better. But if it isn’t relevant to your current occupation, you may find they are less sympathetic. It could be worth considering a move to a more accommodating company, especially if your degree would be of value to them.

You will need to be extremely well organized if you are combining an online degree with a full-time job. One of the best ways of dealing with this is to draw up a realistic study timetable. You will need to allow time for domestic tasks and where possible delegate these to other members of the family or room-mates. You will need to give up TV most nights of the week and cut your social life to a minimum. Having said that, you don’t want to burn out and so should schedule some time to relax, so that you can do things you enjoy and meet friends from time to time.

If you have children, you’ll already have childcare arrangements set up during working hours, but what will the children be up to when you are studying? You’ll have to make sure that you have a quiet place to work on your assignments and that they are safe and happy whilst you are busy. If you have to spend time at the library after work or on weekends, you need to make sure that someone is able to look after the kids. And no matter how stressed you are with the pressure of work and study, you must make time to spend with your children. If you have a partner to share childcare or will be relying on parents or friends, you need to make all the arrangements well in advance, making sure that everyone is very clear about what they’ll have to do and you should also have contingency plans for emergencies.

The college should provide a schedule with submission dates for assignments and details of exams. And you’ll need to know the procedure for late submissions, as extensions may only be allowed in unavoidable situations such as illness.

You should also check the flexibility of your degree programme. Part time programmes usually specific the number of years in which you must complete your studies and this could prove to be extremely useful if you are having difficulty balancing your time. Taking a semester or a year out could enable you to focus on earning money, which you could then save towards your final year, allowing you to cut back on work and concentrate on what is probably the most important and difficult year of your degree. And taking a bit longer over your degree could enable you to devote more time to your family.

You should also look at possible ways of funding your degree through grants, scholarships and loans. If there is any free money available, it would go a long way towards freeing up some of the time you now spend working. Scholarships and grants vary according to where you live and your circumstances. Charitable foundations often make smaller one-off payments to students in need, but these need to be investigated early – at least a year before you start your course. Also take a look at student loans as a last resort. You might find that you need to take the final year off work in order to complete your degree and get the results you want and a one-year loan will be easier to repay than a loan accumulated over four or more years.

If you decide that an online degree is the right option for you, there are many factors you need to take into consideration. One of the most important is accreditation – it is vital that you ensure that the college has accredited the course with the relevant body for accredited online courses.

Next you will need to decide which subject or subjects you are going to study. If you are aiming for a specific career, make sure you know exactly what the requirements are. You’ll find an article with the resources you need to do this at How To Find Careers Information. You can also check with the relevant professional body to ensure that your proposed subjects or modules are the best choice.

You should compare courses at different universities, as the content for a subject can vary enormously from college to college. So make sure that you choose a curriculum which meets your needs and is related to areas which are of interest to you. This is particularly important if you have a specific career goal, but it also matters if you are going into a career which accepts graduates from any discipline. I once considered doing an MA in German Literature but decided against it when I discovered that the entire course was taught in English! Studying is hard work, especially if you are doing it alongside a job or parenting, or both, and so you want to be sure you will enjoy it.

Next you should consider how long you can take you to finish your degree and how much flexibility is built into the programme. This is particularly important if you have children or are working full-time, as it may not be easy to keep up with assignments if there are rigid deadlines for coursework. Some courses are offered in modules, which usually means that if you need to, you can take time out after completing a module. This can be extremely useful if your job has busy periods during the year or if one of your children becomes ill. And if you find the pressure of studying alongside your other commitments is getting to you, you can arrange to take a break without affecting your results.

If you have not studied for a long time, you might need to enroll on some basic courses in topics such as essay writing. A good college will provide study support for students and so you should check what is available.

You’ll also need to know how the lessons will be delivered and how you will submit work, including which software programmes you’ll need. It will also be helpful to know how much time you’d expect to be online each week. This will vary, if you are studying literature for example, you’ll do your reading offline, but other subjects may make extensive use of online audio and video, which will require a broadband connection. This information will be important if you share a computer with other family members or if you have to use the library or an internet café, as it will require good planning in advance to make sure everything gets done.

To make sure that you get the most out of your online education, be sure to get as much information as possible before choosing your online degree.

If you want a new career, one of the best ways forward is to enroll on an online education class. If you are changing direction, it’s very likely that you will have to consider retraining or studying for a professional qualification. With the speed at which technology is evolving, everyone is going to have to get used to the idea of life-long learning and most of us can expect to retrain several times in our lives. Unfortunately, many people are put off by the prospect of years of study and in some cases look back to bad experiences at school, afraid they’ll have to go through the same humiliation again.

However, things have changed, and although degrees and professional qualifications still require a lot of study, learning options are much more flexible. And teachers are trained to understand the needs of adult learners, to differentiate lessons to accommodate students with varying ability, differing levels of existing knowledge and different learning styles. Difficulties with learning, especially dyslexia, are now recognized and special provisions are made to help students overcome resulting problems. This is a big change and is opening up all sorts of opportunities for many adults who were branded stupid when they were children by teachers who didn’t understand dyslexia and were extremely insensitive.

If you didn’t get far with education and were told you were stupid because you found reading and writing difficult, you probably knew this wasn’t true. But it still held you back in terms of studying for the career you wanted. If this applies to you, and you ae frustrated by your career limitations, think seriously about studying now. With the right support, you will be able to overcome the problem, and with online learning, you don’t need to quit your present job while you train for the next one.

Thanks to the internet, it is now possible to study part-time without leaving home, by following an online learning program. In fact, online degrees are now so popular, that over one and a half million students are currently enrolled with online universities.

The advantages of online learning are many, giving students the opportunity to fit their studies around other commitments – not only a full or part-time job, but also taking care of children or other family members who are ill or elderly.

The disadvantages of online learning are that you will miss out on the experience of campus life, with its emphasis on socializing and additional student activities. Also, you will miss out on direct contact with professors and other students.

However, many students feel that the lack of student life is not such a bad thing, as it removes the temptation to drink too much, stay up too late or generally waste time which could be spent learning.

And being able to study in your own time, at your own pace and in your own home goes a long way towards making up for the lack of direct contact with teachers and students.

The biggest advantage for most people is financial. Fees for virtual lectures may be the same as those for real ones, but the fact that you can keep your job alleviates the financial pain and avoids the prospect of long-term debt after graduation, which is an enormous plus for most people. In fact, a growing number of young people are opting for part-time online study to avoid having to spend half of their lives repaying student loans. If you’d like to read some more free articles about online learning options, go to Online Degree.