I recently made a post encouraging young people to try learning a digital skill (especially students at home waiting for this COVID-19 season to pass).

So, to follow up on that, I’ve compiled a list of 16 tech skills I think are the top ones to learn.

• Programming/Software Development
• Web Development
• Mobile App Development
• Digital Marketing
• User Interface (UI) Design
• User Experience (UX) Design
• Digital Product Management
• Cloud Computing
• Data Science and Data Analytics
• Data Engineering
• Data Visualisation
• Extended Reality – Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR)
• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Network and Information Security (Cyber security)
• Blockchain

Programming/Software Development

Every tech product or digital service is made possible by coding. People are seeking to create software that can solve more of the world’s problems or help people carry out different tasks, and you can learn how to build these things.

Web Development

More and more businesses are going online, setting up online stores, or creating websites that allow users engage and do business with them. Web developers are responsible for building such websites.

Mobile App Development

People spend a lot of time on their phones, and many companies are not satisfied having websites alone. They also want phone apps for easier access to their products and services. You can also build and sell your own apps that handle different tasks.

Digital Marketing

This is the most common, because with the advent of the Internet and social media, many businesses need help promoting their products, services and brand online.

User Interface Design

Have you visited a website that looked messed up and confusing? UI specialists are there to avoid such things, by designing interfaces for websites and apps to be visually appealing, flow well, and easy to navigate.

User Experience (UX) Design

Some people mix UI and UX together. Actually, UX focuses on how people will interact with a website or product and how they’ll feel about it. It involves designing a total user experience that will ensure user satisfaction with a product/website.

Digital Product Management

There has been a continuous growth in what is called ‘Software as a Service’ and and other types of digital products. These online products need people to manage them from inception, to launch and throughout their life cycle.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has to do with making computer resources available on demand over the internet; things like software, storage space, servers, etc, e.g Dropbox, Google Drive. Companies need engineers, cloud architects, or system administrators to make that happen.

Data Science and Data Analytics

You may have heard that data is the new gold. Companies gather huge amounts of data that can give them valuable insights and help them predict the future, but they need someone who can make sense of it all.

Data Engineering

Another ‘data’ one. But this one is responsible for building the tools and infrastructure that the data scientists will use to carry out their work.

Data Visualisation

Data visualization is a way to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context. For instance, by turning spreadsheets or reports into charts and graphs that can be easily understood.

Extended Reality (Virtual Reality-VR and Augmented Reality-AR)

While VR requires special hardware, AR can be built into existing smartphones and devices; eg. Snapchat filters and others. AR adds virtual objects to real world environment and is used in marketing and other fields.

Artificial Intelligence

AI is a branch of computer science that focuses on replicating or simulating human intelligence in machines. You’ve heard of robots taking over people’s jobs, right? Lol. AI is for creating computer programs that are able to automate certain human tasks.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is under Artificial Intelligence, but this one focuses on developing computer programs that can gather data, learn from the data, identify patterns & make decisions; eg. virtual assistants (Siri, Alexa), self driving cars, face recognition, etc.

Network & Information Security (cybersecurity)

You know about hacking, right? Yea, you must have suffered in one way or another from hackers who try to steal your information online. So, this is about protecting data, customer information, and keeping networks secure.

Blockchain

The first thing that comes to your mind may be cryptocurrencies. Well, that’s still part of it, but blockchain technology has other uses. Let’s just say, it is about a decentralised way of securely managing digital assets and transactions.

Which of these has caught your fancy?