What can I realistically learn online during lockdown?

As lockdown resumes again for the UK and furlough continues, many of us have a lot of time on our hands and nowhere to spend any of it.

Although initially touted for one month, who knows how long this lockdown will last? What we do know is that there are 24 hours in a day, and the average person spends eight of those hours sleeping, which means that leaves at least sixteen hours to fill.

 Sixteen hours! Imagine how much you could achieve in sixteen hours — especially considering how limited our options are currently. This pandemic, like lockdown, is out of our control and pretty negative all around. From where we're standing, there's no better time to take back a little control over our lives and do something positive — like learning a new skill.

But the question remains, what can you really learn online during a lockdown? After all, you can’t go to classes, and the teachers can’t come to you. If you’re "Netflixed" out, you've made it to the bottom of your reading list, or you're just feeling a bit fidgety on the weekends, maybe one of these could be for you.

A new language

Imparare le lingue e Bello — or in other words, learning languages is cool. And how cool would it be, once this is all over and global travel resumes, to take your new skill abroad and order wine in Italian, dim sum in Mandarin, or Fromage en francais?

Languages are a skill that can certainly be learned via online sessions. Video platforms are very advanced these days and allow for some very helpful interactivity. We recommend online classes. While 1-1 tutoring may work better for you, the joy of language classes is that you can learn and practice with your classmates, in addition to calling on the expertise of your tutor.

Explore our vast range of online language tutors, from German to Spanish, Japanese to Mandarin, Bulgarian to Russian.

Learn to dance

Can you really learn to dance online? In short, yes. In many cases, dance classes will teach you to mimic an action or movement, which you can then repeat in time to the music. As long as you can video call with your online dance tutor, then dance is a new skill that can very well be learned online.

It may be something specific like street dance or salsa, but as long as you can see and hear your dance tutor, and they can do the same, then this is a skill you can improve during the lockdown. What better way to celebrate the end of all these restrictions than "shakin' it" on the dancefloor?

Discover some of our online dance tutors

Become a coder

As far as up-to-date, modern skills go, they don’t get more "new age" than coding. One of the fantastic advantages of learning coding is that it can potentially open up new doors in the world of work and employment. Computer Programming skills continue to be in high demand, and according to CWJobs.co.uk, the average salary is £57,500 per year.

Coding, or computer programming, is ideal for learning online. It's never been easier, as there's a huge quantity of free resources at the disposal of both tutor and student. So, whether you want to build websites, program games, or become a cybersecurity expert, there are loads of tutors waiting to share their expertise — starting from just £20 per session.

From C/C++ to Java, HTML to Python, explore our range of computer programming tutors here.