E is for Eskwelabs Issue 062 - Skills to Develop for Going through Change and Overcoming our Fears ❤️🧠
In our sixty-second issue, we talk about the changes and adventures we’ve been on in the past three months, and the skills and muscles we developed to power through.
We created this newsletter to keep our alums, partners, and anyone interested in learning skills for the future of work updated and connected to our ever-growing organization. If you want to read our previous issues, you can check them out here.
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hi everyone, it’s Francine here! 👋 I have enjoyed seeing and reading your positive reactions to our monthly themes this year. So closing October’s theme “Crossroads” is extra special for me and the team, because we get to share a bit of our team diary from the past three months. We’ll pair these updates with skills you can add to your change management toolkit. The least surprising thing about life is that it is full of surprises.
To our international learners, we hope you can send us photos of the changing leaves in your area. To our learners here in the Philippines with us, feel free to send us a picture of the sky out your window at the time you’re reading this issue. May this prompt and this newsletter issue remind us all that change is constant in this world, and we face a crossroads every day: To flow with joy or to strain with pain.
What’s in this newsletter:
📚 Understanding the types of learning crossroads
🎨 Collaborating with AI to make Eskwelabs art prints and branding
💼 Choosing your path: data analyst, data scientist, data engineer
🌱 Learning new skills to navigate change and overcome fears
✈️ Going on adventures with the team
READING TIME: 16 minutes
❤️ LEARNING CROSSROADS ❤️
📚 Understanding the types of learning crossroads
Scenario 1: “What kind of learner am I?”
Crossroads are defined as turning points or moments where important decisions are made. At the same time, life-changing epiphanies may also accompany those moments. Have you ever asked this question to yourself, “What kind of learner am I?” Having a deep understanding of the way you learn is crucial to any learning or career choices you make.
If you’re a learner who prefers going through content at your own pace and in a solo manner, there’s a format for you, sometimes it’s MOOCs.
If you’re a learner who prefers accountability, wants structure, and something social, bootcamps are for you.
If you’re a learner who learns theory better through reading and video, then you know to populate your learning days with that kind of content.
If you’re a learner who prioritizes application over anything else, maybe the “learning by doing” approach fits you best, and you can try project-based learning.
A quiz to help you in this scenario: Learning style
Scenario 2: “To do further studies—yay or nay?”
Learning does not have an expiration date. We will be learning for the rest of our lives, and here at Eskwelabs, this is an exciting and electrifying thought! For some, this question gets more specific when you put it in the context of pursuing a Master’s degree or even a PhD.
A few reflection questions to help you in this scenario:
Is pursuing further studies my priority in this season in life? How does it fair in comparison to other aspects of my life that I value?
How will pursuing further studies enrich my life and career?
Do I have a good understanding of myself to make this big of a decision? What are my TEA framework considerations? (Time, energy, and attention)
Scenario 3: “What new skills should I learn?”
In Issue 61, we had a section that focused on decision-fatigue and ways to overcome it. There are so many skills to learn in this day and age, and we understand if there are feelings of intimidation and paralysis. This is natural and we hope that we can help guide you via the following links below:
Links to help you in this scenario:
🎨 Collaborating with AI to make Eskwelabs art prints and branding
Eskweloves, it’s a WILD time to be alive! We're sharing the most interesting piece of content we've created to date: how we're collaborating side by side with artificial intelligence to make our visuals. 💯
Introducing Bela, Eskwelabs' Senior Brand Designer, and her piece "Designing the Future of Work using AI Text to Image Programs."
Understand the difference between DALL-E and Midjourney
Immerse yourself in a designer's thought and production process
Think about your own reflection on AI & design
See mock-ups of art prints we've made
Preview our brand new product, officially called "Learning Sprints"
☕ This 16-minute read is packed with fun visuals, links, research, and love, HAPPY READING!
❤️ CAREER PATH CROSSROADS ❤️
💼 Choosing your path: data analyst, data scientist, data engineer
Data Science Fellowship Cohort 8 alum Basty Vergara cleverly created pathways to three blog post summaries in his Journey into the World of Data Science series.
After a month of back-to-back writing, the “Choosing to become…” trio is now complete and we are so excited to share them for you potential data analysts, scientists, and engineers! Each 7-minute blog post contains the tools, skills, and responsibilities needed for each data-related path:
🖥️ Choosing to Become a Data Scientist
📊 Choosing to Become a Data Analyst
🗂️ Choosing to Become a Data Engineer
Do you want to submit a blog post to Eskwelabs and get published? Reply to this issue of the newsletter and let’s see how we can collaborate! ✏️
❤️ SKILLS FOR CROSSROADS ❤️
💼 Learning new skills to navigate change and overcome fears
🌱 Growth Mindset & the Art of Reflecting
We’ll tackle learning about the Growth Mindset by bringing the “Eskwelabs Book Recommendation” segment into this section of this issue.
📖 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck 📖
Book summary from Goodreads (shortened):
“After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset — those who believe that abilities are fixed — are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset — those who believe that abilities can be developed. … With the right mindset, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love — to transform their lives and your own.”
Book club questions for all of us:
What skill do you have right now that you used to think was not possible to learn before?
What has that learning process taught you?
How might you show empathy for people with a fixed mindset?
When you encounter them in your school, workplace, or community, how might you be kind to them and share the joy of having a growth mindset?
🌱 ESKWELABS UPDATE: Pathfinder assessment exam
As of late September and October 2022, Eskwelabs has retired the Data Analytics Bootcamp assessment exam and the Data Science Fellowship assessment exam in favor of the brand new Pathfinder assessment exam. This is a multi-faceted test designed to provide the learner with information about their data skills, how they can leverage it, and opportunities to learn with it.
The test itself is holistic, consisting of the following parts: Personal Biography, Data Skills Assessment, Data Tools and Path, Self-Evaluation, Learning Style Preferences, and Motivation.
When you apply for our programs, completing this assessment is a key step in your application. You can access this exam in the Aral-Aral for Data Analytics and Aral-Aral for Data Science free prep courses in Disco.
🖼️ Change Management
You typically hear this kind of management or process in the context of organizations. But it’s possible to apply the steps of change management in your own personal and professional life.
Change management is “a systematic approach to supporting employees and teams as an organization transitions to new processes, tools, or initiatives.” (ProductPlan)
In summary, this is one of the best illustrations of what the process looks like:
3 ways to apply this in your life:
Begin with articulating your goals.
Understand your context to ensure that achieving your goals becomes more realistic.
Create a flexible plan knowing that you yourself are a dynamic human that can and will change in this life.
🖼️ ESKWELABS UPDATE: New website & new learning management system
From July to October 2022, we embarked on a huge undertaking behind the scenes in Eskwelabs. We are overwhelmed with gratitude for the team and their agility, resourcefulness, attention to detail, grit, and growth mindset. Our work environment is highly collaborative and the result of this kind of teamwork has led to:
A brand new website design for our bootcamps
An entirely new website specifically for our learning sprints
Another newsletter with incredibly meaty thought pieces on the future of work and future of learning
Saying goodbye to an old learning management system (LMS) to a new one that serves as both a learning management system and community management system. You can access Aral-Aral for Data Analytics and Aral-Aral for Data Science in Disco right now!
Creating the Pathfinder assessment exam.
We hope you visit our freshly designed websites, newly created newsletter, and more user-friendly LMS. Feel free to comment and leave congratulatory messages to the Eskwelabs team. I’ll pass the message onto my teammates!
🤗 Community Care & Making learning a social activity
Self-care as a concept sprung from the US’s civil rights movement in the 1950’s. It also has a clear medical history. But a term not talked about enough nowadays is “community care.” Instead of getting into the medical definition of this concept, we wanted to share one practical way for you to develop this as a skill.
If you are not in the education or teaching profession:
Try making the Loving-Kindness meditation a daily or weekly habit.
If you are in an education or teaching profession:
Try starting your online or face-to-face classes with a low-effort-high-impact check-in. We’ve tried this in Eskwelabs online classes and here is a sample of how it goes.
Using 1 slide with a range of emoji faces or hearts, you can assign a number to each emoji face or heart. 1 being “I’m not feeling so good today” to 5 being “I’m feeling awesome today.”
Give your learners time to chat in your Zoom or Google Meets chat or to raise a piece of paper containing their number.
What does this do? It tells your learners that you are making the learning space safe and that you care about their well-being. That there is more to them than performance and grades.
Ice breaker length: 5 minutes or less
🤗 ESKWELABS BOOTCAMPS
🖥️ Data Science Fellowship | Cohort 11
Early bird payment deadline: February 5, 2023
Deadline for scholarship application: February 10, 2023
Deadline of assessment exam: February 20, 2023
Start of classes: March 13, 2023
📊 Data Analytics Bootcamp | Cohort 9
Deadline for scholarship application: January 6, 2023
Early bird payment deadline: January 8, 2023
Deadline of assessment exam: January 15, 2023
Start of classes: January 30, 2023
💖 Types of Empathy
Empathy is one of the most complex words in existence, because of what it means, it feels like the word itself is ALIVE. It’s a noun, yes, but it often feels like a verb. People with empathy have the ability to put themselves in the shoes of others. They have this ability to understand and share the feelings of those they’re interacting with, caring for, observing or learning about.
There are three common types of empathy:
Cognitive - Knowing the feelings of another
Emotional - Feeling the feelings of another
Compassionate empathy - Wanting to help and acting to support another
It’s crucial for Eskwelabs team members to develop the skill of empathy, at least any of the three types of empathy, because the learning experience itself is personal. Every learner we encounter is unique and beautiful. Learners bring with them their own fears and anxieties, too, for example: Will this course help me get a job? Will these skills be useful for me and worth my investment? What if I can’t keep up in the class? Why are my classmates understanding the content and I’m not?
With all these concerns, it’s up to LXDs or Learning Experience Designers to flex their empathy muscles and ensure learners have the best experience possible. We apply this in all Eskwelabs products, because our learners matter to us.
Here is a quick quiz or exercise to help you train your empathy muscles.
💖 ESKWELABS LEARNING SPRINTS
🏃♀️ Learning Sprints for L&D teams and data-ready teams
Examples of topics:
Data Storytelling and Insights
Fundamentals of Data Analytics
Core Data Analytics
Advanced Data Analytics and Machine Learning
Data for Managers
❤️ THE ROADS HAPPILY TAKEN ❤️
✅ Going on adventures with the team
✈️ DevLearn 2022 🇺🇸
Our co-founders, Angela Chen (CEO) and Aurelien Chu (COO), attended DevLearn last week. DevLearn is a US-based conference that explores the future of learning technologies. They’ll both be heading to another US-based conference Learning 2022 as well, this conference is known as the “premier event for learning leaders.”
Here’s to Eskwelabs sharing its blend of project-based learning and cohort-based learning to the rest of the world! 🌎
You can apply to be an Eskwelabs Mentor today if you want to join this upskilling movement. The more organizations, universities, and government agencies—both local and international—that we connect with, the more mentors we’d need to support our learners!
🚌 IDCP 2022 🇵🇭
Several members of the Eskwelabs team headed over to the University of the Philippines BGC last October 14, 2022 to conduct the “Data Storytelling for Designers” workshop in this year’s International Design Conference.
Eskwelabs Junior Learning Experience Designer Riz Supreme Comia facilitated the workshop with the goal of equipping over 20 learners with skills in data storytelling, generating insights and recommendations from visualizations, and working with a team to produce a data report.
Mentors include myself and teammates Julia Las, Louie Cartagena, Kim Gamboa, and Chel Esmasin. Shoutout to our Operations team Meg Ruiz and Kiana Carlos!
That’s it for our sixty-second issue of the newsletter! We hope you enjoyed it. 🎉
What did you think of this format? Let us know here. We appreciate you so much for reading!
💌 Cheering you on always,
Francine
Learning Community Manager at Eskwelabs