Online learning isn’t a new phenomenon, this we know. But we bet you didn’t know that it can have some huge benefits to your health, wealth and overall happiness!
Here we look at five ways online learning has the ability to change your life for the better.
1. Online Learning is Good for Your Health - Fact
In Britain’s most comprehensive survey of online learning, leading British thinktank Demos were supported by Google to research the benefits of online learning. They found some compelling evidence to suggest that online learning isn’t only good for your career, it’s also great for your mental health and general wellbeing! In ‘The Learning Curve: How the UK is Harnessing the Potential of Online Learning’, 77% of people who were studying online found that online learning benefitted their mental happiness.
And as much as studying from home can help you to stay safe from the current global health threat of coronavirus or alleviate some of the cabin fever if you are self-isolating, there are plenty of other ways that learning from home can positively affect your health.
Just knowing that you are pursuing a dream or studying something which may have always been a hobby can be massively beneficial to your mental state. Taking the time to actually go back and complete your education can give you an immense amount of satisfaction if you’d always wanted to get a degree but life got in the way. If you’re doing a day job you hate or find boring, returning home to work on your passion can be the best part of the day. Many of our students comment that it never feels like working – it feels like fulfilling a brilliant ambition!
2. You’ll Earn A LOT More Money!
Another fact from The Learning Curve is that people who study online add an average of £3640 a year to their salary. Amazing right? This is the equivalent of adding £2 to your hourly wage. This also doesn’t take into account the salary spike once you graduate which can add at least another £10k to your salary. When you study online, you’re adding to your skillset, learning skills which your current role doesn’t necessarily require but something which will give you the edge over your competition. This can be crucial when it comes to getting that promotion or applying for a higher paid or better job. You can even use online learning to change careers. Close to a quarter of people who had completed a ‘home study’ course did so to train for a job in a different industry. So if you’re an engineer with a passion for motorsport or an automotive tech within a main dealer or small garage, studying an online degree can help give you the skills needed by motorsport companies looking for qualified graduates.
You may also want to speak with your employer about using time at work to study. Many employers offer time out of work for CPD courses or will even help fund your studies. The benefits to your employer are two-fold. One, they get a better skilled workforce (let’s not forget, skilled engineers are highly sought-after) and it increases employee happiness! Why wouldn’t they love it? Studying online means that you can learn from anywhere too so you can learn in the lunch room or set aside some time when you’re at the track for a weekend.
Our distance learning motorsport engineering degrees are taught at a professional level so whether you are looking to get your first job in the industry out of College, University or an Apprenticeship, our courses will prepare you for that steep jump in expected experience.
“The more you learn, the more you earn” – true story!
3. You’ll Get to Spend More Quality Time with Your Family
The majority of our students are aged between 22 and 45. Just the age where many of your will have or be starting a family. Even if you don’t have children, you may have other people who depend on you on a day to day basis. One of the best things about studying online is the ability to fit your studies in around your home life. Learning online means that all of your course materials and research can be accessed at any time, from anywhere. If you have young children, it may suit you to study when the kids are in bed. Not being tied to a classroom or timetable gives you the freedom to study where and when it suits you.
Going ‘back to school’ can be a difficult and daunting decision to make. Not many people can afford to quit their current responsibilities to focus on that dream job. For many adults, studying at home, or online in general, can be the only real option. Though it can be tough sometimes when you get home from work already shattered, it is well worth pushing on through the pain barrier. The freedom of part time, flexible study makes improving your career opportunities ten times easier than attending a physical university.
Studying with the National Motorsport Academy, you can start your course at any time, work through modules at your own pace and you even get time off for holidays. In short, learning at home is designed for people with busy lives. It offers a great deal of flexibility which, let’s face it, we all need and expect nowadays. You won’t get that if you have to attend lectures.
4. You Can Qualify Faster
Being able to start your motorsport engineering degree at any time means you can qualify or complete your course much faster. As you all know from being at school, the traditional academic calendar runs from September to July or slightly earlier for colleges and universities. Studying at home means that you’re not tied to the constrictions of conventional (in our opinion antiquated) ways of learning. Learning online is liberating and a hell of a lot more interesting. Here at the NMA, our busiest times are your quietest times. People start our motorsport courses in the Summer break, off-season and even over the Christmas period.
Unlike many other distance learning courses, with the NMA you don’t have to wait for all the other students to catch up or a specific date when your next assignment is released, it’s all there ready and waiting for you in your Virtual Learning Studio. We don’t control your pace of learning, you do. This means that if you have the extra time, you can complete your course in less time than it would take at a physical college or university.
Just because you’re learning online it doesn’t mean that you don’t get to know your tutors. Each tutor specialises in a different area and you’ll make contact with each of them throughout the course. They are also available for Skype calls, emails and phone calls, even in the evenings or early mornings. Team NMA is the in-house race-team which participates in the GT Cup. If you’re not already in the industry, this is the chance to get hands-on. You’ll meet the tutors, putting a face to the name and getting hands-on instruction at a real race weekend. You’ll also get the opportunity to meet other students. This peer support can be great when it comes to easing the pressure of juggling life with a degree.
Top Tip: Pick a time to start your online course when you have enough time to immerse yourself for a couple of nights in a row or a few hours where you can explore the Virtual Learning Studio, the online resources and get to grips with a different way of thinking. Online learning can become a little addictive when you’re passionate about a subject so although you can learn at your own pace, we promise you that you’ll enjoy every second! If you haven’t been in education for a few years, it can take a while to get used to the academic way of working. Our tutors can also help guide you through this shift in thinking.
5. You’ll Save A LOT of Money
It may sound obvious but learning online is cheaper because we don’t spend money on physical premises for you to attend. Online learning means that we aren’t printing reams of paper which ultimately gets thrown away. We don’t have to heat lecture halls, of employ teams of cleaners. This is why we can offer our BSc Motorsport Engineering and MSc Advanced Motorsport Engineering are up to 40% cheaper than physical universities.
If you’re studying at home, it means we get to spend valuable resources and funds on the important stuff such as the Virtual Learning Studio, experienced tutors who have actually worked in the motorsport industry and most importantly, scholarships for progression for current students. As part of a not for profit Education Foundation, the NMA offers scholarships to students progressing from the BSc onto the MSc.
You don’t have to stop working to study online. You also don’t have to pay for travel or childcare. This is modern learning for modern lives. It’s on-demand education. As and when you want it.
So, if you’re trying to decide between an online course where you can study at home, or waiting until September to get started, consider this:
You’ll earn more money, save more money, spend more time with your friends and family, complete your course faster AND improve your health and happiness if you study from home! What more can we say??
