It might never seem like the right time to learn a new skill. There’s always other jobs that can get in the way, and there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get it all done. If you’re wondering about the future, and aren’t sure that the path you’re taking is the right one for you, don’t panic.

Over the last few years, online training has exploded, and there’s never been a better or easier time to pick up some new skills that could develop into an entirely new career, no matter what age you are.

Sites such as Udemy have a range of courses, with everything from graphic design to accountancy. Some of these skills may be missing from your business, and it’s easy to join one of the courses to see how it fits.

Some estimates indicate that as much as fifty percent of the UK’s population feel that they’re in an unsuitable career.

Seven years ago, Donna Lubrano was working in the fitness industry as a personal trainer. Since then, she’s changed everything, and now she works for a university in Massachusetts, teaching courses to business students. She made this big change at the age of 52, and it wasn’t the first time that she had revolutionised her working life. Prior to the life as a fitness professional, she worked in the property industry, but grew bored of her role in property portfolio management.  A masters degree in international business gave her the foundation she needed to build a career in many fields, and she knew that the time had come to move on to something new.  Teaching was the way forward for her.

It’s not just knowledge work that can be learned online or in the real world.  There are many opportunities out there to get the skills needed for a hands-on career such as carpentry or building work.  Although it’s possible to take courses at specialised training companies, there are also plenty of places to learn online, the most popular of which is now Youtube.  Whole manual disciplines can be learned to a certain degree online, but you’re going to need to put in the real-world hours if you want to become an expert at any of these skills.  Anthony Gilardi operates an incredible youtube channel which takes you not just through carpentry, but many other practical skills that could help you on you way into a new career.  He explains clearly and demonstrates well so that even those with no experience can get a grounding in such trades.

A career change was on the cards for a plumber in Northwich following a 15 year role as a teacher.  Paul Barker still loved the role of being a teacher, but in spite of the famous long holidays (most of which were spent preparing for the next school year), he wanted to become his own boss  An 8 week course at a Cheshire plumbing skills centre set him off on this new path, and he’s become more more satisfied with his working life.  “I’ve always been working for someone else before this, but now I’m able to stand on my own two feet, and as long as I carry out good work, there always seems to be more business just around the corner”.

It’s never to late to change your way in life.  Get out there and learn something new today.

General knowledge is something that a lot of us can benefit from, not necessarily to finish a degree or even to be considered a genius, but because it’s something that becomes useful in day to day life. From knowing the current Prime Minister to knowing what cream works for a certain ailment, general knowledge is more than just trivia. It can help you carry out a sensible conversation in social settings and can even save your life.

But more than getting your dose of general knowledge for everyday use, you might also need tips on how to enhance it especially if you’re thinking of how to win a general knowledge quiz or how to prepare for the general knowledge section of an exam that you need to take in the very near future.

1. Variety is key.

Improve your general knowledge by adding some variety to your reading material. Reading is a sure fire way to fill your brain with needed knowledge, but what people forget is that it’s not just how often you read and how much material you end up stuffing into your brain. WHAT you choose to read also matters. For instance, when you’re super stuck in academic reading and you’re drowning in all sorts of textbook descriptions and formulas, it seems as if you no longer know what’s happening with the outside world. On the other hand, if all you read is your news feed in social media, which tends to be only the most viral articles, then you’re losing out on a lot as well. The key is to mix it up, and you can check this article to check out what kind of material you should be reading.

2. Maximise your senses.

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The important thing to remember about general knowledge is that you can find it almost anywhere. Think of your brain as a sponge that can absorb everything your 5 senses come across. To improve your general knowledge, think of all the times you’re using these senses and just be conscious about the knowledge you’re absorbing from all these interactions. Whether the little tidbit of knowledge consists of how a certain flower smells or how cold it is during a certain month in some part of the world, embrace everything as a learning experience.

3. Change the way you watch television.

We usually watch television passively and just for entertainment, but you can take a more proactive role and watch television for knowledge instead. If you’re conscious that you want to improve your knowledge, you tend to be more attuned to what you see and hear, looking at each scene differently and being strategic about what you allow our mind to absorb. Yes this means also adding variety to the shows you watch, sprinkling some knowledge-enhancing shows in there together with your favourite series or soap opera. It’s also good to watch game shows, to see what kinds of questions are usually asked.

4. Prioritise current events.

When it comes to general knowledge, nothing can prepare you better than making sure you know what’s currently happening around you. This means you have to put in some deliberate effort and even pick which medium to prioritise. You can choose to read the newspaper every single day until it becomes a habit, but you can also mix up your mediums and also include television news shows, radio, online channels, and even carrying out conversations with people who are knowledgeable. This means it might also help if you socialise more during parties and expand your current network.

5. Write it down.

As the oldest trick in the book, writing down notes is actually something we tend to take for granted these days, especially with the advent of technology. This study says that those who physically write (no, not type) down notes actually remember them better, and this is something that even the technologically savvy students of today can’t do something about. When you go about the tasks of reading the newspaper, watching television, or even your day-to-day tasks, write down the things that stick to your mind and that you think will improve your general knowledge. Writing it down will embed it in your memory far more than typing it will.

With these 5 tips to enhance what you know, you’re on your way to winning that quiz or even acing that exam. Just remember that for a lot of these tips, you need to just keep on going until the task becomes almost second nature to you. It may start off as something you’re not used to doing, but just keep on going and you’ll find your rhythm. General knowledge is something that usually stays with us wherever we go, so it will all be worth it.

How to write a pub quiz is a question many of us may be asking, especially given that pub quizzes and trivia nights are very common nowadays. When you go pub hopping, you’ll see groups of friends enjoying quiz nights and having the time of their lives.

Britain takes quizzes so seriously that in television, these shows are usually given prime-time slots. Whether this is a matter of British pride or because quizzes are simply a tried and tested way to make pub nights (and life in general) more interesting, knowing what questions to ask is the first step to ensure that everyone has a grand time.

The brilliance of the educated guess

When you ask for tips on making a quiz that’s unforgettable, you should first remember that out of the million facts you can ask about, you need to choose the ones that will stimulate the brains of your audience. This is because our brains can only take so much information, and in quiz nights, it’s not so much that we absolutely know the answer to the question per se. The excitement comes from the fact that even if you do not know the exact fact that’s being asked, you somehow know enough related information, and that helps you make an educated guess.

This article highlights that people get a bigger sense of satisfaction when they make an educated guess and it turns out to be the right one. If you’re the one making the question, you should frame it in a way that taps on what’s familiar, and with enough clues for people to guess the answer.

General knowledge with a twist

Ideas for general knowledge questions are definitely needed when you’re making a pub quiz, because general knowledge is what pub quizzes are all about. But to make the quiz brilliant, you can frame the questions in to make them more unique. Here are some tips:

• Talk to the young ones.

Kids and teens are a great source for pub quiz questions, because they know all about the current trends in the world of music, television, technology, and pop culture. More than being up to date about what’s current, talking to the young ones can give you questions you wouldn’t get elsewhere.

• Options, options, options.

You can definitely ask open-ended questions, but having options makes life more interesting. The choices in a multiple-choice quiz will already sharpen their thinking and make life a little easier, but making it a 50/50 choice between 2 answers can make your quiz even more brilliant. Make sure you pick 2 choices that could BOTH be the right answer to the question, so that the group will have to think about it more and even “argue” with each other to fight for their answer.

• Be creative and tap ALL senses.

A brilliant quiz forces people to use all their senses and not just their brains. For instance, you can play music and ask about the title, or missing lyrics, or even the decade when the song was released. You can also blindfold people and ask them to identify drinks (not necessarily alcoholic) or even slices of cheese. Use photos and videos. Use music. Make your quiz something they will never forget.

• Nostalgia is your friend.

Nothing excites people more than those tip-of-the-tongue questions that tease their memory. It has to be something they might have known from long ago, so you can check your 5^th-grade textbooks for this one. Picking questions that dwell on the pop culture of previous decades is also a sure fire way to get a few “awwwwwws”.

• Pick questions that also inform.

People remember the questions that also give them information they’re grateful to suddenly know. Quiz nights not only entertain, they can also inform and educate, in the Reithlan tradition. So pick questions that give your audience amazing facts that they wouldn’t bump into on a normal day.

Something for everyone

When making a pub quiz, you can never predict who your audience will be, or what their personalities are. A brilliant quiz offers something for everyone, so this means you have to mix up your questions and provide enough variety in terms of categories. The categories you end up delving on usually reflect your personal interests, and this is okay as long as you mix it up for others. Yes you can definitely ask about current events, but you can also ask about television and movies, science, history, geography, sports, literature, and so many others.

How to write a pub quiz is a good question to ask because preparation is key to making your pub quiz brilliant and unforgettable. Just remember that pub quizzes are there for fun of it all, so you have to have fun making the quiz as well.

At a time when information is so readily available and you can practically ‘Google’ anything under the sun, you would think that our grasp of general knowledge should be higher than ever before. Unfortunately, this article shows us that today’s millennial generation actually have a weaker grasp of general knowledge, according to a study conducted by Kent University professors. But why is general knowledge important? And why should we be worried?

Thriving in a social setting

General knowledge refers to those bits and pieces of information that you don’t traditionally learn in school. Rather, you build up your general knowledge with the help of non-specialist media and various life experiences. While the depth of your general knowledge depends on what your interests are and what you allow yourself to immerse in, it goes without saying that general knowledge can help you thrive in a social setting.

If you are armed with general knowledge, you can ease yourself into conversations better. No matter what kind of social setting you’re thrown at, general knowledge will help you talk your way into interesting conversations with practically anyone. You will thrive in any social setting because you can talk about anything under the sun.

To do this, having a good grasp of current events is a great conversation-starter. However, it’s also good to know about another culture and facts about another country, because this helps you thrive in multicultural interactions. If you find that you have something in common with someone you barely know and then use your general knowledge to add excitement to the conversation, you could very well end up with a couple of friends even if at the beginning all of you were strangers.

The intelligence factor

Naturally, having a good grasp of general knowledge can also add to your intelligence. When you’re in school, you have set lessons that you need to master. But exercising your memory and your brain with added general knowledge can actually lead to better grades and increase your intelligence. It’s also good to add general knowledge to what you know because it puts some variety into the lessons that you’re investing brain power on.

There are any other uses of general knowledge facts, and school is not the only setting. When you find yourself participating in a pub quiz, game show, competition, or even exam, having general knowledge is definitely a plus.

More than that, general knowledge makes you not just intelligent, but street smart. Those who have a lot of general knowledge can adapt to situations more and tend to make better decisions. For example, knowledge about basic laws and your rights as a citizen can make you fare better in situations when those rights are threatened. In the same way, knowledge about the culinary specialities of different countries ensures that you get the best dish when you find yourself dining in a foreign restaurant.

Experiencing the world

Because of this added intelligence, you also tend to be more creative and innovative, building up on whatever is being taught. General knowledge also tends to impress a lot of people, but you should be careful not to use it simply to impress. Otherwise, you’ll be one of those people rattling off annoying trivia items just to show how much they know.

But perhaps one of the most important uses of general knowledge is that it broadens your mind to possibilities and allows you to experience the world for what it’s worth. The world is a fascinating place, and there are so many aspects to the world we exist in that can just pass us by if we’re not aware of them.

Imagine this: knowing what’s happening to the world around us through current events, appreciating how we got to where we are today through history, and understanding the many other persons, places, cultures, and scientific discoveries allow us to immerse in experiences far beyond the four walls of the classroom. Experiencing other genres of music, or learning about something as random as the capital city to a country from the opposite side of the world – these things allow us to better grasp what the world has to offer.

More than that, this study actually shows that those who have a lot of general knowledge tend to be more open to new experiences. Because they know what’s out there, these people are more open to the many things life can throw at them and more conscientious about the opportunities that may come their way.

There are many answers to the question “Why is general knowledge important?” But the bottom line is that improving your grasp of general knowledge can not only help you win quizzes and give you better grades, it can also contribute to your overall learning as you journey in this thing called life.