Making the decision to learn RPA can be one of the best decisions to make. As it not only increases career opportunities but it can be a lot easier to learn than other technologies as it isn’t as complicated.
So, who can learn RPA? Most people can learn RPA without necessarily having any deep technical skills to start with, as RPA has a low learning curve and doesn’t require in depth technical knowledge or extensive programming skills to get started with RPA, as RPA can use task recording and replay.
RPA can be learnt by any person who has the following:
- No programming skills
- Minimal math skills
- Basic technical skills
- Ability to create simple RPA tasks
- Ability to grasp minimal prerequisites needed
- Limited time to learn
- Limited funds for learning
7 reasons why so many people can benefit from learning about RPA are listed below.
1. No programming skills
I found RPA doesn’t require any programming knowledge to start learning and this made RPA an attractive proposition in my choice of technology to learn. This made studying easier, making my progress faster.
Those people who have little programming knowledge or no programming knowledge, RPA could be a good choice for them, as I found out.
RPA’s popularity is based on its ease of use, so by making sure programming isn’t required for basic use, means RPA software can be used by normal people in their day to day roles instead of being software only suitable for programmers to use.
To meet this end, the designers of the RPA software, have made it easier to use and very intuitive for even newcomers to quickly get to grips.
Expert Users
Advanced users will need to know some programming skills but this won’t necessarily apply to people like me, who are only using the RPA software at a basic to intermediary level.
Maybe down the line, I will look at moving into learning a programming language to take advantage of the job opportunities for Expert RPA users.
The big thing at the moment is Artificial Intelligence (AI), with Machine Learning (ML) a part of Artificial Intelligence being used extensively by many companies.
Allowing expert users like Data Scientists to use Machine Learning capabilities requires some very good programming skills, generally Python. Combining this with RPA, where the data sets returned from Machine Learning can be used in the RPA automation scripts is gaining traction.
Cognitive Robotic Process Automation (Cognitive RPA) is an evolution of RPA to be able to integrate with Artificial Intelligence by giving RPA cognitive abilities.
Cognitive abilities allow RPA tools to understand by using Artificial Intelligence’s Machine Learning capabilities to listen, read and learn, then use these to make decisions in their automation.
Gathering information from listening (voice data) and analysing using speech recognition as well as information from reading using natural language learning. Allows the RPA tools to use this information when it is deciphered into a format the RPA tool can understand by the AI’s Machine Learning.
2. Minimal Math skills
I found RPA doesn’t require any deep math ability to start learning and this also makes RPA an attractive option in choosing a technology to learn. It also makes studying a lot easier, resulting in making progress a lot quicker than expected.
Those people who have little math knowledge or no math knowledge, RPA could be a good choice for them, as I found out.
3. Basic technical skills
I strongly feel RPA is a good choice for those people who only have basic technical skills. As long as you know how to do the basics in computing like using software such as word processing software to connecting to and browsing the internet, these are the basic technical skills you’ll need to get going.
The reason why RPA is so popular with companies around the globe is that it speeds up how people work, by turning the tasks they do manually into automatic tasks.
So the basic technical skills most people have will involve some form of manual task and it’s these tasks that can be automated by RPA, with the by-product of this automation, you get to learn how to use the RPA software by applying it to something you already know.
4. Ability to create simple RPA tasks
I always learn more when I put the theory to practice, this learn by doing approach makes building skills and knowledge easier for me. With RPA I found, I could do the same, as the theories I learnt in the RPA course could be put into practice by using the FREE RPA software I had installed on my laptop.
Not only did in reducing the time to learn but also it gave me the confidence I was able to do RPA, that is, use the RPA software in a proficient manner. I found this to be an important part of the learning process, as the confidence bred more confidence, allowing me to move from the basics of RPA to becoming proficient at an intermediary level.
5. Ability to grasp minimal prerequisites needed
Many of the technologies I tried to learn often came with some form of prerequisite, that is something I also needed to learn to be able to just get going with the technology I was trying to learn.
This not only meant spending time on getting up to speed with the prerequisites but also trying to actually understand and learn what the prerequisites were, and in some cases, I found the prerequisites very challenging to learn, putting a dampener on my studying.
For example, when I was trying to learn about Blockchain technology typically associated with the likes of Bitcoin, I found I had to read and learn so much more than just the Blockchain technology itself.
In the end, I found it heavy going and decided to stop learning about it, and devote my time to something less involving and taxing.
As the prerequisites required to start learning RPA aren’t as stringent as other technical options, making a jump straight into RPA without having to dive in the deep end is made easier.
This was an important point in my decision to start learning about RPA, as I didn’t need to worry about having enough time or aptitude to learn any prerequisites, as there weren’t any.
6. Limited time to learn
For those people who don’t have much time on their hands to learn new skills, RPA could provide an excellent way of picking up new technology skills in the shortest possible time.
I managed to squeeze in learning about RPA in the limited time I had each day. When I was trying to learn another technology before getting into RPA, I found my limited time meant I had to look at sacrificing precious time with my family life to study.
This just didn’t sit right with me and getting the balance right with spending time with my kids or studying some time-consuming technology, would always meantime with my kids and my family won.
As a result, my progress with the technology I was trying to learn suffered. Leading to the situation where the limited time I had just wasn’t enough to learn the technology, so I had to give up learning about technology.
With RPA however, this was a completely different story, as I didn’t have to compromise any of my family time to do the studying and found it easy to fit into my other non-family time activities.
Such as learning while I was commuting to work on the train and my favourite way of learning, getting a train an hour earlier than normal, so I can go and sit in a coffee shop near where I work, to study uninterrupted for an hour.
This ‘me time’ to study was highly productive, as I learnt so much and rapidly progressed what I was learning.
7. Limited funds for learning
You don’t need to spend lots of money to get started in RPA and this includes the courses to get up to speed with the basics or the RPA software to actually practice what the courses preach.
This is one of the reasons I chose a path into RPA as I didn’t have money to spend on expensive courses or expensive software that some of the other technologies I was looking at were asking for.
At the back of my mind, I was always worried if I spent so much money learning about some technology and found it heavy going and difficult to learn, I would end up simply wasting my families money.
With RPA, I didn’t need to overly worry, as the initial outlay for the RPA course was minimal and the RPA software was relatively easy to get hold of, without having to spend a fortune. This reduced any worries I had about investing in learning RPA.
Good RPA Courses
There are plenty of quality RPA courses available at low cost/ that despite their low price point, are very good and provide more than enough to get going in RPA. The course I used was not only reasonably priced but designed in such a way that made learning easy as well as fun.
I managed to avoid the RPA courses designed by people who had limited ability in converting the technical aspects into easy to understand concepts, as they thought by being overly technical it made them look more expert-like.
To me, this would be just off-putting and annoying, as I would feel I paid for something that isn’t helping me.
FREE RPA software
The most commonly used RPA software in the market is available in a trial version and more importantly, it also comes in a FREE community edition.
This meant I didn’t have to spend any money on software, which was a relief and the software itself was good enough in its community edition for me to progress rapidly in my RPA journey.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I found mostly anyone can learn RPA as it requires a limited investment of funds, with little time needed for studying, it doesn’t come with any major prerequisites, it requires just basic technical skills and is ideal for those without any programming skills or deep math knowledge.
