The world is moving forward with rapid improvements in the latest technology. The importance of computer skills is at an all-time high. One skill, in particular, has become an ever-increasing attribute among staff or prospective candidates – touch typing. Touch typing opens up the door to many career opportunities. This, along with the numerous other benefits, makes it important to learn how to type.

What is touch typing?

Touch typing is the ability to type using all your fingers, without looking at the keyboard.

This a valuable skill for employers because it enables employees to produce and edit text at a much faster speed than usual. It also means that finished work has a greater level of accuracy. For employees, it means a better work experience, and more time available for other tasks.

Touch typing skills are beneficial in almost all industries, especially with continued technological advances. There are individual benefits to touch typing, too. First of all, touch typing makes working at a computer more comfortable. Second, it enhances communication between colleagues and customers. Third, it improves the accuracy of documents.

From a productivity standpoint, an individual’s typing speed increases when switching from two-finger typing to touch typing. With two-finger or slow typing, at 20 words per minute (wpm) they will type a 600-word document in half an hour. A trained typist, averaging 70 wpm, will take 8.5 minutes to type this same document. Thus, the individual saves a considerable amount of time. With time saved up, over the long term, this also helps the company save significant amounts of money.

The average typing speed in the UK is reported to be around 50 words per minute. So, learning to touch type is a great way to boost your employability and stand out from the crowd in the job market.

Let's take a look at some of the benefits of touch typing. Plus, we show you how you can learn how to type, and some of the roles which require touch typing skills from potential job candidates.

6 Benefits of touch typing skills

1. Save time

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of learning to touch type is that it saves an individual (and their company) considerable amounts of time. An average two-finger typist, with a speed of 10 words per minute, will type a 170-word section in about 17 minutes. A touch typist, on the other hand, typing at an average of 60 words per minute, can type the same section in around 4 minutes.

2. Better for your overall health

Touch typing is also better for your overall health. It prevents you from bending over your keyboard as you search for the right keys. Instead, your eyes stay focused on the screen in front of you. Correct typing promotes good posture and prevents neck or back strain.

3. Decrease fatigue

Typing is exhausting for both the brain and the body when you have to do it for long periods of time. Touch typing reduces this mental and physical fatigue because it enables you to focus purely on the content you want to type, rather than the typing itself.

4. Increased speed of text production

A skilled typist is able to finish a writing task within a specific length of time and is not hindered by their slower typing speed. Hence, candidates who learn to type faster are more favourable to employers. It guarantees that they can produce more text for the company (and in less time).

5. Accuracy

Touch typing improves the accuracy of the work a typist produces. This is because they are extremely familiar with the location of all the letters on the keyboard. Thus, there are fewer mistakes, and mistakes are much more quickly corrected. It also increases employees' confidence in their work and is important to a company's productivity.

6. Increases workplace productivity

The combined effect of all the individual benefits of typing quickly is that overall workplace productivity is dramatically boosted. Employees have more energy, are able to produce higher-quality work at a faster pace and make fewer errors. They also enjoy more time for other projects and have improved communication.

Want to help boost your workplace's productivity? Check out our employee typing training programmes and get your whole staff up to speed. Pitman also offers other necessary staff training.

Learn How to Type

Typing skills are invaluable in many workplaces, and working to improve your typing speed is a worthwhile venture. So, maybe you want to learn to type faster or start from the basics. Here are a few ways you can begin to learn how to type, or improve your typing skills:

1. Correct Hand Position

The first key to learning to type is learning the correct hand position.

Starting with your pinky on the A key, Your left-hand fingers rest on the A, S, D, and F keys. The right-hand pinky goes on the ; key, and fingers rest on the J, K, L, and ; keys. These keys are the home row keys. Your thumbs should either be in the air or lightly touch the spacebar key.

2. Practice typing without looking at your fingers

Once you have the hand positions down, you can practice touch typing – typing without looking at the keyboard. By doing so, your muscles will memorise the movements and even key patterns.

For example, when you type frequently used combinations such as "the", your motor system will pick up on this. With muscle memory, you can type at a much faster speed. In addition, when you type looking at the screen, you are able to catch errors faster.

3. Aim for Accuracy, Not Speed

You might be tempted to speed up your typing no matter what the cost. But actually, it pays to take your time. Rushing can cause you to make many mistakes and sacrifice accuracy.

Plus, if you have to go back to edit all of the mistakes you made, this will cost you even more time. Instead, focus on getting the words typed correctly. With time, your speed will improve.

4. Take a Typing Course

In a quality typing course, you will learn all of these techniques and more. This is one of the best things you can do to improve your typing speed. A course will teach you the correct hand placement, how to type without looking at the keyboard and give you a strong foundation.

Courses will also give you much-needed practice, which is key to learning anything. This will allow you to improve much-needed typing skills.

Jobs that Require Fast Typing Skills

Let's take a look at some of the jobs which most benefit from touch typing skills and which are great career choices for those who love to type!

Office administrator

An office administrator oversees operations across their company's office. Their tasks might include welcoming visitors, coordinating meetings, booking appointments, and running various administrative projects. However, a key component of the office administrator's role is communication.

Now, much office communication takes place via email, instant messaging, or internal project management systems. Thus, learning accuracy and speed of typing is essential in this role. A Typaz professional typing course or office skills training will help prepare you for this role.

Legal Secretary

The role of the legal secretary is to support a lawyer or legal team. They do this by completing admin tasks, performing legal research, and liaising with clients. The legal secretary is an important member of a legal team's administrative team.

Strong typing skills and legal audio processing will ensure that they accurately communicate important information to clients and other key parties. And, that they input crucial data in a timely manner. To learn all the skills needed to start in this career, have a look at our legal secretary training.

Medical Transcriptionist

A medical transcriptionist is another job that relies heavily on typing skills. In this job, individuals convert medical dictation and notes into official medical documents. Accuracy is of utmost importance in this position due to the nature of the documents. Speed is also highly valued by employers. Sometimes for speed and accuracy, employees take shorthand courses. In fact, many require at least 60 words per minute (wpm) from those performing the role. You can also begin work in the healthcare field with medical secretary or medical admin training.

Virtual Assistant

With a focus on remote work, a virtual assistant can be responsible for running projects, data entry, scheduling, and any other administrative or clerical tasks their employer requests of them. These are typically carried out using digital tools which make remote collaboration possible.

A majority of a virtual assistant's workday takes place at a computer. So, VA training and courses that teach fast and accurate typing skills boost the employment chances of those hoping to break into this role. Our Typaz Professional course teaches the highest level of necessary typing skills.

Data entry clerk

Multiple industries and types of companies need data entry clerks. Their job is to enter data-both words and numbers-into spreadsheets or specific computer programmes. They also keep track of records and organise files.

Touch typing skills are a huge advantage in this position. It is also important to have a good understanding of spreadsheets, different types of text documents, and data entry software. A data entry clerk who can quickly and accurately process information will be invaluable to administrative teams.

Web Designer/Developer

Creating websites requires you to be quick and accurate on the keyboard. When you are not distracted by looking back and forth from the screen to the keyboard, you can focus more on the creative aspects of the job. If you want to learn all the skills needed in this career field, you can also study web design and software and web developer training.

Journalist

Although journalists need excellent research and investigative skills, touch typing skills in this role are also key as they enable a journalist to quickly and precisely relay a situation or story to their editor for publication. Touch typing also enables a journalist to write longer, more complex pieces without feeling fatigued or frustrated.

Speedy Keys Competition

Do you think you have the fastest typing speed around town? We're looking for the fastest typist in Kenya! We challenge you to test your speed. See if you are a cheetah, a snail, or somewhere in between. Then, challenge your friends, family, and coworkers. You can even take the test multiple times, to get your best score. See you at the races!

If you want to train for the competition or are still wondering "What is touch typing?", check out our typing courses to learn more. Pitman Training is the top qualified place to learn typing and career training to prepare you for the current workforce. Contact us today for more information