By Jacquie Ottema
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08 May, 2020
Have some extra time on your hands? Here are several online options to upgrade your skills: Coursera Coursera offers courses, degrees, and certificates from well-known companies and universities around the world. You can learn at your own pace and choose from more than 3,900 courses, 13 professional certifications, and 20 degrees and MasterTrack certifications — and many of which are free to take. Udemy Udemy has a whopping 100,000 online courses available. Categories include business, design, photography, development, marketing, IT & software, and personal development, with many of the courses providing certification exams included in the class cost. Often, Udemy runs specials where several of their courses cost only $10.99US and once you purchase a course, you have access to it for life. Khan Academy Khan Academy is a nonprofit that provides free content for both learners and teachers. They also offer personalized learning focused on core classes, such as grammar, science, and history. Thinkful Thinkful is geared towards individuals who are looking for tech jobs. It's structured a bit differently than other online course platforms; instead of learning on your own, you receive day-to-day mentor guidance and career coaching throughout the program. Software engineering, data science, data analytics, UX/UI design, digital marketing, and product management are some of the courses offered through Thinkful. According to their website, they guarantee that you'll get a job in tech within six months of graduation — and if you don't, you get your tuition back. MIT OpenCourseWare MIT OpenCourseWare offers actual MIT courses previously taught in a web-based publication. Girls Who Build, Microeconomic Theory and Public Policy, and Shaping the Future of Work are examples of courses you can find on this site. CreativeLive CreativeLive is for the creative at heart — and the creative in business. More than 1,500 classes are offered and taught by some of the most well-known artists in the world, including Grammy winners, best-selling authors, famous entrepreneurs, and award-winning journalists. You can access all CreativeLive courses on-demand with a monthly or annual class pass. You can also purchase courses separately, with some courses available for free, as well. edX Looking for university-level classes? Choose from more than 2,500 online courses through edX. Teachers come from top institutions, including Berkely, Harvard, and MIT, to teach disciplines within the humanities, business and management, engineering, and computer science. Alison Alison offers certifications and diplomas for many of its more than 1,000 free courses. Popular courses on the site include Operations Management, Human Resources, Principles of Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems, and General Data Protection Regulation, to name a few. Language Skills Learning a new language has several advantages. It gives you a competitive edge, helps you gain a multicultural perspective, and improves your memory and listening skills. There are numerous free and low-cost options available to fit your learning needs and budget. Duolingo Duolingo makes learning a new language fun with the rewards you can achieve. You can earn virtual coins, increase your fluency score, unlock new levels, and more. Bite-sized and personalized lessons make learning easier — and it's free to use. Open Culture Open Culture allows you to access free cultural and educational media from one location. The site has compiled free resources, from audiobooks to YouTube videos, for 48 different languages. Mango Live Mango Live adapts lessons to your learning style. Start with a free trial, and choose from dozens of languages to learn from anywhere. Livemocha You can learn any of the 18 different languages that Livemocha offers via their website or app. According to their site, they have more than 15 thousand new users per month from around the globe, so it's an increasingly popular platform for learning a new language. It's also free to use and offers the ability to practice with native speakers. Busuu Busuu offers lessons for 12 different languages along with the ability to get feedback from its network of native speakers for the language you're learning. Using machine learning technology, lessons can be enhanced with speech recognition and personalized study plans, and you can also download lessons to learn offline. Busuu offers a free trial period and language certifications, which you can list on your resume. Hard Skills The following three platforms offer certifications for in-demand, tangible hard skills you can add to your list of credentials. SuperHi SuperHi is for those professionals looking to up their game in the tech field with courses focused on everything from visual design to HTML, CSS, and Javascript coding. SuperHi offers short-term courses for $149, 4-week courses for $299, and 8-week courses for $499, with a 20 percent student discount on courses. With SuperHi, you get lifetime access to the course purchased and its community of students and teachers, as well as one-on-one sessions during the course. Skillshare Skillshare allows you to choose from different categories to learn hard skills. Need to up your writing game? They've got courses for that. Want to learn graphic design or character animation? They got you covered. While some classes are free, you can also sign up for a free two-month membership trial to access unlimited courses. Codecademy Codecademy offers training for some of the most in-demand coding skills; you can learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, CDM Line, and SQL, depending on your area of focus. If you're not sure where to begin, you can take their handy quiz to help you get started. Certifications Although many of the above platforms offer certifications, the three options listed below are certification-only programs designed around specific credentials. Microsoft IT Microsoft IT allows you to achieve industry-recognized Microsoft certifications. Choose from nine different career paths, including developer, administrator, data engineer, and functional consultant. You can take the certification courses for free and then pay to take the certification exam. Google Digital Garage Google Digital Garage provides certification in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing. With 26 modules created by Google trainers, the course is free to take and accredited by Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University. LinkedIn Learning LinkedIn Learning offers several certification preparation programs, as well as programs that qualify for continuing education credits. Prepare for certifications in Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), video editing, business analytics, project or operations management, and more through LinkedIn Learning. Learning plans can be purchased on a monthly or annual basis, with a one-month free trial to start. Looking to make a change in your career? Want to explore the perfect career for YOU? Feeling stuck and unsure how to move forward? Call me for a complimentary clarity call