9 Free Digital Courses to Develop Your Skills

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest” and those words still ring true to today.

With new technologies and ways of working advancing at rapid rates, there is a huge pressure on us to be continuously learning and upskilling. Whether you’re aiming for a promotion or to enter a new field, you’ll likely need to learn new skills to move forward.

This doesn’t have to be a costly process or take up a huge chunk of your free time, there are many high-quality, free online courses that can help you develop your skillset.

#1 OpenLearn from The Open University

OpenLearn has over a thousand free courses across a huge range of subjects including science, maths, technology and history. You can study at your own pace, developing new skills and advancing your career prospects whilst earning digital badges and certificates.

#2 FutureLearn

FutureLearn has an extensive catalogue of courses run by leading universities and organisations. You can choose from courses lasting from two to ten weeks that function like mini versions of university courses. They also have skills courses which will help you with everything from researching projects to mastering those all-important job applications and interviews.

#3 Alison

Alison is a great option if you’re looking to achieve a professional certification in a short space of time. Most of their courses have a study time of just a few hours and can be converted into diplomas after some extra study time. Their courses range from health and humanities to IT and business.

#4 Google Digital Garage

Google Digital Garage offers free, expert-approved courses on in-demand skills like Digital Marketing, Data and Tech. Even if you’re not specifically interested in a career in Marketing, these are good skills to have especially if you have ever thought about starting a business of your own. They have courses on digital advertising, social media for business, customer segmentation and more.

#5 BBC Academy

If you have an interest in media or are looking to diversify your skillset, BBC Academy has some fantastic content on media-related skills such as radio, filming and interviewing. Having a grasp on these types of skills can make you a very attractive candidate in a lot of roles and could help you stand out against the competition.

#6 Codeacademy

Coding is a highly coveted skill and the folks at Codeacademy believe that anyone who knows how to read can learn how to code. They have tailored courses to that suit your strengths and with most courses lasting around 11 hours, it’s not a massive time investment. Plus, if you want to take your learning further you can pay a small monthly fee to study their more advanced courses.

#7 Duolingo

Most of us will have studied a language at some point in our past, but how many of us have actually kept it up? Duolingo makes learning a new language fun and interactive. You get rewards for correct answers and the exercises are tailored to your learning style to keep you engaged. Choose from 36 languages including Spanish, French, Japanese and even Scottish Gaelic.

#8 Udacity

Udacity has a range of online courses that cover subjects like Data Science, Programming and Artificial Intelligence. Their courses are extremely hands-on, and you’ll learn skills by doing rather than just reading theory. Their free courses normally just cover the basics but for a limited time, they are offering one month’s free access to any course in their catalogue.

#9 Social Creators

Social Creators are offering a free 5-day course on the art of video storytelling. You’ll learn how to make high-quality and engaging content for social media using just your smartphone. If you’ve ever fancied yourself as a vlogger or social media influencer, this is the course for you.

Ready to look for a new career? Find your next job at jobs24.com.

Posted on June 2, 2020