There are now many online courses that you can do virtually. You only need devices such as laptops and smartphones and an adequate internet connection.
Very practical and can be done by anyone anywhere anytime.
These online course sites can give you a lot of practical training so you can acquire new relevant skills.
You don’t have to stick to one training, as the easy access allows you to choose several courses at once to embark on your journey of learning and self-fulfilment.
In addition to giving you new experiences, the learning you get can be used in your job search.
Having multiple skills makes you stand out in the eyes of employers and hiring managers.
For those who are cautious about spending a dime for these courses, fret not.
Most of these online learning platforms provide free online courses. All you have to do is to choose the training you want to follow and complete it properly.
Why Are Skills So Important For A Job?
As previously mentioned, having both a wide range and deep level of skillsets are important in finding a job.
Why so?
Take for an example, every sing day recruiters receive hundreds, if not, thousands of CVs and resume from job seekers.
This is particularly pronounced in the aftermath of the onset of the Covid19 pandemic, whereby the latter causes many to be unemployed.
In Indonesia alone, there was an increase in the number of unemployed people by 2.67 million (Jakarta Post, 2020). Those who are unemployed will of course look for new jobs to meet their daily needs.
You have to be able to make yourself stand out from the rest. The skills you gain from online courses will help you appear more competent so recruiters will be confident when choosing you.
Skills that match the desired job will make you more confident when called for job interviews and during work.
If you’re just not focusing on work, having new skills will also help you get to know yourself better. Each new skill that you get can be developed even better so that you can become an expert in a certain field.
Here are several types of online courses that you can choose from:
Broad Online Courses
Start your journey with a broad online courses website that has many programs. This will help you figure out what interests and skills you want to hone. Some courses have both free and paid plans.
Coursera
Coursera is a Massive Open Online Course platform that provides technical specializations and even online degrees.
These online courses are among the most popular among the public, with most of their audience coming from the United States of America, India and Brazil.
They have partnered with more than 200 leading universities and companies in the world, such as Amazon, Atlassian, BCG, Columbia University and many more to create educational content. Some of their early partners include Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan, etc.
They have both free and paid online courses. They also have a new pricing plan recently, “Coursera Plus“, whereby you get unlimited access to 3,000+ courses, Guided Projects, Specializations, and Professional Certificates for one all-inclusive price.
Price: Free. Paid for some courses
Reviews: 4.5/5 based on G2
edX
Not inferior to Coursera, edX provides more than 3000 online training. The website, founded by Professor Agarwal and his partners, has grown rapidly since 2012. Now they have 35 million users and 160 partners from various highly accredited universities. Some of the courses available are free and some are paid.
Price: Free and paid courses
Rating: 4.5/5 on G2
Ruangguru
This tutoring application and website already have more than 22 million users. They now make a new innovation through Skill Academy by Ruangguru. In 2020 alone, Skill Academy managed to attract around 4 million users for a year with a high and satisfying rating. All the skills available in this online course have affordable prices for the users.
Price: Paid courses
Rating: 4.5/5 on Google Play Store
Khan Academy
The non-profit organization that provides online courses has a mission to provide quality education free of charge to anyone, anywhere. You can access every available course through their mobile application.
They have also partnered with institutions such as MIT, NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, and The California Academy of Sciences in offering customized content.
Price: Free.
Rating: 4.6/5
Udemy
Udemy is a large online course platform and already has more than 35 million users. You can learn from 56,000 expert instructors who produce over 155.00 online courses.
Through the app, you can access classes offline or with other devices. Courses offered on the website are often discounted so you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Just like edX and Coursera, they have a 4.5 rating in G2.
Price: Free and paid courses
Rating: 4.4/5 on G2
Skillshare
This online course platform is well-known among content creators, it can be the right choice for those of you who have an interest in becoming content creators. There are many skills to choose from here, such as basic photography, web development, and graphic design.
You can also learn to start your own business if you are interested in becoming an entrepreneur. Not all courses on this platform are paid, you can find many free classes with 100,000+ students.
Price: Free and paid courses
Rating: 3.5/5 on G2
Foreign Language Online Courses
In this era of globalization, knowing a foreign language has become a necessity. Many companies from abroad are starting to establish themselves in another country. Mastering a foreign language will also allow you to find other jobs around the world.
Duolingo
This free foreign language learning app has been launched in 2011. With this app, you can practice listening, answer questions, and discover lots of new words, sentences, and phrases. They also have a community feature that lets you interact with other users from all over the world. With a high rating, this app is certainly useful for many people.
Price: Free
Rating: 4.6/5 on G2
Memrise
The courses offered on Memrise is not much different from Duolingo, where you can practice listening and learn vocabulary to new phrases with flashcards. But Memrise has another advantage, that is Learn With Locals feature.
In this feature, you can see videos of native speakers speaking and demonstrating phrases aloud, letting you know exactly what they mean and how to pronounce them correctly. Memrise has the same rating and makes it another best choice. Even though it’s free, you can choose a subscription option to get other interesting features.
Price: Free and optional paid subscription.
Rating: 4.6/5 on G2
Babbel
Babbel offers a slightly different offering than Duolingo and Memrise. In addition to learning new sentences, they use sample conversations to demonstrate the use of each word when talking to other people.
You can also practice how to pronounce words correctly. Also, get unlimited access by subscribing to the app. No need to worry, some subscription packages provide discounts from 35% to 50%.
Price: Free and optional paid subscription
Rating: 4.2/5 on G2
Specific Online Courses
If you already have clear goals and skills you want to develop, choosing a course that is specific to your interests is the right thing to do. You can choose your courses right away.
HubSpot Academy
Want to advance your career in marketing? HubSpot Academy is the right choice. From here you can get many course materials related to marketing such as how to communicate with your customers and create promotional content that reaches many people for free, you can even get certificates. After completing the course, you can immediately get a certificate that is valid for a certain period of time. The good reviews earned them a good rating on G2.
Price: Free
Rating: 4.7/5 on G2
Codecademy
This website provides learning focused on code and programming languages like Python, Java, SQL, Ruby, and others. You can join to learn with 45 million other users for free. Codacedemy is perfect for those of you who want to start learning to code for the first time. If you’re in doubt, they have a high rating in G2 with lots of positive reviews.
If you are keen to embark on a year of Codecademy Pro or Pro student, use our Discount code “FALL21” to get 20% a year.
Price: Free
Rating: 4.4/5 on G2
CreativeLive
For those of you in the creative industry or looking to start one, this 4.5/5 rated website on G2 provides many courses related to artists and creativity. More than 700 creative professionals are teaching here. Although the classes provided are not free, you can take classes for free when they live streaming their courses.
Price: Paid and free when live streaming.
Rating: 4.5/5 on G2.
Fitness Training Courses
During this pandemic, your body becomes less exercised because you have to spend a lot of time working at home and many gyms are forced to close. Even so, you can still join a fitness program online without having to leave the house.
Daily Burn
This subscription-based fitness program offers tons of workouts that you can stream directly from your smartphone, tablet, or other devices. You can participate in available online communities and share with other users about your progress. Before you fully commit, you can try the 30-day free trial that Daily Burn offers.
Price: Paid courses.
Rating: 4.4/5 on Google Play Store
Physique 57
This fitness company from the United States has become the choice of many famous celebrities such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Chrissy Teigen. Since 2013, they have expanded worldwide and can be found in Dubai, Bangkok, Mumbai, and Manila. You can take online training by choosing to subscribe to the On Demand feature.
Price: Paid courses.
Rating: 4.7/5 on Apple Store
DOYOU Yoga
This online yoga training provides many advantages for beginners. You can find many useful yoga techniques and choose the one that works best for you. They also offer a free 30-day yoga program that over 800,000 people have joined.
Price: Paid courses
Rating: 4.7/5 on Apple Store
Tips for Doing Online Courses at Home
Even though it can be done at home virtually, it doesn’t mean you can’t follow the courses properly. Many things must be considered during online training so that the results obtained can be maximized. Each program has a short duration so it doesn’t take up much of your time.
Choose the right courses
When you open an online learning website, you will be presented with a variety of different training and learning topics. As a beginner, of course, many topics will make you confused while choosing.
An effective way of choosing an online course is through your interests. What are you currently interested in? Once you know the answer, it will be easier for you to choose. For example, if you are interested in Digital Marketing, you just have to choose an online course with that topic.
Pay attention to every price offered. Paid online courses usually provide a more complete package than free ones. If you are interested in taking a paid online course, choose a price that fits your budget.
Set schedule
For many courses especially free online courses, you can access the courses anytime and anywhere. That flexible time often makes people forget to attend courses. Then the available courses are neglected.
Manage your schedule well. You can do this by planning every activity you do, not procrastinating work, and prioritizing work and training.
Make a comfortable study space
Because it is done at home, creating a comfortable place to study will be very important in taking online courses. An uncomfortable place to study will make you less focused on training and get bored quickly.
You can start by doing the training in a bright place with sufficient air circulation. A room without sufficient lighting will make it difficult for you to participate in training such as watching videos or reading training materials.
Taking courses when in a good mood
Don’t underestimate the mood during learning because emotions have a great influence on human cognitive processes such as attention, reasoning, perception, memory, and problem-solving. You may lose focus during training because you are in a bad mood. Motivation to continue learning also goes down.
When you’re in a bad mood, it’s better to take a break. Calm your mind so that negative emotions don’t always bother you. Then you can do other activities that cause positive emotions in you.
Working and learning in an online course at the same time seems difficult, but if you can manage your schedule well, you can easily do it.
If you are looking for an internship or job to improve your skills, click on 9cv9 and start searching now.
Find other online courses so you can always develop new skills.
