It is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks...for free!
At a certain point, most of us will re-invent ourselves career-wise whether out of desire or necessity. Some of us just want a change in our careers. Others are realizing the occupation that looked promising when you were in college either is not what you expected, or the market for your skill set is declining.
Years ago, we would spend lots of money to go back to school and earn another degree in a new field or pay for some sort of professional training in a new skill at a trade school. These days, online learning is ubiquitous and often free.
I have been in the process of morphing my skill set from a mostly analyst focused career to being more of a data scientist. So, the first thing I had to do was figure out what skills were needed to be a data scientist, and then determine which skills I was lacking. Next, I had to develop a plan for learning these new skills.
I already have a couple degrees, so the last thing I wanted to do was go back to a four year university. It was at this point that I stumbled on the world of online learning. Since I am more interested in the knowledge than in a degree or certificate, I found a number of pretty good online sites for learning various topics and most are free. There are many more sites out there, but here are some I wanted to share because I have personally used them.
This site is great for learning more technical skills such as certain programming languages or web design. I found it when I was learning python. The courses are self-paced, so you can go as fast or as slowly as you need to ensure you comprehend the course material. All courses have a pretty consistent look and feel to them. They are regularly adding new courses, so it is good to keep an eye out for their updates. This has become one of my favorite sites to use.
This used to be the pinnacle of free online courses since the courses are taught by known institutions of higher education. However, when Coursera recently changed their site interface and is now attempting to provide more monetization to these schools (and themselves), it has become much less easy to use, in my opinion. However, some of the courses are still pretty good, and you just have to drill down to say you do not want to be certified or that you will 'audit' the course so you can be in the course for free. Since there are hundreds of schools posting materials, some courses are better than others. I have even taken two different courses from the same school but from different instructors, and one was the best course I have taken, and the other was hands down the worst course on the site. They do have a handful of self paced courses, but most courses are linked to a set schedule, so you will have deadlines and assignments to turn in by certain dates. Most smart instructors try to make it as flexible as possible, but not all the instructors are as insightful others.
If you want to brush up on K-12 subjects or some basic college level topics, this is a wonderful site to use. Mostly geared toward children and teens, this site is admittedly pretty fun to use because you earn badges and cute icons. The courses are self-paced. The site has a consistent look and feel with all the courses. The quality of some of the courses can be a bit inconsistent as they are building out various topics. In general, I like this site for brushing up on basic subjects like math and some introductory level programming.
Looking for a course that might be so new that it is not offered on the other sites yet? Maybe you are interested in learning a specific application or analysis tool. There just might be a course on it on Udemy. Udemy has a unique training concept where 'anyone' can be an online trainer. And they mean anyone and everyone. This is a way for the average person to monetize their training videos. Many of the courses are for cost, but there are some introductory courses that are typically offered for free. The look and feel of courses will vary according to instructor as will the quality of the course. Just know they get a bit spammy with the email once you sign up for an account. If you like to teach others, you just might want to build your own training channel here and make some extra money too.
The ultimate in free learning is something as simple as YouTube. Many people have posted videos on a variety of topics before these training sites became major sites. I have learned some basic things from YouTube videos, such as how to change a car battery. However, I will admit, I am not disciplined enough to teach myself a new skill set such as python programming without taking a more structured online course. However, if you are disciplined and depending on the topic, you may be able to find much of what you need online at YouTube.
So whether you are changing careers and need some new skills or whether you want to brush up and maintain your proficiency in your current career, online training is a great way to develop yourself professionally. If you do not find a site here that has what you need, use your favorite search engine to see if there might be another online training site out there that meets your needs better.
Happy Learning!
댓글