Upskilling outside of university is a concept that has been ever more present in recent years. In the growing competitive landscape of student jobs it is important to find ways to learn new skills and improve your personal brand.
There are a plethora of online resources out there and it can be overwhelming finding the right ones for you and where to spend your time. In this article we explore the types of courses or initiatives you can do on the side to upskill in areas that will help you with your professional development, and consequently your career.
Forage
Forage is a company that runs online training programs with Fortune 500 companies, providing students the opportunity to learn career skills. Their flagship virtual work experience programs replicate work at top companies and connects students to the companies themselves. These companies are from a diverse range of industries such as banking, consulting, law and more!
These virtual work experience programs only require ~5-6 hours of work and you get the opportunity to learn relevant tools and skills necessary to complete similar tasks during a work day. The best part is, it's 100% free, open-access, and self-paced. No experience or application is required!
Check out there student page for more information → https://www.theforage.com/students
Google Digital Garage & SkillShop
For students interested in digital marketing, e-commerce, data, career development, or technology as a whole, Google provides some really great training courses that you can complete in your spare time.
The Google Digital Garage aims to teach you new skills for the emerging digital world by offering flexible and personalised training courses. A great place to start is the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course which includes a certification that will contribute to your career growth by showing employers that you have a clear understanding of relevant concepts and that you have a strong willingness to learn.
On the other hand, the Google Skillshop is 'the one-stop-shop for every kind of learner who wants to succeed with Google professional tools and solutions. These Google tools are extremely common for businesses to use to grow digitally. The Skillshop includes topics such as Google Ads, Google My Business, Google Cloud, and Youtube.
Coursera
Coursera offers flexible, affordable, and job-relevant online learning to individuals and organisations worldwide by partnering with 200+ leading universities and companies. Coursera aims to upskill students with in-demand skills in an efficient manner.
The platform has guided projects and courses that can be accessed for free, with more specialised skill courses charged on a monthly basis. Their in-depth offering of courses is extremely diverse with content for all levels and all industries.
Check out their courses here → https://about.coursera.org/how-coursera-works/
Udemy
Udemy is the largest online learning destination that helps students, businesses, and governments gain the skills they need to compete in today’s economy. Whilst the courses on the platform are paid, Udemy connects you to the world's best instructors to help you reach your goals.
Youtube
Believe it or not, YouTube is one of the best places to learn different skills outside of university or your work. The video platform has 50+ million active content creators and odds are some of them are not only experts at what they do, but are on a mission to share this knowledge with others like you.
What's great about YouTube is that you can use it as a source of free learning at your own pace, which can you can then implement in a project of your own.