As the world keeps developing and advancing, so does the job market also advances, as it promotes the need of developing and learning new skills and knowledge. The importance and necessity of advancing your professional growth remains undeniable, as it helps to bring better job opportunities, huge salaries and also career success. Although, as the costs of getting educated and acquiring skills seems to be on the increase, it could be quite hard to get high quality training and education at an affordable price.
Fortunately, there are possibilities of getting an access to the multiple free online courses that can boost your chances of advancing your career. Recently, free online courses has become the new gateway to career development in our digital world, it has also helped to easily remain visible even admist the competition in your career prospect.
So, in this article, we would be exploring the ten free courses that can aid in advancing your career skills and knowledge in different fields.
1) Digital Marketing Specialization
The advancement of the world market has proved the importance of having a knowledge understanding of digital marketing. This free online course is being held in Coursera, and it is being sponsored by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The reason of the existence of this great opportunity is to help learners have a sound understanding ans knowledge of digital marketing principles, tools and strategies.
It is being held for a period of five months, at least four to six hours in a week. It does not require an advanced knowledge or skill to be able to participate, you can get the proper knowledge even as a complete beginner. It actually comprises of six areas, which are covered in these topics;
a) Introduction to digital marketing
b) Digital marketing analysis
c) Search engine optimization (SEO)
d) Search engine marketing (SEM)
e) Social media marketing
f) Digital marketing capstone.
The format of learning this course can be through video lectures, assignments and quizzes, and also most interesting, you will receive a certificate after completing the course.
2) Artificial Intelligence For Everyone
It is of no doubt that the introduction and advancement of AI has improved the growth of businesses. This great course is offered by Microsoft Learn. The course helps to teach the introduction and basis of AI, it covers the standard overview of AI, how it is applied and its various effects on the society. The course is being held for a period of four hours. It also does not require you to be at a certain level before you can learn it. The course spreads its tentacles over the following areas;
a) Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
b) Machine learning
c) Deep learning
d) Natural language processing
e) Computer vision
f) AI ethics and bias
g) AI in business
Getting an access to this course greatly helps in having a strong knowledge of AI and getting a wider view on the applications of AI. It can also improve your career dreams, if you are into machine learning, business analysis or data science. The course is being taught through video lessons, quizzes and other methods. Also, you will get a certificate after completing the course.
3) Data Science Specialization
The purpose of this course is to provide a fundamental basis of the area of data science, handling the tools, techniques and concepts that are required to collect information from the source. This free course is being offered by John Hopkins University, it is held for a period of ten months, about four to six hours in a week. In order to have access to this course, you are expected to have the knowledge of basic computer skills and basic math skills such as algebra, calculus, etc. This course is being covered in about ten different areas, such as;
a) R Programming
b) Statistical inference
c) Linear regression
d) Exploratory data
e) Machine learning
f) Development of data products
g) Statistical computing
h) Data science capstone
i) Communicating data science results
j) Data science in real world
This course offers high quality training, increases the chances of getting a high job, it also helps you to connect to an international community of professionals in the field of data science. A certificate of completion is also given at the end of the course.
4) Python For Everybody
This is an online course being held in Coursera and it is being taught by Dr. Charles Severance. The aim of the course is to help novices who do not have any programming experience, it teaches them the fundamental knowledge of the Python programming language. The duration of the course is five weeks, for about four to six hours in a week. It also doesn’t require you to have advanced knowledge about programming, it is available for all beginners. The course ensured that it handles the general overview of Python programming, such as;
a) Introduction to Python
b) Variables, expressions and statements
c) Functions
d) Lists
e) Dictionaries
f) Files
g) Regular expressions
This course offers different forms of benefits such as knowledge of Python fundamentals, ability to solve problems, opportunities in different careers such as data science, web development. Also, a certificate is being given at the end of the course.
5) Time Management
This course is being held in Coursera, and taught by Dr. Margaret Meloni, who is a well known expert in time management and productivity. He teaches this course with the aim of helping people learn the importance of time management, how to prioritize tasks, and work on their dreams.
This course is being held in a duration of four weeks, and you do not need any previous knowledge or skill to be able to participate. The course is taught through video lectures, peer interaction, etc. The course helps learners to learn how to comprehend time management, its benefits and challenges which are associated with it. It also teaches about goal setting, how to manage distractions and procrastination. The benefits of this course ranges from enhancing productivity, reducing stress and improving dreams accomplishments.
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6) Project Management Professional Certification:
This course is being sponsored by the Project Management Institute (PMI), in collaboration with edX. It is aimed to improve and develop individuals in the area of project management. It also does its best in developing people’s experience in managing projects. It is held for a duration of six to eight weeks.
However, this course is not for people in the beginning level rather for people at the intermediate level. This course also has some conditions before participating in it, some of the conditions includes; having a secondary degree such as high school diploma or associate degree. It also requires you to have thirty five hours of project management education or to have 7500 hours of project management experience, before you can get in the course.
Luckily, this course helps to get one ready for the Project Management Professional certification examination. The course also spreads its reach within the following areas, such as;
a) Project management framework
b) Project integration management
c) Project scope management
d) Project time management
e) Project cost management
f) Project quality management
g) Project resource management
h) Project risk management
i) Project procurement management
This course helps to enhance project management skills, it also helps to increase the chances ot career development. It is also an aim for one’s preparation for the PMP certification examination. You will also get a certificate after the completion of the program.
7) Social Media Marketing
This is a free online learning program that is targeted to improve the understanding of the fundamentals of social media marketing for marketers amd business professionals. This course is being held in Hubspot Academy, it is held for a duration of five hours. It is interesting to know that you can even be a novice to partake in it and it does not require any special conditions to be able to participate. It is being taught through video lessons and downloadable sources. This course also covers a range of various important areas, such as;
a) Introduction of social media marketing
b) Understanding your social media audience
c) How to set up and optimize your social media profiles
d) How to craft engaging social media content
e) Paid social media advertising
f) How to measure and analyse social media performance
g) How to manage social media crisis
This course helps greatly in enhancing a strong knowledge of social media marketing, it also improves ones social media skills. The course is also a great to improve your career prospect and it also offers a certificate after completing the course successfully.
8) Cybersecurity Fundamentals (CompTIA)
This is a teaching program that was created to help individuals have the knowledge about the basis of cybersecurity. It helps to improve students knowledge of security and how to start a strong foundation for cybersecurity career. This course is held for a duration of twelve to sixteen hours. Actually, the course is not available for students in beginners level but instead for people at the entry level. It does not require any special conditions to be able to participate. You can access this course through video lessons, assessments, etc.
This course also covers through a range of various areas such as; risk management, network security, encryption and cryptography, social engineering, security vulnerabilities, and so much more
The benefits of this course are;
a) Having knowledge of the basics of cybersecurity
b) Ability to identify security risks
c) Enhancement of security controls and countermeasures.
d) Ability to plan for diaster recovery
After the completion of this great course, you would get a CompTIA Cybersecurity Fundamentals certification.
9) Leadership and Management Specialization
This is an online course which is being held in Coursera, and is being taught by well known teachers from University of Queensland. It is created to enhance students with the knowledge and right skills that is needed to be a great leader and an efficient manager. This program actually consists of four courses. It is being held for a duration of four months, you can be even at the beginner level to access this program. It actually does not require any specific requirements to be able to participate. It also presents a certificate of completion. As we have known that this program consists of four courses, and they are;
A) Leadership and Management: it is being held for four weeks, it covers everything about the basis of leadership
B) Strategic Management: it is being held for four weeks, this course covers everything about strategic management, from the basis to the implementation.
C) Managing People: It is also held for four weeks, it enhances the skill on how to relate and manage boss to employee relationship.
D) Capstone: Leadership and Management Project: it is also held in a duration of four weeks. It handles the final stage of plan implementation and evaluation.
This course brings a lot of benefits, such as;
a) Ability of problem solving
b) Development of management ans leadership skills
c) Gaining decision making skills
d) Enhancement of career opportunities.
10) Cloud Computing:
This online course is crafted to help novices have an enhancing knowledge of cloud computing. It is being hosted and sponsored by IBM, they made it so comprehendible while also covering a wide range of the concepts of cloud computing. It is being held for a duration of four hours, it is available for all levels of knowledge in cloud computing especially beginners and doesn’t require any specific conditions before participation. It also gives you a certificate after a successful completion of the course.
This particular program also covers a wide range of cloud computing topics, some of them include;
a) Introduction to cloud computing
b) Cloud computing models
c) Cloud computing deployment models
d) Cloud computing benefits
e) Cloud computing security
f) Cloud computing applications, etc
This course also offers great benefits, such as;
a) Having a standard knowledge of cloud computing
b) Knowledge of the benefits of cloud computing and security
c) Adequate knowledge of cloud computing models
d) Exploration of different cloud computing applications.
Finally, if you would love to take a chance to improve your professional skills or take a new skill, you can pick one of these free online courses. You can register in online learning platforms like Coursera, Udemy or even edX, so you can enhance skills to help you boost your professionalism to help increase your chances of a successful career.
Always remember that consistency is the key, keep learning and find opportunities to enhance your skills in your specific field of interest.
