Take a short course online
As a follow up to the first article on short courses (http://www.careerzim.com/articles?artid=take_a_short_course), we will look at three options where you can find free courses to up skill yourself:
Edx.org: I particularly love these guys. Learning is free, you can download video lectures and go through exercises without paying anything! They are partners with a number of renowned Universities and corporates such as MIT and Harvard. If you just want to learn without earning a certificate there is an option to “audit” a course completely for free. Getting a certificate is also very cheap.
Udemy.com: I have taken a course or two at Udemy just for the fun of it. They have specials where they offer courses at huge discounts to as low as $10 for a whole course! After completion you get a course for the certificate.
Coursera.org: Coursera offers both free and paid courses. They also have partners like Stanford and Yale. Coursera is definitely worth looking at if you are thinking about a short course to upskill yourself.
In this age where learning is almost free and employers are looking for skills more than certificates, it is no longer an option to keep up-skilling yourself through short courses.
I would also argue that unless it is very critical for you to go and sit behind a desk, online is the way to go. It is the future of learning. After all, how many of us can afford to dedicate our weekends to attending a class after a long haranguing week at work? I look forward to the day when our own local universities will open their eyes to this opportunity!
Author: Edmore Munedzimwe