Arm yourself for the Job Hunt
A job hunt is a job within itself and only people who are constantly upgrading their skills and knowledge will be able to stay competitive in the future job market. Education is much easier today when many universities and online communities and agencies are offering plenty of free and affordable courses that range from language learning to naval biology. In this article we have reviewed some of the best websites for online learning.
MIT OCW
MIT is one of the most prestigious colleges in United States and has a great website called MIT Open Course Ware, which has totally changed the face of online education. The website offers all MIT courses for free and it is widely used by students and people who want to educate themselves at home. Courses can be easily filtered and choose according to field of education. Depending on the course you choose, it can contain some of the following materials:
- Video lectures;
- Course syllabus;
- Assignments;
- Final exams;
- Solutions;
- Additional reading materials;
The offered courses are completely free of charge, and MIT OCW also provides a link to study groups for each course on OpenStudy, where course participants can exchange thoughts, ask questions and share their results.
The only issue with MIT Courseware is that it offers very broad knowledge. It is the same as a university program and requires a lot of free time for listening to lectures, studying, doing assignments, etc. People who want to learn new skills fast need to enroll into crash courses on other websites.
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Codecademy
This online interactive platform offers free coding classes for 9 different programming languages, including: Python, JQuery, Java, PHP, Ruby, AngularJS, JavaScript and HTML and CSS mark up languages. Courses at the Codecademy have a purely practical nature and they skip most of the wide theoretical knowledge taught at IT university courses. Each course is divided into different exercises and offers great feedback and badges that are given after exercise completion and can be used for easier success tracking.
Tutorials Point
The number one website for software tutorials out there, which was started with a HTML tutorial, posted in 2006. This website offers thousands of tutorials, from programming languages to different tools commonly used in graphic design. Everything on the website is free and the material is divided into three main groups:
- Classes - complete software courses, explained by top industry experts;
- Tutorial’s Library – the biggest tutorial’s library online;
- Coding Ground - online terminals and IDEs for many different programming languages;
DuoLingo
DuoLingo is currently one of the most practical and efficient language learning apps. It is experimentally used in public schools in Guatemala and Costa Rica and experts have determined that 34 hours of intensive learning in DuoLingo’s Spanish course is the same as 130+ hours of learning Spanish in a beginner’s courses at universities in the United States.
The app itself uses very advanced learning methods. It is also free of charge and it doesn’t contain any ads. DuoLingo is available for Android, iOS and Windows 8 and 10 and provides reading, dictation and speaking exercises, divided into skills and lessons. After finishing each lesson, users receive points which enable them to track their success. Knowledge can also be tracked by doing 20-question tests, after finishing each skill.
Upskilled
Upskilled is the number one Australian course and training provider. They offer a variety of different courses that are finely tailored to suit job market needs. There are more than 100 different courses in numerous disciplines from Business, Government work and Management to Hospitality and Fitness you can choose from. Depending on its client’s preferences, the agency offers two different kinds of training: online training that occur through an online learning platform, or training in the form of face-to-face workshops.
The job market has never been more competitive, which means that a wide array of personal skills and knowledge of several different languages will soon become the norm for finding a well-paid job.
AUTHOR: James D. Burbank is the editor in chief of BizzMarkBlog, a business-oriented blog where he shares the insights he has obtained during the years he spent in the trade show industry, interacting with innumerable businesses and their leaders.
