The businesses have undergone digital transformation after COVID-19 pandemic. To adapt to the dynamic requirements, professionals should always be on the lookout to acquire new-age technologies.
The unrest in daily operations created by COVID-19 outbreak has pushed businesses to undergo digital transformation for continued business operations. This has led to a massive spike in demand for professionals with digital skills. In order to build and customise business solutions as per the industry demands, professionals need to arm themselves with career critical skills like Data Science, Analytics, Cloud Computing and Cyber Security. To adapt to the dynamic business requirements, professionals should always be on the lookout to acquire these skills and adopt the idea of lifelong learning.
Today, many edtech organisations are providing premium quality free learning resources on their platforms. With no costs involved, these widely available short duration programms have empowered millions of students and professionals to learn the most in-demand skills. Such programmes offer learners a flavour of the industry requirements and help them power ahead in their careers.
Choose right programme
To succeed in the ever evolving digital world, it is important for learners to pick up the right skills delivered by competent learning partners to ensure a steady growth in professional life. Below are a few parameters that can help learners make an informed decision and choose the best suited free learning program.
Job opportunities available in the chosen sector
Learners should analyze all the available career opportunities in the market which are in line with their interests. They should carefully evaluate industry requirements in their existing field or can even explore new avenues which are more rewarding.
Examine credentials
It is important to ensure that program credentials offered by any edtech platform should include a well-structured curriculum, industry-relevant case studies, and live sessions.
Research about the platform-Try comparing multiple courses in a domain offered by different edtech platforms and finalise the one that best fits your requirement.
Learning platforms: Great Learning Academy
Great Learning Academy is an online repository by Great Learning that offers high quality structured learning content across 700+ programs focused on career critical skills. Unlike some of the other platforms listed below, Great Learning Academy also provides free live teaching sessions, career guidance and webinars with experts in addition to self-paced courses.
The platform aims at providing students and working professionals a stepping stone to initiate their upskilling journey. Analytics, Programming, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Digital Marketing, Big Data and Business Finance are amongst the top programmes that are being offered at the Academy.
These free beginner and intermediate level programmes are mingled with industry case studies, weekly live sessions and career preparation material. They aim to provide learners a taste of what each of these skills will entail and help them carve a career path as per their interests.
On completion of each programme, learners are rewarded a certificate of completion from Great Learning. Learners can further obtain a career transition by accessing the holistic career support and relevant jobs listings provided on the CareerBoost section of Great Learning Academy. Around 300 organisations list their openings on CareerBoost which can be accessed by learners once they take the qualifying test.
SkillsBuild
SkillsBuild is a free digital learning platform introduced by IBM in an effort to address the current skills gap in the country. It provides students, job seekers and entrepreneurs with access to free online coursework and mentoring support, designed to help them reinvent their careers and businesses.
As a part of this initiative, IBM has collaborated with 30 global organisations and 11 Indian organizations to help create a pool of skilled workers in emerging technologies like Blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, AI, 3D Printing, etc. and bridge the skills gap among rural India’s workforce. The program is designed to empower job seekers within 3-6 months with professional workplace readiness and technical skills, earn badges and credentials recognized by the market, in local languages, and with personal mentoring.
Coursera for Campus
The initiative ‘Coursera for Campus’ was introduced by Coursera last year during the global lockdown owing to the COVID-19 outbreak. Altering to the sudden need to offer an undisrupted flow of education to college students, Coursera started providing free courses to higher secondary learners to arm themselves with industry-relevant skills. In fact, through this platform, the partnered universities are provided access to more than 4,200 courses that they can seamlessly integrate into their curricula.
The enrolled students are able to go through on-demand video lectures from leading universities and companies like Yale, Google, IBM to learn in-demand skills in data science, design, project management, digital marketing, through various guided projects. The learners are also rewarded with professional certifications on the completion of their programs.
edX
With edX, the learners can take up more than 2500 free online interactive courses from 140 world-class colleges and universities. Founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, edX offers classes in computer science, business and management, engineering, languages, data science and the humanities. Students can browse courses by subject, school or partner, level (introductory through advanced) and language.
All these programs offered are self-paced and therefore, enable the learners to learn at their own convenience.
Publication: The Pioneer
