Upgrading Yourself: 5 Course Providers

Stuck at home and looking for some online courses? Here are a few resources.

Upgrading yourself is key in today’s job market, and with most of us housebound due to the current situation, online courses are the way to go. You can pick up a skill you’ve always been interested in, or get yourself extra certifications and capabilities that will help you stay relevant at the workplace.

But with a dizzying number of course providers out there, it can be difficult to choose. We’ve rounded up some starting options for you to explore:

In line with circuit breaker measures, NTUC Learning Hub has launched specially curated courses to allow you to upskill in the comfort of your own home. Unlike other course providers, NTUC Learning Hub is geared towards helping you become more effective at the workplace. With courses on everything from customer service, business analytics, to personal effectiveness, it has a suite of business-centric programmes to up your workplace capabilities. Also, most of its courses are eligible for Skillsfuture and other grants, greatly reducing their financial cost.

Offering thousands of free and paid courses for every type of learner, Coursera is a university-affiliated 100% online learning platform that streams lectures and administers assessments. National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) both offer courses on this platform, such as Effective Communication in the Globalised Workplace and Introduction to Forensic Science. Course completion often includes a certificate of passing, which will buff up your resume and increase your visibility in the hiring process.

3. edX

Another massive open online courses (MOOC) learning provider, edX is proud of the open-source, university-backed programmes it offers. MIT and Harvard University have many courses on the platform, some of them free during this period. Course content spans everything from Shakespeare to computational thinking using Python. While many of its courses are free, you may wish to pay for a Verified Certificate to indicate your completion.

If you have a LinkedIN profile, you also get access to LinkedIN Learning. The in-house learning platform prides itself on offering industry-relevant, up-to-date skills in sectors that are experiencing growth. They also offer very targeted, very short courses that teach a single skill or introduce a single concept, like Pivot for Beginners (25 mins) or content marketing on social media (15 mins).

For the tech crowd, Google Skillshop has loads of courses on how to use its advanced features like Google Ad Manager and Google AdMob. These are particularly relevant to content managers, marketers, and those looking to expand their business digitally. The platform administers assessments and exams, to ensure that you have earned your certificate before you add it to your resume. Also, most of its courses are free!

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