Getting ahead in one’s career is important, and to achieve our career goals, we must make continuous investments. Certainly, striving to do our best in everything we do will provide important experiences in this regard. But at the same time, continuous learning and education likewise leads to career advancement opportunities. With this in mind, online career courses provide excellent chances to boost our knowledge and skills. And a variety of online course platforms now offer an ideal way to acquire these insights for free!
Online career courses have several advantages for those seeking career advancement beyond their ease of access. For one, you can enjoy tremendous flexibility in taking these courses at a pace and time convenient to you. In addition, many only require a few lessons and hours of your time for continuing education pursuits. (What’s the big deal about continuing education? Check out this Project Bold Life story to find out!) And some even provide certificates of completion for extra fees to help you in climbing the corporate ladder. Understanding this, the following list includes 10 of the top career-boosting online courses today you might want to consider.
- Introduction to Graphic Design – Udemy offers a number of online career courses, and this is one that could help some boost their career. Beginners are welcome in this course, which requires only an hour of your time over the 12 lessons. The course educates you on the theories behind design elements and why some logos and colors mesh. These insights can be useful in a number of professions.
- Diploma in Social Media Marketing – Anyone involved in sales, advertising or marketing can certainly benefit from this course. Offered by Alison, multiple topics are covered including email, blogs, affiliate marketing, and SEO traffic strategies. This beginner level course is only 11 lessons and a great way to potentially lead to career advancement. The social media and marketing skills learned are invaluable in today’s world.
- Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills – Not only do many business interactions demand good negotiation skills, but so does career advancement itself. Offered by Coursera, this University of Michigan course includes interactive videos and an app to enhance business negotiation abilities. The course includes 6 lesson with all skills levels invited. This is an essential skill for anyone seeking career advancement in the business world.
- Law for the Entrepreneur and Manager – In business, it’s important to understand a variety of corporate legal issues. Hosted by MIT OPenCourseWare, this offering is among the best online career courses related to this subject matter. The 32-hour, 21-lesson course covers several topics including intellectual properties, international trade, and corporate disputes. Intermediate level management skills are encouraged for taking this course.
- Adobe InDesign for Beginners – There are a variety of online career courses related to design, but this one is for those invested in Adobe InDesign. Presented by Adobe KnowHow, this beginner-level course discusses the tools and techniques to help create high-quality layouts. This includes insights in creating graphics, tables, color palettes, and special effects. In total, this course consists of 21 lessons and 11 hours of time.
- Intro into Computer Science – edX offers a number of online career courses, and this is one that’s essential for many professionals. Sponsored by Harvard University, the course covers CSS, HTML, and PHP while also showing how to solve programming problems. Despite its complexity, it’s available for beginners and consists of 9 lessons that require 180 hours. For an additional $90, you can also get a certificate for career advancement purposes.
- Competitive Strategy – Particularly for business professionals, competitive strategy formation is important. This online course covers these concepts well and shows how interdependent strategies can have an exponential effect on success. Provided by Coursera, the course consists of 6 lessons and 10 hours of time. Those in management as well as inspired entrepreneurs can specifically benefit from this course in their career advancement efforts.
- This Is How You Make iPhone Apps – Who wouldn’t want to create an iPhone app? This is one of the coolest online career courses provided on Udemy’s online learning platform. Though for beginners, the course will show you how to create and submit an iPhone app to the App Store. Only requiring 5 hours of your time, and 23 short lessons, this is a great bargain…especially with it being free!
- Academic and Business Writing – Did you ever want to brag that you went to the University of California in Berkeley? Though you never may attend in person, this course is sponsored by the university, which certainly gives it clout. This intermediate career advancement course helps you develop a professional writing style in a variety of academic and business settings. In total, the course consists of 5 lessons and 20-30 hours of your time.
- Marketing in a Digital World – Digital marketing in the world today requires more than just social media know-how. In this course sponsored by Coursera and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, you’ll appreciate this. As one of the more comprehensive online career courses, it shows digital marketing strategies on a variety of devices and platforms. Over 24 lessons, and 32 hours, you develop career advancement skills in sales, content distribution and market pricing.
Career Advancement Requires a Continuous Learning Strategy
For many students and professionals, online platforms may sound a bit exhausting. After a year of COVID, spending more time on-screen may not sound appealing. But the ease of access of these online career courses and their flexibility is hard to beat. In any case, it’s important to invest in ongoing education and continuous learning in your efforts to boost your career. In some cases, you may want to pursue a specific degree or certificate. But other times, simply acquiring additional knowledge and upskilling will help you excel as a professional. And even if the results aren’t immediate, the insights you’ll gain will undoubtedly help you in other aspects of life. One never knows where a little bit of extra knowledge might take them!
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