Learn Remote Work Skills on These Top 12 Sites
One of our goals at She Hit Refresh is to educate and inspire women who want to make changes in their life through travel. We’ve noticed that many women in our community are interested in leaving their 9 to 5 for remote or freelance positions, making their lives truly location independent. Online learning sites can make that happen!
Are you looking to go remote?
If you have a skill or position that you can transfer from an office to online, then you are one step closer to your dream of hitting refresh. While remote work is becoming more popular, there are still many fields don’t allow for an easy transition to a digital office.
If you want to build new skills and leave your current position to find a remote job, we’re here to help! We’ve compiled a list of the most popular online resources for skillbuilding so that you can start learning, boost your resume, and transition to a digital career. What are you waiting for?
Udacity is a skills-based platform offering vocational courses for professionals. They offer both free online classes and paid Nanodegrees (more on these below). Most of their free courses are tech-related, such as Intro to JavaScript and A/B Testing, but they also have a handful of non-tech courses.
Their Nanodegrees programs are an opportunity to “master in-demand skills…and to launch a career in Data Science, Machine Learning, AI, Android, iOS, Marketing and more.” These intensive online courses follow a curriculum and have projects, tests, and deadlines. Udacity also offers Nanodegree Plus programs which guarantee job placement for graduates within six months of their graduation date or they receive a full refund.
I completed the Udacity Digital Marketing Nanodegree. Here’s a bit about my experience:
In 2017, after working in digital marketing for about a year and half, I decided I wanted to take a deeper dive and a structured approach to learning, since most of what I had learned was self-taught. I tried piecemealing free online courses through a variety of sites but found myself easily distracted and felt a bit all over the place. I needed accountability and a one-stop shop for the best course on each topic.
Udacity’s Digital Marketing Nanodegree matched my learning style. It was structured, held me accountable through projects and a completion date, covered a few topics I was not that skilled in, and partnered with companies whose tools I wanted to learn more about (Facebook, Google, Hootsuite, Hubspot, Mailchimp, Moz). Was it worth the money? Yes and no. If you are just starting out, it is a great course to get a comprehensive overview of digital marketing.
If you are like me and have a solid foundation, you will learn new techniques, however you may already have a broad understanding of many of the modules. You can find similar information and other free courses online, but I didn’t have the time or focus for other options.
Udemy offers over 65,000 courses on just about any skill. Unlike Udacity, which focuses mainly on tech skills, Udemy covers business, personal development, marketing, photography, languages, design, and more.
Many courses range in cost from $10 to $20. You’ll notice that there are different courses for the same topic; for example if you search “social media marketing,” you’ll find over 50 unique courses. This is because courses are taught by a variety of experts in the field, each with their own materials and method.
With so many options, how do you choose? To select the best course, check the rating, read the written reviews, see how many students have enrolled, read through the curriculum, look over the sample content, and check out the instructor’s bio. Double check for discount codes online before purchasing.
Skillshare is “an online learning community with thousands of classes (over 20,000) in design, business, tech, and more.” It’s a subscription-based site that offers free and premium plans, both of which give you access to their catalog. There are over 1,500 free classes, while the paid plan gives you access to the full catalog and allows you to download classes to watch offline.
I tried their free course on Storytelling for Leaders: How to Craft Stories That Matter and was impressed by the professional layout, instructor, content, free downloads, and conciseness of the course—only 21 minutes.
LinkedIn Learning is an online education platform within LinkedIn that offers video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. Formerly Lynda, many companies have LinkedIn Learning memberships and employees can benefit from free access to thousands of courses.
I used LinkedIn Learning at my former place of employment; check with yours to see if you can start learning for free today! If your workplace does not have a membership then you will need to subscribe to their platform. There is a monthly fee which includes access to over 10,000 courses as well as LinkedIn’s premium career features.
For those that live in the U.S. and Canada check with your local library to if they partner with LinkedIn Learning, if so you can sign up for a free account.
Hubspot Academy focuses on inbound marketing and sales training through their certification courses. They offer training to companies and individuals and their flagship course, Inbound Certification Course, is well-known in the industry.
Other free courses include Content Marketing, Email Marketing, and Design. If English is not your main language, they offer courses in a variety of languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, and Japanese. For those interested in learning more about social media marketing, they have a course coming soon!
Coursera is a bit unique as they partner with universities and organizations. They not only offer online courses, but also specializations and degrees. You’ll find everything from digital marketing to engineering, business, science, and everything in between. Course are taught by “top instructors from the world’s best universities and educational institutions.” Many of the courses are free, however you’ll need to pay a fee if you would like a certificate of completion.
A few years ago, I took an Intro to Classical Music for fun, and the highly talented Yale professor hooked me from the first class.
edX was founded by Harvard University and MIT, and like Coursera, offers “high-quality courses from the world’s best universities and institutions.” Courses include but are not limited to art and culture, literature, business, and education and teacher training.
Most courses are free, but have a supplement if you want to receive a certificate upon completion. edX also offers MicroMaster Certificates, Professional Certificates, and XSeries Certificates, which provide even more proficiency and expertise your field.
Alison is the only online resource here that I haven’t used, however, I saw the site recommended while doing my research for this piece. It is a free online learning platform with over 1,000 courses available in subjects such as business, marketing, health, and humanities.
As stated, courses are free, but you can pay for a certificate of completion. In addition to certificate courses, you can also obtain a diploma, or opt for a learning path (a combination of niche courses).
Are you interested in learning to code? Codecademy might be a great place to start and get your feet wet. It’s an online platform that offers free (and paid) coding classes in 12 different programing languages. Once you create an account you are given a toolkit that includes an Intro to Coding course and access to their forum and online community.
For a monthly fee, you can enroll in their Pro plan which includes access to live support, quizzes, and projects for extra practice and feedback.
For anyone who has dabbled with Google Analytics you know that this measurement tool is a beast. If you aren’t familiar with Google Analytics but would like to learn more, there is a Beginners Course. If you already have a good grasp, you can check out the Advanced Course.
The courses are free, and I’ve heard they are terrific but quite difficult. It’s recommended to complete both courses if you’re interested in obtaining a Google Analytics Individual Qualification (the official qualification to demonstrate proficiency in Google Analytics).
Facebook Blueprint is a native tool that teaches you how to use Facebook to grow your business. If you’re working in digital marketing, this could be a valuable tool to help your own business, your clients’ business, or that of your employer.
They offer a plethora of free courses related to Facebook Marketing in categories such as, Getting Started with Facebook Advertising, Generate Leads, and Target the Right Audience to name a few. You can also get a Blueprint Certification which demonstrates “advanced-level competency in the skills needed to be a successful Facebook advertiser.”
The Content Factory is a digital PR agency, whose owner is host to one of my favorite podcasts, Workationing. A year ago the ladies behind the podcast, Kari and Kelly, decided to untether their lives, and hit the road for 12 months to see what it would be like to work while traveling the world. They have combined their knowledge of content creation and digital nomading to launch a series of training manuals and online courses geared “to give people the skills they need to become digital nomads in the digital marketing space and teach them how to find remote work.”
Their first course is an SEO 101 video training series, which I’ve completed. Other courses include Zero to Digital Nomad Training Series, and an upcoming Social Media Marketing, and PR course. If you’re not ready to make a big investment they also offer training manuals to get you a a solid foundation on where to start: SEO Pro Training Manual and SMM Pro Training Manual.
*Disclosure: Please note that the link above is an affiliate link, and at no additional cost to you, She Hit Refresh will receive a commission if you decide to purchase the online course after clicking through the link. Please understand that She Hit Refresh recommends this product because we feel it is helpful and useful to our audience, not because of the small commission we make if you decide to buy something through the link. Please do not spend any money on the course unless you feel you need it or that it will help you achieve your goals.
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