As a remote worker, it’s essential to keep up to date within your area of expertise. Also, learning new skills will make you more employable and able to offer more services to your clients.

Designate an hour or two every week, to either improve the skills you have or learn new ones. Every Sunday morning, you will find me in my favourite coffee shop, with a book, or, consuming content on my laptop.

Before we get into the article, take a moment to think about how you like to learn new skills. Do you prefer listening to a podcast, watching a video, or reading an article?

Research the teacher

You need to be learning from people who have experience in the skills they teach, so research the teacher before consuming any content. Are they an authority figure in their specialised field? You need to learn from respected, trustworthy people.

In this article, you will find resources to learn new skills.

Look at niche communities

My preferred way of learning is within communities like Youpreneur and Smart Passive Income. You get the opportunity to learn with other people who have the same struggles. It’s the engagement that keeps me motivated to learn.

Both Chris and Pat run these communities and offer free content on their blog, podcasts and YouTube videos. Alongside that, they offer free and paid courses so, there is always something for everyone.

To find niched communities, use Spotify or Apple podcast app and search for podcasts on the topics you’re interested in learning. Also, as you search for content on Google, YouTube and the other resources mentioned below, you’ll start to find people who are knowledgeable and experienced within their field.

YouTube is free

We’ll start off with YouTube, the 2nd largest search engine on the internet and people often surprisingly underestimate it for learning new skills.

Yes, you will find a million cat and challenge videos, but it’s a goldmine of tutorials and how-to videos. Create a learning playlist on your YouTube account and add videos. You can also use the ‘Watch later’ feature too.

Search for how-to and tutorials. When searching, use the filters to look for recent videos, so you are not learning from out of date content. Subscribe to channels to get notified when they upload new videos.

Google Digital Garage

Google has a wide range of free courses in its Digital Garage. Everything from the fundamentals of digital marketing to speaking in public. There are over 100 courses to select from, and each one takes 1 to 40 hours.

While we are looking at Google courses, they also have a Skillshop, where you can learn more about their products like Google Analytics.

Coursera

The next place to look for free courses is on Coursera, who have over 1,000 courses and projects you can learn from. Find anything from learning how to teach online to machine learning. Many of the courses are from universities around the world.

Ted Talks

Spend an hour every week, watching videos on Ted, and you’ll increase your intelligence! The videos are from talks around the world on a wide range of topics including, personal development, and marketing.

Use the search functionality to find the topics you’re looking for and sit back and watch. Sign up for a free account to receive recommendations and an opportunity to save videos you want to watch later.

Harvard University

Yes, free courses from Harvard University is a must-visit if you are looking to learn new skills. Learn about game development, world literature, fundamentals of neuroscience, and a ton of topics that are way above my intelligence!

Alison

Wanting courses with certificates? Alison is worth checking out. Wide range of courses from understanding GDPR (useful for freelancers) to introducing the art of negotiation. It would seem many of the courses are from established universities like Stanford and reputable teachers.

Open University

If you’re from the UK, then you will have heard of the Open University. Well, they have a list of free courses on topics like languages, business and personal development.

They are all listed by category and highlight if they are beginner, intermediate or advanced courses. Sign up for a free account to track your achievements.

Next, these three websites will help you learn new skills but are paid course sites.

Why pay for courses?

With paid courses, you often receive a more in-depth and structured approach to the training. Video lessons will be written and audio content. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, make sure you research the teachers because anyone can submit content to these platforms.

Skillshare

For a monthly fee, you get access to all of the courses and training within the Skillshare platform. Browsing through you get the feeling that this is a place for creative people with courses on filmmaking, illustration, animation and design.

Udemy

With Udemy, you pay for the course you want to take. Think of a topic you want to learn and, it’ll have one listed. That said, the quality can be a little mixed, so read the reviews before purchasing. Also, keep a look out for discounts that appear from time to time.

Creative Live

Creative Live has the option of a one-off monthly/annual fee, or, pay per course. There are fewer courses to choose from then Udemy but with the courses being taught by experts in their field. The focus on courses is mainly around business, photography and video, craft, music and design.

Hopefully, this article helped you understand why learning new skills is important. If you want to learn about remote working then, of course, you can subscribe to the Remote Hive podcast and browse the library of Remote work articles on here.

Disclosure: This article includes links to my affiliate partners, where a commission is paid when you purchase through this website. Only products and services which have been tried and tested are partners. Please note that this does not, in any way, affect the price that you’re paying, it just means I earn a little bit of money.