About the author
It’s essential to stay current in your area of expertise. Learning new skills will also make you more employable and able to offer more services to your clients.
Designate an hour or two weekly to improve your skills or learn new ones. Every Sunday morning, you find me in my favorite coffee shop with a book or consuming content on my laptop.
Before we get into the guide, consider how you like to learn new skills. Do you prefer listening to a podcast, watching a video, or reading a guide?
Research the Teacher
It would help if you learned from people who have experience in the skills they teach, so research the teacher before consuming any content. Are they authority figures in their specialized field? It would help if you learned from respected, trustworthy people.
Niche Communities.
My preferred way of learning is within communities like Youpreneur and Smart Passive Income. There, I learn with other people who have the same struggles, and the engagement keeps me motivated to learn.
Chris and Pat run these communities and offer free content on their blogs, podcasts, and YouTube videos. They also provide free and paid courses, so there is always something for everyone.
To find niche communities, use Spotify or Apple’s 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 find knowledgeable and experienced people within your field.
YouTube is Free
We’ll start with YouTube, the second-largest search engine on the Internet. People often underestimate it when learning new skills.
Yes, you will find a million cat and challenge videos, but YouTube is also 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.
Search for how-tos and tutorials. When searching, use the filters to look for recent videos so you don’t learn from out-of-date content. Subscribe to channels to get notified when they upload new videos.
Google Digital Garage
Google’s Digital Garage offers over 100 free courses, covering everything from the fundamentals of digital marketing to public speaking. Each course 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 Coursera, which has over 1,000 courses and projects. You can learn anything from how to teach online to machine learning. Many of the courses are from universities around the world.
Ted Talks
Spend an hour watching videos on Ted weekly, and you’ll increase your intelligence! The videos are from talks worldwide on various topics, including personal development and marketing.
Use the search functionality to find the topics you want, 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 are a must-visit if you want to learn new skills. You can learn about game development, literature, the fundamentals of neuroscience, and many other topics that are way above my intelligence!
Alison
Do you want courses with certificates? Alison is worth checking out. Wide range of courses, from understanding GDPR (beneficial for freelancers) to introducing the art of negotiation. Many courses seem to be from established universities like Stanford and reputable teachers.
Open University
You will have heard of the Open University if you’re from the UK. It offers a list of free courses on topics like languages, business, and personal development.
They are all listed by category and highlighted if they are beginner, intermediate, or advanced courses. Sign up for a free account to track your achievements.
Next, these three paid course websites will help you learn new skills.
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 will be provided. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, research the teachers because anyone can submit content to these platforms.
Skillshare
For a monthly fee, you get access to all courses and training within the Skillshare platform. Browsing through, you feel that this is a place for creative people with filmmaking, illustration, animation, and design courses.
Udemy
With Udemy, you pay for the course you want to take. Think of a topic you want to learn, and there will be one listed. The quality can be mixed, so read the reviews before purchasing. Also, keep an eye out for discounts that appear from time to time.
Creative Live
Creative Live offers the option of a one-off monthly/annual fee or paying per course. There are fewer courses to choose from than on Udemy, but experts in their field teach them. The courses focus mainly on business, photography and video, craft, music, and design.
Hopefully, this article helped you understand why learning new skills is essential. If you want to know about remote work, subscribe to the Remote Hive podcast and browse the library of remote work articles here.
Disclosure: This article includes links to affiliate partners, where a commission is paid when you purchase through this website. Only 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.
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