The Best Free Online Resources To Upskill in the Digital Sector

Almost half (49%) of respondents from a recent Linkedin study* said they plan to increase the time they're spending on online learning in the next two weeks.

When asked what they want this learning to help them accomplish, nearly half said they wanted to progress in their career path, while 47% said they wanted to learn something interesting that's unrelated to their line of work. A further 32% said their aim was to improve their emotional well-being, while 30% said they wanted to contribute to society and help others.

More than half of those at director level or above said they planned to take part in more online learning in the next two weeks, with 20% of these expressing interest in boosting their leadership skills. 

We have scanned the internet and collated the best free resources and courses to upskill during the pandemic. 

Technology: Coding, Machine Learning & Analytics: 

• Free coding app for beginners: For five minutes a day, you can complete lessons, quizzes and visual puzzles to build your coding skills. 
   
• The Open University is providing courses on basic maths and how to write computer code. 
   
• Google has put together a course on Understanding the basics of code 
   
• The University of Michigan is offering Getting Started with Python 
   
• Understand the basics of machine learning 
   
• Stanford University and it's Machine Learning course includes Silicon Valley's best practices in innovation for machine learning and AI.
   

• HTML5 and CSS3 Fundamentals: Build your own website with HTML5 CSS3 

• Excel Pivot Table Basics: Start analysing data with Excel's data analysis tool

Online Marketing:

• Get certified in the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing from the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe and The Open University

• Futurelearn is offering courses in digital skills and producing online content
   
• Social Marketing Specialisation AKA creating viral content: "Content, Advertising & Social IMC"
   

• Understand customers needs and online behaviours using some basic web analytics skills

• The University of Illinois examines how digital tools are changing the world of marketing and their impact on the way products are designed and marketed

• The Trade Desk is offering courses on data-driven marketing

Leadership, well-being and soft-skills:

• Inspiring Leadership through Emotional Intelligence
   
• Public speaking
   
• Time Management
   
• The Science of Well Being is being offered by Yale University, already it has had 2,495,045 students enrolled!
   
• EveryMind App (free for 6 months) is a personalised mental health support app for businesses that offers support to employees and insights into what your team needs
   
• Develop and maintain healthy tech habits: Digital Wellbeing ​

  
  

 
Other Free Resources

• MasterClass, although pricey, is now offering 1 free class per week on MasterClass Live
   
• The Open University is offering a range of Technology Courses 
   
• My World of Work 
   
• Business Insider's top 54 free online courses
   
• The UK government launched the Skills Toolkit, a collection of training resources to help people use the lockdown to acquire jobs skills for when more businesses reopen.
   
• Take tours of hundreds of museums around the world via Google's Arts & Culture Collections

*Report from Linkedin