LAST UPDATED: July 2020
What beats a free lunch? A complimentary career boost of course, and there are plenty of on-the-house tech training courses to choose from. Read our rundown to see what tickles your technical fancy.
Digital Marketing Skills
Google Digital Garage is a fantastic online course brought to you by the masters of search. Positioned as a “one-stop shop for mastering digital marketing”, the course covers 26 topics including:
Building your web presence
Search
Analytics
Social Media
Online advertising
Video
Content marketing
As you progress through each section you’ll unlock the associated badge, boosting your knowledge as you go. (Bonus points for making upskilling feel like you’re levelling up in an RPG!) Plus, by completing the certification process, you’ll enhance your CV too. Simply sign up online to start and complete the course in your own time.
Coding
While many of us use advanced technology few of us know how to build it, making coding a sought-after skill. With programming an integral part of moving technology forward, it’s no surprise that there’s an abundance of coding everywhere.
In recognition of the lack of diversity within the tech industry, many of the courses are aimed at encouraging other demographics to upskill and apply for technical roles.
Here are a couple of the free courses and training available:
If you already have some coding knowledge but want to improve, there are plenty of coding meetups across Manchester at places like Madlab (currently preparing for a re-launch) and Code Computer Love NQ.
Coding Plus
Been out of the workplace for a while? This could be the course for you. Tech Returners has partnered with Barclays Digital Eagles to provide eight free places on an eleven-week course for people seeking a tech role following a career break.
The course aims to break down the barriers that time away from work can cause by focussing on:
an introduction to coding
rapid prototyping including 3D printing, laser and vinyl cutting
softer skills like building your confidence
rebuilding your network
personal branding
Big Data
With IBM predicting a 28% increase in data scientist roles specialising in this lucrative discipline could be a smart move.
Free training from Data Science Capstone means you can. While you need to pay to receive certification you can explore the course, watch lectures, and participate in discussions at no cost. The course covers the basics of creating a data product, so you can “automate complex analysis tasks or use technology to expand the utility of a data informed model, algorithm or inference”.
For a similar course but with a focus on decision making, check out Coursera’s Data-Driven Decision Making course in conjunction with PwC.
Machine Learning
Another hot topic, machine learning can also be learned gratis at Udacity. Taught by industry professionals, the course takes ten weeks and you’ll be taught how to investigate data through a machine learning lens.
This includes extracting and identifying useful features that best represent your data and learning algorithms and how to evaluate their performance.
As you can see, there’s a wide range of free technical skills training available. With technology advancing at pace, investing a little of your time to enhance your CV and future-proof your career is a wise investment. All you need to do now is decide which direction you want to take.
Harvard
The prestigious Harvard University has dozens of free courses and course materials available on their website, including everything from Data Science to Business Studies.
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