One of the fastest, and best ways to improve your salary or career prospects is through continuing education. Regardless of your title, level or years of service, professional employees should be seeking opportunities to expand on their skills, on an annual basis, in order to remain competitive within the job market.Unfortunately for many professionals, continuing education costs can be prohibitive.
Did you know however, that there are a number of free training and educational courses available online, at absolutely no cost or obligation? From entrepreneurial, sales and marketing training, to skills like tax management, technology and even web and graphic design, free courses are available to help professionals grow their portfolio of skills. The best part is that you can engage in this online learning from home, at lunch or anywhere you have access to a laptop or tablet to view lectures and complete the coursework.
Take a look at three suggestions we recommend for career professionals:
Coursera
This website offers an online directory of free courses that are available from American universities, including Stanford, Johns Hopkins University and many more. Coursera offers free online courses in music and the arts, technology, programming, psychology, management and leadership skills enhancement and other key transferrable skills.
Academic Earth
The website offers courses from prestigious ivy league universities, including free online continuing education from Harvard University. From quantum physics to the fundamentals of journalistic ethic, you can find free video lectures and complete coursework online, to help you grow in new and exciting career directions.
MITOpenCourseware
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has had over 200 million visitors to this website, and is one of the first sites to offer free continuing education for professionals and public access, launching in 2001. The MITOpenCourseware website now offers 2,340 completely free online courses for professionals to explore and enjoy.
If you have a computer or tablet, or even just a smartphone, you can register on the free continuing education websites and complete the coursework, to continue expanding your marketable skills. When you have completed each course, remember to update your CV and LinkedIn profile to demonstrate recent learning, and share with prospective recruiters and employers.
