Online learning is amazing. We can pretty much pick anything and find a course or a tutorial to help us get to the level that we want to be at. Great examples are learning to do a cut crease in makeup (not easy at first), or make pompom rugs (time-consuming but very pretty), but you can learning skills that can help you build beautiful websites or even coding and game building!
It is exciting to be able to have access to technology to help ourselves learn. Here are a few in-demand computer skills that you should check out. Some are free, and some aren’t. But they will all help you learn new tech skills that will make you more hireable and ultimately able to command a higher salary.
Coding
Coding is super cool and can be used for so much. Initially, when you look at some code, it might feel like it’s just a bit too much to comprehend. But actually, it’s mostly very logical. Codecademy has a range of coding classes that cover most of the languages. Ruby, Java, jQuery, CSS, HTML are just a few of them. There are 12 free ones, and if you love them, you can purchase the Codecademy Pro account for $19.99.
Other great online coding sites are:
- freeCodeCamp
- Coursera
- edX
- Codewars
- GA Dash
- MIT OpenCourseWare
- The Odin Project
There are many more, but they will get you started.
Websites
You might want something to show off your photos, or somewhere to share your writing, or just for the sake of having the skill. Sites can be a lot of fun to build and maintain and needn’t be as hard as you think. There are some great online resources that provide simple website solutions. Some are free, some aren’t – but there is pretty much something for everyone.
- Wix – has stunning options, very visually compelling and has a lot of options to upgrade to paid options. Great website builder for beginners.
- WordPress – on-click install, thousands of theme options (of which most are editable), many wizards and a plethora of online guides. Great for blogging and portfolios.
- Weebly – a popular choice for small businesses, there are paid features, but you have everything you need in the free version really.
- IM Creator – At the time of writing this, they have an impressive 17,420,822 sites built using their website creator. It’s free, easy to edit, all of it is responsive, and you can start nice and slowly.
Computer Programming
You can view computer science program here to get an overview of the course and costs. But, generally, computer programming is about writing instructions that get executed by computers. This comes under coding, but they are more designed to give computers instructions. In general, this involves analysis problems, generating algorithms and creating solutions for specific issues.
Lynda.com
If you have ever watched really cool animations, then you might’ve had a feeling thought about creating them yourself. Lynda Weinman, who is a special effects animator and multimedia professor funded a digital arts school. It has since been purchased by LinkedIn, and you can try it out free for one month – after that is is $29 a month. It covers a wide range of technical topics and is excellent for you to get a feel for more than just one area.
Udemy
This one isn’t free in most cases but if very reasonable and very flexible. It’s more designed to help people who are already in employment build on their current skills or learn new ones. Knowing that time constraints are usually a thing for professionals this is a great option. You can get good deals and discounts on a lot of the courses, and the range is pretty huge.
Cyber Security Training
With more transactions being made online there is much more of a possibility that it can be hacked or attacked. Learning how to prevent these, and if it does happen, fix the damage is going to pay off. Pluralsight has a range of options. Network Defense, Security Awareness for Business Professionals, Web Application security and more. This can be pretty in-depth, but if you have already got a really firm grip on coding or how hackers would access your website or the website of your boss, then this is a logical next step.
Gaining new skills in coding, website building, computer programming is the smart thing to do in a world where technology and computers are being implements for new roles every week. Being able to offer those skills in your current job role, or in a position that you want to take in the future is the best thing you can do for yourself.
*Originally, published on MSweetwood.com.
