How to learn new job skills for free (or close to it)
What’s the biggest roadblock between you and your dream job? According to research from USA Today and AARP, money tops the list and a lack of training comes not too far behind it. Combined, the two prevent a great many people from changing careers. But not Liz Beigle-Bryant.
After getting laid off from her $18-an-hour administrative job with Microsoft, at age 55, Beigle-Bryant decided to learn coding for a Microsoft database management system. But at a cost of $3,000, the formal Microsoft training was more than she could afford. So instead she turned to Codecademy, a free educational website, to learn the same skills.
The results have been promising. “Right after I was laid off, I got a six-month vendor job migrating an HTML website to SharePoint, Microsoft’s document management platform,and that was a direct result of [my time on] Codecademy,” says Beigle-Bryant. Now she’s on the hunt for a full-time coding position.
As Beigle-Bryant found out, there are a great many ways to acquire your next skill on the cheap—and sometimes, even, for free. In fact, says Brian Kurth, founder of career-advisory service PivotPlanet, since the Great Recession, free has become the price point that many people are demanding. “Fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for career transition, career advancement or business startup advice,” Kurth says. So where should you turn if your skill set needs a brush-up?
Take a free or low-cost college class
Coursera and edX both offer college courses from schools including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, University of Michigan, Duke University, Princeton University and the list goes on. And you can take them informally for free. However, if you want to get your papers graded and a course certificate, then you’ll pay anywhere from $29 to $99 a class on Coursera and $25 to $150 on edX. A 2015 study published in Harvard Business Review found that over half of Coursera students (52 percent) were there for career benefits, either to improve their current job or find a new one (the other half were studying just for fun) and that one-third of these “career builders” found some sort of tangible career benefit—like a promotion, a raise or a new job—as a result.
What’s the biggest roadblock between you and your dream job? According to research from USA Today and AARP, money tops the list and a lack of training comes not too far behind it. Combined, the two prevent a great many people from changing careers. But not Liz Beigle-Bryant.
After getting laid off from her $18-an-hour administrative job with Microsoft, at age 55, Beigle-Bryant decided to learn coding for a Microsoft database management system. But at a cost of $3,000, the formal Microsoft training was more than she could afford. So instead she turned to Codecademy, a free educational website, to learn the same skills.
The results have been promising. “Right after I was laid off, I got a six-month vendor job migrating an HTML website to SharePoint, Microsoft’s document management platform,and that was a direct result of [my time on] Codecademy,” says Beigle-Bryant. Now she’s on the hunt for a full-time coding position.
As Beigle-Bryant found out, there are a great many ways to acquire your next skill on the cheap—and sometimes, even, for free. In fact, says Brian Kurth, founder of career-advisory service PivotPlanet, since the Great Recession, free has become the price point that many people are demanding. “Fewer and fewer people are willing to pay for career transition, career advancement or business startup advice,” Kurth says. So where should you turn if your skill set needs a brush-up?
Take a free or low-cost college class
Coursera and edX both offer college courses from schools including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, University of Michigan, Duke University, Princeton University and the list goes on. And you can take them informally for free. However, if you want to get your papers graded and a course certificate, then you’ll pay anywhere from $29 to $99 a class on Coursera and $25 to $150 on edX. A 2015 study published in Harvard Business Review found that over half of Coursera students (52 percent) were there for career benefits, either to improve their current job or find a new one (the other half were studying just for fun) and that one-third of these “career builders” found some sort of tangible career benefit—like a promotion, a raise or a new job—as a result.
Take—or teach—a skills-based class
In addition to college style courses, there are a wealth of online courses that can teach you specific skills—anything from data analysis with Excel, successful negotiation techniques or effective email marketing and logo design. At Skillshare.com, for example, there are over 4,000 courses accessible for a monthly fee of $10 (or a discount of $8/month if you pay for one year, $6/month if you pay for two.) There’s also a three-month trial for 99 cents total that gives you unlimited access to more than 500 of the courses the site offers (for the other 4,000 you need to pay the monthly fee). Udemy.com, which offers 40,000 courses ranging in price from free to about $50 a piece, has courses in many of the same areas.
And note: If you’re looking to supplement your course-taking efforts, you might want to do it by teaching your own skills to others. On Skillshare, for example, you can create bite-sized video content of you teaching your skill, upload it to platform and start earning revenue after the first 25 students enroll. Skillshare operates by splitting revenue 50-50 with the teachers. “Teachers make anywhere from about $300 to $2,000 a month in passive income,” says spokeswoman Nicole Kamra. By that she means that once you create your video you can sit back and earn money without doing any additional work. And if you’re looking for courses in a specific discipline, it’s always worth checking websites or trade groups devoted to your industry. For instance Media Bistro, a website for journalists and public relations professionals, has started offering short online courses in topics such as copywriting and email marketing for $49 to $129.
Get an apprenticeship—at any age
The Department of Labor (DOL) is awarding $175 million in American Apprenticeship Grants to 46 public-private partnerships to boost the number of registered apprentices in the U.S. to 750,000 by 2019. Think apprenticeship and you probably think Downton Abbey (downstairs, of course) or a fresh-out-of-high-schooler training to be a plumber or electrician. The field is much broader than that. Today available apprenticeship occupations on the DOL website include dental hygienist, gem cutter and funeral director. As with traditional apprenticeships, you earn a modest starting salary while in training, and then receive a boost in pay once you’re proficient or certified. The average age of apprentices is now 28 and “the jobs are going to people of all ages,” says Eric Seleznow, deputy assistant secretary for employment and training with the U.S. Department of Labor. A program for Zurich Insurance claims representatives, for example, pulled in people from age 18 to age 50, and it’s not the only one. “A lot of programs are looking for talent first, age second,” he says. (On the other hand, if you see a program recruiting from a high school, it’s a pretty clear signal that they want younger talent.) For more information, search for your state’s workforce website or visit one of the 2,500 American Jobs Centers nationwide. You can find them at careeronestop.org.
Read Full Article Here: Thinking of Changing Careers?
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