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5 Best Online Learning Platforms to Enhance Your Job Skills

Brandy St. John
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The job market is about to get intense. “It already was,” you may be thinking, and you’re right. According to Gallup research, half of American employees are actively seeking a new job while they’re already employed. Even the people who have jobs are always looking for a new, better gig, so you’re not just competing with the unemployed. And that was before we entered into record unemployment numbers.

man on laptop
Surface/Unsplash

Needless to say, this is a good time to add some skills to your resume. There are many online platforms today that can help you do just that. Listing important skills on your resume can be the key to “beating the resume tracking system” and get an interview. Some of these sites also offer certificates, but just improving skill levels, or adding an important skill can give you the edge.

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Udemy

Udemy is an online learning platform with over 150,000 courses. With that many courses, their range of content is obviously vast and includes everything from casual hobbies to advanced technical skills. All courses are proposed, designed, and led by the instructor. This means that pricing varies ($10 – $200) based on the subject and the depth of the course. Fortunately, the courses are ranked by student feedback, and you can get a 30-day refund if you’re not satisfied with your course. This is a great platform for beefing up your writing skills. Try one of the brand’s courses on technical writing, copywriting, or content writing. So many job hunters have focused on tech skills for so long that recruiters are now looking for candidates with strong written communication skills.

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Linkedin Learning

Linkedin Learning merged with one of the first online learning platforms, Lynda, and uses its original subscription format. LinkedIn Learning offers a free one month trial and charges $20 per month after that, if you commit to one year. The company offers 15,000 courses with a broad range of content, so if you have a lot of courses on your to-do list, a subscription service like Linkedin Learning is definitely the way to go.  It’s great for general business courses like management, software, and data analysis.

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Justin Paget/Getty Images

Skillshare

Skillshare is a learning platform that leans toward visually creative fields such as graphic design, illustration, photography, and film, but it also offers writing, tech, and business courses. It’s a subscription service that is $8.25 per month if you get the one-year subscription. Like other subscription platforms, that means you can take as many courses as you want. There are even free courses offered, so you can try it out before you commit. Skillshare would be great for courses like Adobe Indesign or Photoshop, which are a must for working in creative/marketing agencies.

Cybrary

Cybrary is another online learning platform that offers both free and paid courses. The service focuses on tech and tech industry courses. Its most popular courses involve cybersecurity (there’s even one on “ethical hacking” but you didn’t hear that from us). If you’re ready to lead your team, they also have a project management course that would be a huge asset to anyone in the job market who’s ready to make the jump to team supervision or management.

Google Analytics Academy

If “free” is your budget, Google Analytics Academy is an excellent way to add one job skill that most industries today require: Data analytics. Google is obviously a great teacher here since it’s a pioneer in this field. The courses start at the beginning level and go on to cover advanced and specific skills, such as Data Studio. All of these buzzy skills will definitely help your resume in today’s data-driven workforce.

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Brandy St. John
Brandy St. John
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brandy St. John is a celebrity stylist, musician, and writer from Los Angeles. She’s best known for styling rock musicians…
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