I was thinking the other day about how long it has been since I graduated. It was 2014 and has been almost 10 years! The thought of upskilling has always been on my mind, but a quick search showed that I not only needed to commit effort and time, but a ton load of money! Yawns, this really puts me off, and I will rather utilise some of these free resources. Of course, YouTube is a good place to start if you like watching random videos and there are tons of resources there.
Here are some more structured programmes that are better structured:
1. Coursera – https://www.coursera.org
Coursera is a platform that hosts more than 5,000 legit courses that are backed by universities. You can choose from an array of topics – it feels like you’re in an international university with lots of choices. You can pay a small amount to take the course, or audit a course for free. Once you “join” the course, you are sent the course materials or you can access it directly on the platform, with deadlines just like school. You can even check out courses from your alma mater to see if the syllabus has changed or whether it’s now more effective. For some courses there are pathways to build competencies and you get “certified” too.
Recommendations: choose a pathway that helps with your career, or just take a fun course that builds your interpersonal or photography skills!
2. Udemy https://www.udemy.com
This platform is very similar to Coursera in my opinion and I was introduced to it as pre-work for my project management course. Like Coursera, there are so many topics to choose from and generally they are video courses (more than 185,000 video courses!) taught by experts.
Recommendations: if you’re paying, wait for discounts/ sale! You can also try out the following platform that might incorporate udemy too.
3. NTUC Learning hub https://www.ntuclearninghub.com
I took so many courses on NTUC learning hub for the IBF funded courses in 2020 where I was actually given $10/h as a training allowance! Gone were the days of that during covid but a lot of these courses are funded, especially if you’re Singaporean!
Recommendations: take note of funding deadlines and become a ntuc member to get UTAP funding. This post is not sponsored! 😛
4. Libby app (National Library Board)
If you’re Singaporean, make sure you download the Libby app so that you can get access to e-books when you register with your National Library Board account. More info here: https://mobileapp.nlb.gov.sg/get-started-with/libby/
It’s easy to use, can be used on the go, and you have access to the large catalogue that NLB boasts! Definitely a great resource to have when you will like to get more information on certain skills or topics.
Recommendations: you can reserve e-books or popular books on the app, they usually are available quite soon!
I hope these options are useful to you in your journey to upskill!
Daily Rant 