Free Online Courses for Students: Level Up Your Resume
For students aiming towards a specific career and requiring the use of a skill-set that matches that career, or for students with some spare time who want to add a range of skills and experiences to their CV, taking free online courses is a great choice. Some online courses and certification that you can acquire for free, in your spare time, help to add flavour to your CV, showcasing skills and demonstrating your suitability for a wider range of careers, roles, and tasks.
With the number of free online courses and certification growing in recent years it allows for greater personalisation and potential growth for students looking beyond their university degree. With student budgeting important, access to free courses for students online is desirable for many.
Benefits of taking free online courses
For current students, free online courses can provide a valuable complement to existing classes and study. It also provides an alternative perspective on topics that you might not be familiar with or where you want to gain a broader understanding of something. It can help you to review important concepts and skills that you want to sharpen up on, get used to a brand-new topic, and help you add new skills and experiences to your CV with a view to specific roles and potential careers in the future.
Types of online courses
Some of the best online courses that you can do for free, include:
HubSpot Academy
An inbound marketing course that provides you with HubSpot certification over a five hour course, this is something that is beneficial to those students aiming to get into a marketing career. As it is quite short, it is also an attractive free online course for those students who have recently graduated or are close to graduating. Inbound marketing is the use of social media, podcasts, blogs, and other off-site marketing methods to attract people and potential customers to a company website.
FreeCodeCamp
This range of on-going free software development courses offers you access to close to 12,000 online tutorials, books, and articles. The cost is free, and you can claim certificates for different courses. It’s a great tool to learn basic HTML, web design, JavaScript, front and back-end development, and more. Over 100,000 people have graduated from FreeCodeCamp and some have used certification to land jobs at Google, Microsoft, and other big companies.
SEMrush Academy
This on-going free search engine optimisation (SEO) certification is another great free online course to assist students looking to get into digital marketing. SEO is the process of tweaking a website, articles, and other posts to rank higher on search engines and make it easier for potential customers to find a company online. SEMrush offers a range of free courses to teach basic SEO that looks great on your CV.
Mental Health First Aid
A 6-week course that provides accredited certification and level 2 qualification for mental health first aid. On average it takes 6 weeks to complete and provides you with all the skills you need to guide someone who is struggling with a mental health crisis, and how to protect your own well-being through self-care.
AIM Group
For two hours a week for between 4-12 weeks, this free online course provides you with a fully accredited level 2 qualification in diet and nutrition. It shares the benefits of regular movement and healthy food choices. The aim is to help you understand how to improve sleep, stress levels, and the overall balance to ensure a quality life.
Tips for free online courses for students
There are a few simple tips that will help you take on free online courses for students:
Only do it if you have the time: No matter how much you want to do a free online course, it’s important that you only take it on if you definitely have the time. Your university work should always be the priority, and it is important that any extra online learning doesn’t negatively impact your existing workload.
Be consistent: Make sure that you are consistent with your online course, following the same processes that you use for your university work and schedule. Half-finished courses are not a good habit to get into. It means you are wasting your own time and not adding anything to your CV either.
Plan and schedule to ensure that you are consistent, block out time in your calendar to study and work on your free online course every week. You must approach it in the same way as your university work if you are to be successful.
Give it your all: Fully commit to the online course. It will bring you a range of benefits to take it as seriously as you can, from learning new skills that you can apply to a variety of things, add to your CV, and impress future potential employers.
The Round-Up
Are you interested in taking on some free online courses to help boost your CV? Maybe you’ve got some spare time and just fancy learning some new skills. As a student, there are money saving tips that can help you stretch your budget and make the most of your time at university. Free courses for students online provide you with a great way to learn new skills, boost your CV, and spend no money in the process. There’s no downside to it at all as far as we can see! Let us know what you think to free courses for students online and if anything takes your fancy this coming year as you add to your CV and build new skills for your future career.