In the U.S., more than 90% of employers think there’s a skills gap. That means companies are forced to hire candidates without their ideal skill set.
The coronavirus pandemic has further changed the job market. Many people are out of work, companies are making tough decisions, and HR departments have to adjust to new hiring practices.
If you’re a current job seeker, how can you stand out from the competition?
Enter job skills training. Read on to find out where you can learn job skills for free without leaving home.
1. Improve Your Writing
No matter what industry you’re in, you need to know how to write effectively. Employers look for good communicators and writing is a great place to start.
Udemy is a great resource for finding free writing classes. You’ll find a range of classes that teach you how to write with clarity, be more persuasive, and make your writing stand out.
2. Learn a New Language
Many employers value people who can speak more than one language. If you’ve always wanted to learn another, now is a great time to start. Plus, it can give you an edge when you’re applying for jobs.
Duolingo is a free tool that turns learning a new language into a game. The short lessons can easily fit into a busy schedule, so you’ll be able to do a lesson whenever you want.
3. Get Better at Public Speaking
If you dread giving speeches or offering ideas in meetings, you might benefit from a course on public speaking. Many people consider it their greatest fear, so practicing this skill is an admirable use of your time.
You can take a free course on public speaking at Udemy. This course analyzes real speeches and shows you how to use those successful techniques.
4. Expand Your Cooking Skills
If you’ve always wanted to turn cooking into a career, you can use your extra free time to improve your cooking skills.
Luckily, you can find cooking classes online for free. Milk Street Cooking School is offering its online classes for no cost. You can also learn a lot of great cooking skills on YouTube.
You can turn your newly improved cooking skills to become a chef, start a cooking blog, or to get a job at a food publication.
5. Refresh Your Food Service Skills
The restaurant industry has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As restaurants slowly reopen, proper food safety has never been more important.
Whether you work in a restaurant or you hope to in the future, you can refresh your skills with some of the free courses from ServSafe. You’ll learn how to protect guests and coworkers, five-step hand washing, cleaning guidelines and more.
All you need to do is register and watch the training video and you’ll get a record of your training.
6. Get Better at Using Microsoft Products
If you have an office job, chances are you need to use Microsoft Office. Companies use programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. While you might already have a basic understanding of these programs, you can always learn more.
Microsoft Learn offers a range of learning paths that help you learn job skills for free. You can follow at your own pace and take exams. Keep in mind that official certifications will cost money.
7. Learn How to Use Adobe Products
If you’ve been looking at job listings lately, a lot of companies in the creative fields want candidates who know how to use Adobe products. Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat are the most common ones and they help you edit photos and design documents.
Whether your employer already gives you access to Adobe programs or this is a totally new skill, you can watch free tutorials for each one.
8. Learn Graphic Design
Whether you want to create posters, logos, or custom graphics for social media, graphic design is a great job skill to have.
You can find free courses in graphic design on Lynda. You’ll get to learn how to use color, fonts, and more. Plus, you can use your new skills to make new designs using Adobe software.
9. Build Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Skills
SEO is a complex process of bringing traffic to a website. Whether you work in marketing or you want to grow the traffic your own website brings in, you can always improve your SEO skills.
Because Google updates their algorithm every few months, SEO is constantly changing. That means there’s always something new to learn and more best practices to adopt.
You can find a ton of great SEO resources and articles on Search Engine Journal. Moz.com also has a comprehensive free SEO guide if you’re a complete beginner.
10. Learn to Code
Code is the programming structure that supports everything from websites to computer programs. Whether you’re interested in a career in tech or you want to learn more about the structure behind websites, you should learn to code.
On CodeAcademy, you can take free classes on 14 coding languages, ranging from HTML to Python. You can take the basic classes for each language for free. If you want to learn more, you can upgrade to a paid Pro account that costs about $20 a month.
Start Job Skills Training Today
Whether you want to refresh your current skills or transition into a new career, job skills training can help. Plus, you can find lots of relevant training for free online.
Featured Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash.