It’s never a bad idea to upskill yourself. And, with hundreds of online courses available today, it has never been easier to acquire new skills. Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and more actively collaborate with top universities and educational institutions to create and offer those courses directly to our screens.
Also, rather than focusing on degrees, employers focus on hiring skilled people. They want someone who brings in technical knowledge along with creative expertise to offer unique solutions.
Below, I’ve shortlisted five in-demand skills. Besides explaining the utility of these skills, I’ll mention some online courses that can effectively teach you those skills.
Without further ado, let’s get started:
Cybersecurity
Open LinkedIn, and you’ll see that everyone wants a cybersecurity expert today. The reason is simple: cyber threats have increased in recent years, and companies have become more vigilant in countering those threats.
Well, besides online threats, companies also hire cybersecurity experts to find existing loopholes in their tech products and existing IT practices. Below is one of the best cybersecurity courses that can help you gain this invaluable skill.
- IT Fundamentals for Cybersecurity Specialization
This online course is designed by IBM and it’s available on Coursera. It offers a free 7-day trial period and teaches:
- Network Security
- Malware Protection
- Networking Hardware
- Cyberattacks
- TCP/IP
It’s a comprehensive course and will test your knowledge via quizzes and assessments. That said, quizzes and assessments are time-bound; you’ll need to clear them to progress to the next module.
Here, I’d advise you to fix your connection if it’s not already fixed. I failed an assessment due to a spotty connection and had to wait for some time to retake it. However, I switched to Verizon, and yes, I did fail some more quizzes, but never due to my internet connection.
Plus, I can always rely on ever-responsive Verizon customer service to quickly resolve my queries, if I have any.
Cloud Computing
It is another in-demand IT-related field. Cloud computing includes tools, servers, networks, etc, which effectively reduce businesses’ reliance on in-house software. Plus, most cloud products are managed and updated by their developers, hence providing much-needed convenience to businesses.
The course below thoroughly teaches cloud computing:
- Information Technology (IT) and Cloud Fundamentals
This online course is also designed by IBM and offered by Coursera. More than 15,000 people have already enrolled in this course. You can learn the contents below from this course:
- Cloud Engineering
- Computer Hardware
- Cloud Computing Architecture
- Computer Programming
- Data Storage
It offers a shareable certificate and 58 practice exercises. Besides, you’ll find top cloud-computing instructors teaching this course, which I believe really adds value to it.
Programming
You should definitely learn programming if you have a knack for creating websites, web applications, software, and work tools from scratch. Programming is a diverse and growing field with a lot of potential.
The course below can help you excel at programming:
- Python for Everybody Specialization
Charles Russell Severance, one of the top Python instructors from the University of Michigan, has created this course, which is available on Coursera. It’s an extensive 2-month-long course that extensively focuses on Python and teaches:
- Databases
- Database Management
- Data Modeling
- Web Scraping
- Data Structures
It’s a five-course series and offers 21 practice exercises. Besides, it is also available in 27 different languages.
Machine Learning
It’s a subset of artificial intelligence. And all the AI-powered tools, websites, software, gadgets, etc., you come across use machine learning (ML) in some capacity. So, there’s no denying that with AI transforming the digital landscape today, ML is going to play an equally important role.
I’ve mentioned one of the top ML courses below:
- Machine Learning Specialization
This online course is a collaboration between Stanford University and Deeplearning.AI. You can learn to create different ML models with the help of NumPy and build and train neural networks with the help of TensorFlow.
This course also teaches the following core concepts of ML:
- Classification And Regression Tree (CART)
- Reinforcement Learning
- Random Forest Algorithm
- Deep Learning
- Predictive Modeling
The 31 practice exercises offered by this course are great for hands-on experience. And, I believe that this course can thoroughly prepare you for any ML-related job offered by top companies.
DevOps
It is a combination of two words, “development” and “operations”. The importance of DevOps has significantly increased in the last few years. A DevOps engineer is responsible for bridging the gap between software development and IT teams.
The following course can thoroughly teach you about DevOps:
- IBM DevOps, Cloud, and Agile Foundations Specialist
This online course is designed by IBM, and you can access it on Coursera. Besides teaching Kanban Principles, you can also learn the following DevOps skills:
- User Story
- Agile Methodology
- Cloud Engineering
- Sprint Retrospective
- Cloud Computing Architecture
It’s a three-course series with an average rating of 4.8 stars. And, like most online courses, it also offers a flexible schedule so that you can learn at your own pace.
To wrap up, these are the top five in-demand skills that you should focus on. Also, keep in mind that the courses I’ve mentioned are paid ones. Though most of them offer a free trial period, it might be limited to a few modules or lectures.