As the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world, governments and authorities are struggling to find out how to take care of the situation. Authorities across the globe have placed restrictions in an effort to curtail the spread, which has disrupted billions of everyday routines.
Those unprecedented times left millions of people unemployed around the globe, particularly the gig workers. According to a recent study by Tribune, Pakistan’s Planning Ministry has predicted that 12.3 million to 18.5 million people are likely to lose their jobs in the region. On top of this, due to the current pandemic, the country’s economy will suffer Rs. 2 trillion to Rs. 2.5 trillion losses within three months.
Millions of unemployed people are still trapped at home, with little use to do. Therefore, this time in quarantine a growing number of people are using to develop their skillset. This has contributed to an increase in online learning program enrolments such as edX, FutureLearn, Coursera, etc. After the start of the pandemic, Coursera has seen an eight-fold rise in enrolments for online courses.
If you’re looking to embark on self-improvement as the countrywide lockdown continues, you might want to check out the free courses these renowned platforms are offering.
Future Learn
Future Learn offers a diverse range of courses from the world’s leading cultural institutions and colleges, including King’s College London, University of Oslo, and the University of Monash.
The platform provides over 400 free short courses such as flight mechanics, ADHD awareness, football: more than just a game and sustainable growth, etc. In addition, the Huge Open Online Course (MOOC) platform will offer 16 Free Certificate Courses until June 30th. Usually, those courses cost $30 to $85 each. For more information, you can visit their blog too.
Coursera
Coursera has made 3,800 of its courses available for free to unemployed people because of the coronavirus pandemic, to support the housebound masses. The enrollment is open until 30 September, and students will have to complete their courses by 31 December 2020.
In addition, the company has revealed 85 free (previously paid) certification courses from universities including Duke, Caltech, and Georgia Tech. Every course originally costs around $50.
Udacity
Udacity, one of the leaders in the MOOCs region, has announced 10,000 cloud grants. Those eligible for the scholarship will get a free spot in the upcoming Hybrid Cloud Nanodegree at Udacity. Presently the applications are available.
Apart from that, Udacity also offers plenty of free beginner-level courses. The courses cover primarily subjects, including AI, programming, and autonomous systems.
Udemy
Udemy is another popular MOOC that helps people make themselves a better version when they are stuck at home. 700 + free courses on topics like engineering, leadership, and language have been released on the website.
All you need to do is sign up on the website, and you will have access to 700 free courses covering a range of subjects. Additionally, Udemy has a rich blog to help you find the best courses to enroll in.
Harvard University
Although not unique to the pandemic, Harvard has a comprehensive list of free courses on sale. Such courses include free videotaped lectures given by renowned professors at Harvard. The key genres covered are programming, business, health & medicine, technology, humanities, and art & design.
Pluralsight
Pluralsight, an American platform for business skills training, offers its full catalog of more than 7000 free online courses despite the pandemic. The courses deal with subjects such as programming, machine learning, and cybersecurity. The platform usually allows students to sign up for a $29 subscription per month. However, the deal only remains available until 30 April.
Moz Academy
Moz Academy provides SEO education with Easy-to-access courses that cover all facets of search engine optimization. The platform has made all of its courses free until 31 May in order to play its part in helping the world through these tough times. Normally those courses cost $50 to $200 each.
To access the free catalog, all you need to do is sign up on their website and use the promo code ‘wegotthis.’
edX
Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX offers a forum for university learning courses like MIT, Harvard, Berkley, University of Boston, and much more. However, all of the edX courses are open to testing for a limited time span. It is the only company with MOOC that is both non-profit and open source. The platform is home to over 2500 courses covering subjects such as Architecture, Art & Culture, Biology & Life Sciences, Business & Management, and much more.
Conclusion
During the pandemic, there are a lot of other lesser-known MOOCs, as well as Ivy League schools that offer free online courses.
If you are a student or an adult who is newly unemployed, online courses are an excellent way to develop your skills collection. The internet has an immense wealth of knowledge. You can just as well use it during the lockout for your own benefit.
