What are you going to do today?

Do you have a lot more free time now that you don’t have to commute to and from work? Don’t have any shops open available for endless roaming? Have you finished every possible Netflix, Amazon Prime, even Disney+ TV shows, documentaries, and movies and are ready for something a bit more productive?

We want to share 10 online courses you can invest your time in to help recession-proof your skillset, hopefully when business returns to normal. Why should you do this now? Because if you wait until things get better to brush up on your skills to compete for the jobs available on the market (which won’t be that many given businesses will be nursing their financial wounds even as the economy warms back up), you will be left far, far behind.

After this period of self-isolation and working from home, the majority of business owners who would have survived the slowdown would have created an online business presence. Bakeries are selling flour online, traditional food chain restaurants have moved ordering online, and education has taken a shift from offline classrooms to online e-learning.

There is a growing demand for businesses in all sectors to build or strengthen their eCommerce strategy with the ongoing health concerns keeping consumers at home. According to a Forbes article published on March 25th , internet use is already up 70% and online streaming is up 12%.

Here are 10 courses to strengthen your online branding, selling, and marketing skills to benefit your own business if you are an entrepreneur, or if you are an employee, to help you strengthen your skillset to secure a job.

1. Introduction to Game Design (Online Course)

What are people doing at home? Many are spending their time playing games on their mobile and/or digging up their old gaming consoles to provide hours of entertainment. You say…I’m not going into the gaming industry, so why would I want to learn about it? Gamifying traditional marketing elements will help you create more engaging advertisements both online and offline. So get on it!

Key Info: 3 credits, 4 hours per session, 11 weeks

2. Digital Imaging (Online Course)

Being a digital marketer now requires not just a strategic mindset that is up to date with all the latest platforms and functions, but also an eye for what makes for great visual content. LaSalle College offers an online course in Digital Imaging to help you develop image manipulation skills.

Key info: 3 credits, 1.5 hours per session, 11 weeks.

3. Graphic Design – Branding (Online Diploma Course)

As mentioned, many businesses will shift their efforts online, meaning they will need a polished online brand design. LaSalle College Vancouver offers a 3-semester online diploma course covering key design knowledge such as branding, typography, photography, graphic design, and more.

4. E-Business (Online Diploma Course)

If you are looking to move your own business online, or help your clients do this, the online e-Business program will discuss the key components needed to make it online – designing a user experience, the website development process, leveraging social media and interactive communication, and other web marketing tools to get your online business off the ground.

5. Paid Traffic Mastery 2019 Edition (On-Demand)

The ability to deliver ROI-based online campaigns, not just awareness-based campaigns, will be crucial now and as the economy recovers because businesses want to know how and where their money is being spent and what kind of return they are getting and within what timeframe. Yes – it’s a numbers-based world. With deep-dive sections for Facebook, Google and LinkedIn advertising, you will gain insight into the largest and up and coming advertising platforms and how to thrive on them.

Learn at your own pace with this course from Digital Marketer.

Key info: 9.2 hours of on-demand content, 10 downloadable resources

6. Copywriting Mastery 2020 Edition (On-Demand)

Another course from Digital Marketer that helps you produce copy to move customers along their steps in the Customer Value Journey. Both visual and written content in online communications is important, and this course taught by the Director of Copywriting Training at AWAI shows you how to write effective and persuasive sales copy.

Key info: 5.7 hours of on-demand content, 13 downloadable resources

7. Data Analytics (Part-Time Certificate)

With the shift of offline businesses moving online, it means more business decisions will involve the use of data analytics to help with making strategic decisions. Brain Station offers a series of Online Live courses you could learn from home. You will learn how to build and manage databases, identify dataset trends, and present your insights.

8. Web Development (Part-Time Certificate)

Businesses are looking to strengthen their online presence, so web development skills will give you an advantage even IF you are not a full-time developer. Develop professional web pages, master the building blocks of the web with an understanding of HTML and CSS, and build an exceptional portfolio by the end of this course.

Visit Brain Station to inquire about a course package for this online course.

9. iOS Development (Part-Time Certificate)

With internet usage up 70%, people are spending more time on their mobile devices, meaning mobile sites, apps, development will be in higher demand. Again, we aren’t saying you should become an app developer full time, but the knowledge of how to build a UX and UI will be a value add when employers see if on your resume! Visit Brain Station to inquire about a course package for this online course.

10. Coursera

Partners with top universities and organizations worldwide, Coursera’s most popular courses of 2019 show students are interested in machine and AI learning topics. These are up and coming communications channels for marketers, so make sure to get ahead of the curve by taking one of the following courses today.
10.1. Machine Learning – Stanford University
10.2. AI For Everyone – deeplearning.ai
10.3. Algorithms, Part I – Princeton University
10.4. What is Data Science? – IBM
10.5. Neural networks and Deep Learning – deeplearning.ai

Click HERE for a list of free courses available from Coursera!

Above provides an extensive list of different skills you can start building right now, according to your different levels of available time. From online courses with on-demand resources to online live classes with set class schedules and multi-semester diploma courses, pick and choose as you need to adopt new skills that will make you a valuable addition to any team in this slower market.