Fee-free courses that will help you upskill during COVID

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on the Australian workforce with many workers either being stood down or having their hours reduced. To support the Australian workforce many major educational institutions and universities are offering a huge variety of free online courses - providing opportunities to upskill during this downtime.

If you’re interested in retraining, upskilling or even just broadening your horizons in a particular area, now might be the perfect time.

Here are some of my top fee-free course picks:

1. Leading in a complex environment - University of Queensland
   This course would add real value to a resume given the current climate. Great leadership is a sought-after skill, so adding definitely work exploring if you work in a management position. Demonstrating your ability to adapt to our forever-changing environment is so crucial - especially when you have a team to manage.
   
   The University of Queensland has over 50 fee-free courses. Some of my other top picks include:

   • Design thinking and creativity for innovation

   • Global media, war and technology

   • Market segmentation analysis

   • Creating and sustaining an innovation culture

2. Creativity in entrepreneurship - University of Southern Queensland
   When is creativity and ‘thinking outside the box’ ever an unappreciated skill? The answer is never - especially right now. Being innovative can bring so many benefits to a workplace, especially during challenging times when budgets are tight. Yes, this course focuses on entrepreneurship but it also focuses on analysing and applying different principles and practices to enhance creativity in a workplace - the reason why I think it would be a great bonus to have up your sleeve. Having the ability to bring new and fresh ideas to a business will really help you stand out as a prospective employee.
   
   USQ also offers four other free mini courses:

   • Campaigning for change

   • Planning for moving people

   • The ethical leadership path

   • Understanding the human cyber threat

3. Introduction to project management - University of Adelaide
   I strongly believe that project management is an essential skill to have both in at work and in life generally. If you need to upskill in workload management, organisational, time management, and prioritising skills, this course would be perfect for you. It also covers a lot of basic, day-to-day skills that are essential to many careers - and could add real value to your resume.
   
   

   My other picks from the University of Adelaide are:

   • Think, create, code

   • Essential human biology

   • Cyberwar, surveillance and security

   • Big data analytics

Why not use your downtime to retrain or upskill?

These are just a handful of courses that I found online. Have a look yourself - you’ll be amazed on how many upskilling opportunities are out there - and for free.