Acquiring new knowledge is an important prerequisite for long-term professional success, because the world around us is constantly changing. Only those who deal with new developments and keep their knowledge up to date will be able to keep up. Lifelong learning is therefore important, regardless of whether you manage a company with 1,000 employees or earn your living as a freelancer.
But you don’t have to complete expensive training and earn the next degree. After all, it’s all about the practical applicability of knowledge. Because only those who can use the new knowledge in everyday work will have an advantage.
Acquiring new knowledge on the Internet
The Internet offers a wide range of excellent services that help acquiring new knowledge. At the same time you benefit from the following advantages:
- There are offers for every imaginable field and for every level of experience
- You can learn when and where you want
- Many of the offers are very practice-oriented
- Many knowledge offers are available either free of charge or for little money
Here is a selection of the most interesting possibilities on the Internet to acquire new knowledge:
Udemy |130.000 professional courses*
Udemy offers 130,000 video courses on a wide range of topics – from entrepreneurship and marketing to programming or Microsoft Office. Whether a course is good or bad can be quickly recognised by the user ratings. The prices are moderate and there are almost always special offers where you can buy courses with high discounts. Most courses also offer a few free lessons that you can watch. Another advantage is that most of the courses are divided into small bites. This way you can easily integrate a course into your everyday life. Udemy is certainly one of the most diverse providers on the net when it comes to acquiring new knowledge.
Link: udemy.com*
Babbel | Learning languages
At Babbel you can learn new languages easily and quickly. In the English language version, more than 13 foreign languages (e.g. German, Russian, Spanish, etc.) are available for learning at different levels. All courses are professionally structured and the first learning successes are quite fast. The speech recognition system is also very good, and you learn to pronounce the new foreign language correctly from the first lesson.
The costs for the language courses are between 6€ and 10€ per month depending on the contract.
Link: babbel.com
Blinkist.com | Read summaries of non-fiction books
Reading books usually costs a lot of time and money. Blinkist compiles professional summaries of bestselling non-fiction books that can be read in about 15-20 minutes. With the app that comes with it, you can read or even listen to some of the summaries on the go.
The summaries get to the heart of a book’s key messages. In this way you can acquire a lot of new knowledge in a short time. Those who want to go even deeper into the subject can still buy the book. One random book summary per day is available free of charge. To access the entire collection a subscription is necessary, but it is available from 80 € per year.
Link: https://www.blinkist.com
Ted.com: Inspiring lectures
For many years, TED has been bringing inspiring and motivating people to the stage to give public lectures. The topics are varied and range from science and art to entrepreneurship. Many well-known entrepreneurs, from Bill Gates, Elon Musk to Richard Branson, have already taken to the stage of TED to present their ideas.
Link: TED.com
Highbrow: For those who have little time
If you do not have much time and still want to acquire new knowledge, you should take a look at Highbrow. Every day you will receive one lesson by e-mail, which will take no more than 5 minutes to complete. The topics range from eCommerce basics to coding and marketing. The subscription with which you can take as many courses as you like is available from 30 € per year.
Link: gohighbrow.com
MOZ: All about search engines
Being found on the Internet is important for most businesses. MOZ explains in various guides and videos in a simple and understandable way how search engine marketing works and what you need to pay attention to. You can decide for yourself how deep you want to go, as there is something for every level.
Link: moz.com/learn/seo
Codecademy: Learn programming
In various industries it is an advantage to have at least some basic knowledge of programming. This can be easily acquired in the practical and free online courses of Codecademy. The spectrum ranges from classic programming languages like PHP or JavaScript to Ruby or Python.
Link: codecademy.com
Data Science: Dataquest
Big Data is one of the big trends. Acquiring knowledge in the field of data analysis is therefore not wrong. Dataquest offers a solid online training to become a data analyst for about 25 € per month. If you don’t really know if you like the field of knowledge, you can test the course completely free of charge.
Link: dataquest.io
Envato Elements: Online courses and much more*
If you do a lot of creative work and an online course alone is not enough, you should look into Envato Elements. In addition to more than 1,000 online courses, a subscription also gives you access to 53 million creative assets (videos, photos, graphic templates, etc.), which you can use for your creative projects (including commercial) without having to provide a source reference. At €174 per year, the subscription is very cheap for the services included.
Link: Envato Elements*
YouTube: Free knowledge
The boom of video content on the net has contributed to the fact that platforms such as YouTube are now also offering good videos with which new knowledge can be acquired in an uncomplicated way. In contrast to paid services, however, knowledge offerings are often less well structured and of lower quality.
Link: YouTube.com
Skillshare
Skillshare is another provider of quality online courses. The spectrum ranges from courses on productivity to programming or entrepreneurship. The premium membership with access to all courses is already available for 99 € per year.
Link: Skillshare.com
LinkedIn Learning
The business network LinkedIn has also jumped on the learning trend. A total of 16,000 courses are offered, ranging from topics such as agile project management to body language or Scrum. The whole offer is already available from 20 € per month. LinkedIn Learning also offers a free 30-day test to evaluate whether or not you like the service.
Link: LinkedIn Learning
Adobe Tutorials: Photoshop & Co lernen
Adobe’s software products have become an integral part of everyday business life. Knowing at least the basics can therefore be an enormous advantage. Adobe offers online a variety of different tutorials for the different programs. There are videos for beginners as well as for advanced users
Link: adobe.com
Additional tip: If you are looking for a complete online course on Adobe programs, you should take a look at the courses by Daniel Walter Scott* at Udemy. His practical courses are a lot of fun and you can expand your knowledge within a short time – no matter if you are a beginner or a professional.
Hubspot: Marketing from A-Z
Hubspot is the corporate blog of the software provider of the same name for inbound marketing. But this does not influence the quality or the usefulness of the contributions. Here you can find many practical articles on all kinds of marketing topics from e-mail marketing, landing pages to marketing automation.
Link: blog.hubspot.com/topics
Thomas Hutter: Social Media
Thomas Hutter is one of the major social media experts in the German-speaking world. In his company blog, he presents practical tips and news about social media.
Link: http://www.thomashutter.com/
*Affiliate Links
Image Credit: kallejipp / photocase.de
