With millions already unemployed or underemployed and a half a million or more joining their ranks monthly, job seekers need to take advantage of every opportunity to improve their employ-ability odds. If your search for a job, or a better job is seems to be stalled, it could be a good time to launch an aggressive program to upgrade your knowledge and skills in your current field.
Or you could decide to get some training in another employment specialty with better prospects for job openings.
Even if your current financial situation position won’t allow you to enroll in standard degree courses from a college, university or technical school, there’s a wide range of free, online educational opportunities available via your connection to the Internet. Perhaps you owe it to yourself to check these programs out. It’s likely you’ll find one that suits your needs and interests and will make your educational background more attractive to the employment market.
As early as 2002, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) began to make the teaching materials of many on their courses available to anyone over the Internet. Instructor lesson plans, notes, class exercises, reading references and even tests became available to anyone with access to the Internet. MIT’s approach was, at first, somewhat bare bones. But as the courses gained popularity the delivery became more complete and sophisticated, when such technologies as streaming videos and/or audio files came into use as a way to present the material to the online students.
The technical levels of online course construction still varies widely. Some courses are relatively low-tech with austere student/instructor interfaces. They may rely on a series of simple web pages or downloadable pdf files to deliver course materials, exercises and tests. Others are highly developed and employ streaming audio and video and multi-media as instructional delivery vehicles. This allows students to view lectures and get closer to the classroom environment.
The University of California at Berkley has a large, highly developed catalog of free online study. Biology, chemistry, computer programming, engineering, psychology and legal legal studies courses are some of the area of instruction available online. Most use podcasts and webcasts as a teaching tool. Other schools, like Standford, offer courses that can be downloaded to IPods, PCs and Macs and played back using ITunes.
What are the limitations? A major one is the courses offer no college credits. Even if you successfully navigate your way through a course, the time spent won’t contribute to an advanced degree. Also, many of the free courses aren’t custom designed to be presented online without personal interaction between the student and instructor. A student will need to be patient, and self-disciplined to get the most out of these offerings.
Though the courses don’t award college credits hours or lead to a degree, their value in a person’s job search shouldn’t be underestimated. Your self-motivated improvement efforts will have a good chance of favorably impressing potential employers.
Related Links:
Change My Career File for Unemployment Online Local Unemployment Office
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