Free Online Course websites?

Former Member

Hi people

I'm curious if anyone knows of a good (UK) website where I can study free online courses in Excel, Customer Service, Typing, and other computer software.

Also, since I've never studied a course online before, how do they work?

Thanks

Former Member

Hi SpinTires

It sounds positive that you're looking to study at the moment Having training can really help when looking for work.

From my personal experience, learndirect offer certain courses for free if you're in receipt of certain benefits. It might be worth having a look at their website here: http://www.learndirect.com/. They vary in how they work, depending on the course you choose. Some of them you can do completely from home by watching videos and others you will need to go to your local learndirect office for a bit of the course time.

If you're not in receipt of benefits, it can be a bit trickier to find training which is completely free. There are websites such as Coursera https://www.coursera.org/ and Future Learn https://www.futurelearn.com/ but they tend to offer more academic things rather than practical skills. You can always go to Code Academy if you're interested in learning about programming for free, though - it's a useful skill and their courses are quite easy to follow: http://www.codecademy.com/

Hope this helps!

Sarah

Former Member

Sounds like you'd be best learning to do your ECDL, I did Advanced level, it's quite straightforward. Ask your local college if they can accommodate you or something. My local one told me to ask the local secondary school near me, and I signed up. I know it's not online, but mine was self-progressing. I just visited the school at night if I fancied it and to do the exams.

But if you're literally just looking to learn new things and not gain qualifications from it, Coursera and CodeAcademy are great. http://www.vision2learn.net/channels/index.aspx offer free courses based on your location (they're provided through local colleges) - they offer customer service, org management, business and administration, essential IT skills (which covers Office suites). I haven't actually completed a course through them because work got in the way and I was more qualified than what they offered, so never pursued it, but they seem genuine.