Develop your skills: 10 platforms with free online courses

9 de February, 2023

Investing in your training and personal and professional development is always a win-win situation. And that investment doesn’t always have to be monetary.

There are many platforms, educational institutions or companies that offer free online training and courses in a wide variety of areas.

Come and discover with us 10 websites where you can deepen your knowledge or develop a new skill.

1 – Digital Portugal

The Portugal Digital platform was created with the aim of accelerating the country’s digital transformation through the digital empowerment of citizens. On this site you can find a number of free courses in areas such as:

• Productivity and collaboration tools;
• Cybersecurity;
• Data analysis;
• Digital marketing and communication;
• E-commerce;
• Program.

These courses are offered by Portugal Digital’s partner companies, such as Accenture, Cisco, Google or Microsoft, for example. You can consult all the free digital training courses here.

2 – Google’s Digital Atelier

Google’s Digital Atelier takes on the mission of teaching content that can help develop companies’ businesses, workers’ professional lives or simply their confidence. And all completely free of charge.

The courses available are divided into three categories:

• Digital marketing: principles of digital marketing; creating an online presence for your company; promoting your company with online advertising; among others.
• Professional development: start your CV; increase work productivity; how to speak in public; among others.
• Data: introduction to the code; improve your company’s online security; among others.

When you complete a course you receive a certificate from Google that you can download and share (on LinkedIn, for example).

3 – Coursera

Coursera is a platform with more than 5,400 online courses that has established partnerships with companies (such as IBM, Meta or Salesforce) and international universities (such as Columbia University, Stanford or Cambridge, for example).

You can filter the courses by their duration, by level (basic, intermediate, advanced or mixed) or by the topic covered, which can be related to arts and humanities, information technology, mathematics and logic, personal development, social sciences, among others. You can also filter by language, and there are many courses with Portuguese subtitles.

All you have to do is explore the most interesting courses for you, sign up for free and wait for them to start, as the start dates are already pre-set.

4 – FutureLearn

FutureLearn is another platform that aims to promote lifelong learning by offering online courses. Most of the training courses offered have an associated cost, but there are some short courses that can be taken for free.

Some of the topics available are related to digital skills (artificial intelligence, digital marketing, social networks, etc.), inclusion strategies (for example, gender equality in education or inclusive pedagogies) or sustainability (how to design a more sustainable future).

FutureLearn relies on the support of various partner companies such as Samsung, the British Council and Accenture, as well as educational and charitable institutions, to ensure these themes are implemented.

5 – Udacity

Udacity is another platform where you can find many free online courses. The contents of these courses are co-produced with companies from different sectors of activity (such as Oracle, Amazon, Google or Microsoft) and aim to contribute to the development of digital skills that are valuable in the job market.

Some of the subjects taught are:

• Artificial intelligence;
• Web design;
• Programming languages;
• Virtual reality;
• Statistics;
• Project management;
• How to create a start-up.

You can find training based on your level (beginner, intermediate or advanced) or according to the length of time, which can range from just a few hours to four months.

6 – Udemy

Udemy positions itself as a teaching and learning marketplace that aims to empower people and help them achieve their goals.

Like some of the previous platforms, Udemy offers paid courses as well as free ones. To find the ones that don’t cost anything, you can search for “free courses” in the search bar.

You’ll find a list of training courses on topics such as Excel, Photoshop, WordPress, digital marketing, personal development, emotional intelligence, among many others.

You can also easily check the duration of the courses, the number of lessons for each one, the level and the language, and most of the lessons are available with audio or subtitles in Portuguese.

7 – Codeacademy

Codeacademy is a website that, as its name suggests, is aimed at teaching code. The aim is to share resources and tools that enable people to take advantage of technology.

On this platform you can essentially find courses that enable you to develop websites based on different programming languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, etc.). You can only consult the catalog of free courses and filter by level.

There are three subscription plans available, the most basic of which is the only free one and includes access to: free training; student communities for questions and exchanges of ideas; resources to support the learning process (such as videos, articles, etc.)

8 – edX

edX aims to encourage people to reach their potential and become agents of change through access to quality education.

The courses offered have free access and paid access: in most cases it is possible to attend the lessons without paying, but typically participation in exams and assessments, as well as obtaining certificates, have a cost involved.

To find courses that are relevant to you, you can filter by level, by language, by the partners who teach them and, of course, by subject, which is divided into areas such as architecture, communication, design, economics and finance, engineering, history, literature, philosophy, mathematics, management and many others.

To teach these topics, edX has the support of renowned institutions such as Harvard, Oxford or Princeton.

9 – LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is another platform where you can develop your knowledge for free, but only for one month. At the end of this trial period, the subscription becomes paid and you can cancel at any time.

You can set a career goal and, as a result, LinkedIn Learning offers a personalized range of courses to meet that goal. Course topics range from digital marketing, sales, design, web development, customer service, diversity and inclusion, among others.

More than 16,000 courses are available, taught by professionals who are experts in the various sectors of activity. As with the other platforms already mentioned, companies can also subscribe to a corporate plan in order to make the training available to their employees.

10 – HubSpot Academy

HubSpot Academy is a platform that invites people to invest in their personal and professional development by accessing online training adapted to the digital age.

These formations are divided into six main categories:

• Marketing;
• Sales;
• Customer service;
• Web design;
• Web development;
• Privacy and data protection.

It’s possible to learn a few topics and take shorter lessons of just a few minutes, or to develop more in-depth topics in longer certifications of a few hours. The instructors are professionals specialized in the different areas at HubSpot.

What do you think of all these platforms with free online courses? Are you interested in trying any of them out?

Remember that there’ s always time to develop your skills and these online courses can be very useful for consolidating your knowledge, obtaining certifications or simply expanding your horizons.