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• In the future world of work, acquiring new skills is a constant necessity.

• Where such skills come from will become increasingly irrelevant to employers.

• Utilizing online courses can allow workers not only to continue developing their skill-set over time, but it can also allow them to jump-start a new career in a brand new field of their choice.

In the future world of work, acquiring new skills is paramount. To adapt to the times, educating yourself and developing in-demand skills is necessary.  

How might this be done? For some, the traditional university system is either not an option or is uninteresting for many reasons.  

Despite the importance of higher education, the fact of the matter is that enrollment rates have been dropping for decades with no end in sight. However, this does not mean that those who opt out of higher education are out of options to develop their marketable skill-set.  

Online certificates have been around a long time and can be great options for developing marketable skills. They are typically shorter than degree programs, and some can even lead straight to a job.  

Here are some of the best online certificates available that may lead directly to obtaining work.  

Google Project Management Professional Certificate  

Project management is always an in-demand position. The demand for project management workers will increase over the next ten years at a higher rate than most other jobs.   

Likewise, there is an ever-growing talent gap in project management that may continue to widen.  

Google’s project management professional certificate is designed to make you job-ready within six months for project management positions, even with no prior experience.  

On Coursera, Google’s project management certificate has a 4.8/5 star review average from over 28,000 reviews.   

Project managers are exactly what they sound like: they are the team leader working on a project, ensuring it gets done efficiently. Thus, this certificate is for conscientious and gregarious people looking to jump-start a new career.  

IBM’s Data Science Professional Certificate  

Data science is another field where demand is high but supply is low. Likewise, it is a field that pays quite handsomely. Starting salaries for data science workers is around $100,000.  

Naturally, one may work at IBM after completing their professional certificate as a data scientist. IBM, in fact, highly encourages this route themselves, readily accepting this certificate for their data science jobs.  

On Coursera, IBM’s data science certificate has a 4.6/5 star review average from over 52,000 reviews.  

According to IBM, high demand and low supply of data scientists are likely to continue in the coming years. For most data science jobs, all that is needed is an understanding of specific software systems, which IBM’s certificate will familiarize students with.  

Thus, if you are interested in a job that entails getting trained in applied mathematics and statistics with great pay, IBM’s certificate is a great choice.  

Facebook social media marketing certificate  

Marketing is another field that is not only in demand, but such demand is slated to continue rising in the coming years.  

The current crowning jewel in the world of marketing is social media marketing. Most people are on social media, and leveraging that can bring in a lot of revenue for a company.  

You do not need a college degree in marketing to obtain a job in marketing. For example, Facebook has a social media marketing certificate with a great job-placement track record.  

On Coursera, Facebook’s social media marketing certificate has a 4.9/5 star review average from over 7,000 reviews. 

Google UX Design Professional Certificate  

Once again, UX design is a job in demand and will grow in demand in the future of work.  

The basic tenant of UX design is to design websites in such a manner as to make the user experience of the website most optimal. This includes making it easy to find relevant things and ensuring that the website’s aesthetics complement such usability.  

“People are looking for opportunities to find jobs and build careers in fields that are projected to grow over time,” says Catherine Courage, Google’s VP of Consumer User Experience and executive sponsor of Google’s UX Design Certificate. “UX design is one of those high-growth fields – there are 113,700 job openings in UX design across the U.S., with an average entry-level salary of $58,600. But even though these jobs are available, there aren’t enough qualified candidates to fill them.” 

On Coursera, Google’s UX design professional certificate has a 4.8/5 star review average from over 23,000 reviews. 

Conclusion

Having in-demand skills is the critical element in finding new work. This will only continue to be the case in more salient ways in the future of work. And where such skills come from will become increasingly irrelevant to employers.  

Utilizing online courses can allow workers not only to continue developing their skill-set over time, but it can also allow them to jump-start a new career in a brand new field of their choice.