Fill the Gap
Let's say you find a technology job posting that looks perfect for you, except you're missing a particular skill that the employer wants, say, knowledge of JavaScript. If you were quick on your feet, you could promptly enroll in an online course and start learning, even while you apply for the job.
It could be weeks before you were contacted for an interview, weeks of precious time to start developing a new skill. By the time of the interview, you may have enough knowledge to speak intelligently about your developing new skill—with full disclosure to the interviewer what you are doing to fill the knowledge gap.
With this in mind, we've compiled a list of universities and schools that offer online courses, many of them available for no charge…that's right…free tuition. For example, Harvard offers computer science and 78 other courses at no charge, though it does charge a nominal fee if you need a Verified Certificate of completion. (YouTube and other streaming sources will test your critical analytical thinking skills in your search for quality information on those platforms.)
Recall that candidates who lack certain skills can be trained on the job, but the truth is that no amount of training can overcome a poor fit. The employer will hire you if she is confident that your temperament is well-matched with the company, even if you lack certain skills they need. She knows that hiring a highly skilled employee with a poor fit to the corporate culture will result in more turnover when that employee inevitably leaves.
It's to your advantage to match your knowledge and skills with the company’s requirements for a job. Here is a partial list of institutions offering free (and affordable) online courses.
Tuition-free online courses
Class Central
https://www.classcentral.com/collection/ivy-league-moocs
Hundreds courses from Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale, categorized by a subject, with ratings and reviews.
Coursera
https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=free
Over 1500 free courses Yale, Stanford, John Hopkins University, U of Michigan, U of London, and more.
digitaldefynd | e-learning hub
https://digitaldefynd.com/best-free-certification-course-training-online/
Connects to top 100 free online courses and 20 best free online certifications & courses for 2020, from Ivy League and other schools.
Harvard University
https://online-learning.harvard.edu/catalog/free
78 free courses in Game Development, Web Programming, Mobile App Development, Accounting, Statistics, Justice, Law, Rhetoric, and more.
Stanford University
https://online.stanford.edu/free-courses
Learn from Stanford instructors and industry experts at no cost to you in topics of Business & Management, Computer Science, Data Science, Environment & Energy, Personal Development, Health & Medicine, Education, Engineering, Arts & Humanities, and more.
Yale University
https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/online-courses
Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to a selection of introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University. Open Yale Courses has been generously funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and supported by Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning
MIT
https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a free, publicly accessible, openly-licensed digital collection of high-quality teaching and learning materials, presented in an easily accessible format.
Skillshare
https://www.skillshare.com/classes/free
Browse thousands of free classes for your career in design, business, photography and more.
Alison
https://alison.com/
Free online courses in technology, language, science, health, humanities, business, math, marketing, and lifestyle. Certificate and diploma courses are for fee.
MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)
https://www.mooc.org/
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are free online courses available for anyone to enroll.
Udacity
https://www.udacity.com/
Ideal if you’re looking for a job in the world of tech or programming. Udacity has around 200 courses that are completely free (but do not offer a certificate). Usually these courses are created as part of a paid micro-credential that Udacity offers called a Nanodegree. Free access for one month during Covid-19 crisis.
Open Culture
http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons
Lessons in 48 languages (mp3) including Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Italian, Russian and more.
Duolingo
https://www.duolingo.com/
Learn a language for free.
Affordable online courses
Coursera
https://www.coursera.org/
Business, Science, Programming, Social Sciences, Languages, Arts & Humanities and more, with available certifications.
Udemy
https://www.udemy.com/
100,000 online courses starting at $12.99 each. Business Design, Photography, Development, Marketing, IT&Software, Personal Development. One of the bestsellers is The Complete Financial Analyst Course 2020.
Masterclass
https://www.masterclass.com/
With over 80 instructors and more than 90 hours of education and insight, the fields you can explore are endless.
Skillshare
https://www.skillshare.com/
More than 20,000 classes in design, business, tech, and more.
General Assembly (GA)
https://generalassemb.ly/
Learn the latest technology skills such as Software Engineering, UX Design, Data Science, Front-End Web Development, Product Management, Data Analytics, and more.
Pluralsight
https://www.pluralsight.com/
Company offers specifically focused technical subscription-based courses C#, IT Networking, and Cyber Security & Malware Analysis, etc.