As we rapidly advance into an increasingly digital world, digital learning tools and platforms become an important and useful tool for professional development. 

In a recent publication produced by Ernst & Young, the professional services firm explored the technological revolution and how this in turn has dramatically changed the way we live and work.

It reveals how many of the physical objects and services that we interact with daily have become digital.

Whether you are seeking a promotion, a new career path, or simply some self-learning, here are six digital learning tools to help with your career journey.  

Mind Tools 

Mind Tools is an online learning platform that allows you to attain practical career related skills, strategies and techniques to aid career development.

The online toolkit covers topics such as Leadership Skills, Problem Solving, Time Management, Project Management and Creativity Tools, to name a few.

There is also a Mind Tools club members area which offers downloadable ‘Bite-Sized Training’ focussed on one-hour sessions, as well as hundreds of downloadable Book Insights.

Open2Study 

Open2Study was established in 2013, built and managed by Open Universities Australia.

The platform receives over 35 million page views per year, and offers a number of free online courses that can be taken to either upskill in your current career or learn a new skill.

Courses offered include Financial Literacy (Macquarie University), Human Resources (Open Universities), Innovation for Powerful Outcomes, Mobile Robotics and Concepts in Game Development (Swinburne University) and Mining Engineering (University of Newcastle).

The online education platform allows you to sign up using your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account. Course materials include videos, further readings, assessments, quizzes and transcripts via an online classroom.

Codecademy 

Codecademy is an online platform that enables you to learn to code interactively, for free.

This platform is great if you are interested in a career change and want to learn what coding is about, or if you are looking to advance your skills as a freelance web designer, or simply refining your Wordpress expertise.

Either way, learning to code can be a useful skill in an era of advancing technology. The site offers free coding classes in a number of programming languages including Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript (jQuery, AngularJS), Ruby, SQL, and Sass, as well as markup languages HTML and CSS.

If you don’t know what any of those are, it might be worth jumping on-board and learning!

Adobe Learn 

Adobe Learn offers a library of free digital material as a source of expert insight for Adobe Products, which are used by many companies and corporations.

Whether you are seeking to bring out the best in your creative photography with Lightroom, looking to create graphic design style logos, icons and sketches in Illustrator or creating 3D artwork in Photoshop, Adobe Learn is the home of online tutorials and tools which will assist you to produce your best work.

One Month 

One Month is an accelerated online learning platform with a focus on entrepreneurial and technology based courses for those looking to grow their business, build a website or develop an app.

The digital classes consist of entertaining, easy to follow video lessons with on demand mentors to answer any questions.

In one month you can choose to learn how to ‘Build a User Base to Grow Your Business’, ‘Build Your First Mobile App’ or ‘Learn the Process of Developing New Products’.

The Great Courses 

The Great Courses is a series of paid video and audio courses produced for personal knowledge enhancement, each course presented as a series of lectures without homework, tests or schedules.

The platform enables you to choose the format that fits your lifestyle, whereby you can tune in on your television, laptop, tablet or choose to listen on your mobile device while on the go.

Course categories include Economics & Finance, Literature & Language, Mathematics, Philosophy, Better Living, History, and Music to name a few.

Thanks to the ever-increasing amount of self-teaching content available online, you don’t necessarily have to limit your career progression due to what you already know, what you can afford to learn, or whether a structured course would fit into your busy schedule.

Online learning can be a great way to up or side-skill yourself, adding to your professional knowledge and skills.

Article written by Mel Thomson – Business Partner, Recruitment within the Talent and Sourcing Team, Network and Service Operations nbn.

Increased connectivity is changing the ways in which we can learn, grow, and organise our lives. And it doesn’t have to stop with age! Check out these four online learning activities for retirees, if you have someone in your life that could use a little extra stimulation during their retirement.