Top 5 Online Learning Platforms to Help You Grow as a Business Leader

Nov 12, 2021 | Website Design

Kevin Fouche

Top 5 Online Learning Platforms to Help You Grow as a Business Leader

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

Developing your business skills is crucial whether you’re an entrepreneur or a corporate employee. Essentially, the skills help you understand the internal and external factors necessary for an organization’s success. In other words, they empower you with the ability to oversee the smooth running of an organization. Here are Top 5 Online Learning Platforms to Help You Grow as a Business Leader.

Business leaders’ most treasured skills include leadership, business management, data analysis, financial accounting and management, communication and negotiation skills, emotional intelligence, etc. Apparently, no one leaves the college a masterpiece. Even those endowed with some natural leadership skills still need to acquire others as their responsibilities call for it.

That’s why continuing education is an integral part of one’s career journey. And with the availability of online courses that offer flexibility and convenience, career development has become easier than it used to be. Virtual education is a steady stepping stone to your career growth, from college courses and degrees to creative and business skills courses.

Top 5 Online Learning Platforms to Help You Grow as a Business Leader

This article reviews the top 5 online learning platforms you can explore to improve your skills. They include;

1. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning distinguishes itself as a platform that offers personalized content designed to help learners fill their skill gaps and achieve professional goals. Formerly Lynda, LinkedIn Learning now offers comprehensive courses ranging from business, creative, and technology courses. With 16,000+ courses taught by industry experts and available in seven languages, the platform is home to learners from diverse linguistic and professional backgrounds.

Powered by insights from the LinkedIn social platform, which primarily caters to the professional community, LinkedIn Learning courses are designed to match the industry’s demand for hard and soft skills.

In practice, effective online courses should employ high-quality production to deliver engaging content to retain learners’ interest. The platform meets these expectations effortlessly as its courses boast best-in-class graphics, visuals, and sound.

Benefits of Using LinkedIn Learning

  • Course recommendations based on your role
  • Customized learning paths
  • Unlimited library access
  • Supportive community
  • Interactive learning
  • Full access to LinkedIn Premium
  • Certificate of completion

Owing to these and other benefits the platform offers, it has become quite popular, with more than 75% of Fortune 100 companies on board.

Examples of the leadership and management courses available include;

  • Diversity and inclusion
  • Management skills
  • Meeting skills
  • Organizational leadership
  • Talent management, among others.

To start using LinkedIn Learning, you can enrol for their one-month free trial and then subscribe for monthly or annual billing. The yearly subscription is billed at $25.80/month, while monthly billing costs $38.82/month. Note that these charges change occasionally, but you can check here for the latest pricing.

2. Coursera

Coursera offers a variety of accredited university courses and degrees. You can find a variety of relevant courses to improve your business skills, from certificate programs to master’s degrees. These are developed by 200+ top universities and companies, such as Stanford, Imperial London College, Google, IBM, Duke, Penn, etc.

With over 4,000+ courses, the platform caters to over 87+ million users. Fields covered include;

  • Data Science
  • Computer Science
  • Social Sciences
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Language Learning
  • Math and Logic
  • Business
  • Health
  • Personal Development
  • Physical Science and Engineering
  • Information Technology

The platform has both free and premium courses, some of which you can complete in a day. Popular free courses include machine learning, financial markets, successful negotiation, brand management, etc.

The leadership and management courses on the platform target both new and seasoned leaders and equip them with skills in employee development, team building, and change management, among others.

Certificates

  • Introduction to Finance and Accounting
  • Business and Financial modelling
  • Financial Markets (free)
  • Investment Management
  • Private Equity and Venture Capital (free)
  • Financial Management, etc.

Degrees

  • Bachelor of Science in Marketing
  • Bachelor of Science in Business Administration
  • Master of Business Administration
  • Master of Science in Management
  • Master of Business Administration, etc.

Benefits of using Coursera include;

  • Guided projects, assessments, and quizzes
  • Job-based learning programs
  • Mobile apps (iOS & Android)
  • Industry skill insights and benchmarking
  • Verified certificates after course completion, etc.

If you want to use Coursera to empower your employees, you can enrol at $399/user/year. This comes with a 14-day refund guarantee. For larger organizations, you can request a custom quote here. Alternatively, you can join for free and explore some free courses before deciding on the plan.

3. Udemy

Udemy offers niche career skills courses taught by real-world experts. The platform has over 183,000 video courses in various categories such as business, personal development, marketing, design, IT and software, photography, music, etc.

The Udemy Business program has 6,000+ courses tailored to unlock the potential of business leaders and their employees. With the on-demand courses, you can acquire skills in your chosen field at your own pace. Moreover, they’re market adaptive, providing you with the up-to-date business skills needed to drive organizational success.

Examples of business courses include;

  • Data Science
  • Design
  • Finance & Accounting
  • Leadership & Management
  • Personal Development
  • Marketing
  • Project Management & Operations, etc.

Udemy boasts as the only platform built for leadership and management upskilling, with 11,000+ available in 12 languages. Some of the trending courses under leadership and management include;

  • Emotional Intelligence at Work
  • Resilience Leadership
  • Be a Great Mentor
  • Working & Managing in Global Terms, etc.

Benefits of using Udemy include;

  • Dedicated customer success teams
  • Learn on the go from any device
  • Fresh content by global instructors
  • Actionable learning insights
  • Personalized learning

The platform offers three plans – team, enterprise, and leadership development programs. The team plan charges $360 per user/year with a 14-day trial. Others include enterprise and leadership development programs, which you can request for a custom quote here.

4. MasterClass

With over 100+ classes taught by the world’s best, MasterClass is the go-to platform for honing your creative skills and hobbies. It’s primarily a streaming platform with video lessons available 24/7.  A class has around 20 lessons, each lasting for 10 minutes on average. In addition to the video lessons, you also get an in-depth workbook.

Available course categories include;

  • Food
  • Arts & Entertainment
  • Business
  • Writing
  • Home & Lifestyle
  • Wellness
  • Design & Style
  • Music
  • Sports & Gaming
  • Science & Tech
  • Community & Government, etc.

Benefits of using MasterClass include;

  • Stream courses from any device – desktop, TV, or mobile device
  • Downloadable instructor guides for every class (viewing is available for iOS)

Learning at MasterClass costs $15/month or $180/year, which is billed annually. Membership provides unlimited access to existing classes and new classes when they launch.

One downside of the standard membership is that it doesn’t allow offline iOS viewing. Also, you can only watch on one device at a time. For offline viewing and multiple device watching, you should subscribe to the plus and premium plans, which cost $20 and $23/month, respectively.

Unlike most platforms, MasterClass does not provide a free trial. However, if you’re dissatisfied with the membership, you can request a refund within 30 days of subscribing.

5. Codecademy

Codecademy is an ideal professional development avenue if you seek to advance your career skills in programming courses. The platform has hosted over 50 million learners from 190+ countries who have submitted over 3.7 billion codes.

Essentially, Codecademy offers self-paced learning that’s interactive and hands-on and designed for all levels.

The courses are designed to meet different learning goals, such as;

  • Building a career – Examples include Full-Stack Engineer, Front-End Engineer, Data Scientist, Computer Science
  • Gaining a skill – Examples include Code Foundations; Building a website with HTML, CSS, and Github Pages; Analyze Data with SQL; Analyze Data with Python
  • Learning a language – Examples include Learn Python 3, Learn Javascript, Learn HTML, Learn Java
  • Exploring a subject – Examples include Web Development, Data Science, Computer Science, Cyber Security

Benefits of using Codecademy

  • Start with zero coding skills
  • Join a community of learners from leading global tech companies
  • Affordable and flexible plans

Codecademy offers three membership plans. The basic plan is free, offering interactive lessons & daily practice. The plan includes basic courses, peer support, and limited mobile practice.

The pro plan charges $15.99/month billed annually, and you can start with their free trial. With this plan, you can learn, practice, and apply job-ready skills. Features include;

  • Basic plan package
  • Unlimited mobile practice
  • Real-world projects
  • Step-by-step guidance
  • Members-only content
  • Certificates of completion

Codecademy also has a package for teams. If you wish to enrol your team, you can get the quote here.

Let Us Crown Your Efforts

Though the business environment has always been competitive, technology has made it even more competitive. As business leaders utilize available digital resources and solutions to hone their skills and automate the systems for increased efficiency, the bar continues to rise higher.

After going through this list of top 5 online learning platforms, we hope you have found some that match your career development goals. But remember, running a competitive business requires more than leadership skills; your branding should always be bespoke. And that’s where we come in. We understand the impact of maintaining a fluid website in safeguarding your relevance as a business.

Whether you need a site for your business or ecommerce store or want to polish up an existing one, we are your one-stop website design shop. Let us know how we can help you by dropping your query here.

Take your business to the next level with a Pixel Fish Website.

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