Don't Miss Your Chance to Take the 10 Most Popular Courses of the Year

As the Great Reshuffle slows, a new era may be dawning: a breakthrough that brings upskilling culture and career development centre-stage with professionals getting more serious about skill building.

The pandemic accelerated change across industries, and as a result, skills to do a job today have changed even compared to a few years ago. Professionals see the profound changes and opportunities and are responding by learning new skills to future-proof their careers and are ready to learn new skills to meet the moment.

Have we reached, as Forbes has dubbed it, the 'reskilling revolution'?

If the energy we’re seeing from the LinkedIn Learning community is any sign, the answer is a resounding "yes". Globally, 7.3 million learners watched the most popular LinkedIn Learning courses of the year (nearly double the audience from last year!).

In India learners are building up their skills across a range of areas. Here's what they focused on:

●  The #1 most popular course was Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365) as people and organisations brushed up on their data management skills to be ready to wrestle with spreadsheets with ease
●  Learners leaned into improving communication skills with courses like Communicating with Confidence, Interpersonal Communication and Speaking Confidently and Effectively. This likely reflects a number of factors - many people are still settling back into the regular in-person office life, while others are brushing up presentation skills ahead of taking advantage in this tight talent market
●   Hard skill courses in programming, particularly Python and JavaScript, continued to feature on the list, as did Excel management skills, indicating that these technology skills are still in high demand
●  Critical Thinking for Better Judgement and Decision-Making also appears on the list, as talent in India look to support their teams to navigate an ever changing world

From adopting new soft skills to exploring ways to be a more impactful team member, the most popular courses reflect the steadfast growth mindset of India’s LinkedIn community to future proof themselves for the future of work. Plus don’t miss your chance to take the top 10 most popular courses of the year for free until 31 August, 2022.

What you’ll learn:

1. Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365) with Dennis Taylor

We have a lot of data at our fingertips these days. Being spreadsheet savvy can save you time and breathe new life into your data. Excel expert Dennis Taylor leads you through learning basic Excel skills such as organising data and performing calculations with simple functions, then introduces intermediate skills like building charts, PivotTables, and more.

2. Learning Python with Joe Marini s

If you want to pick up one programming language, Python is it! This versatile, easy-to-learn, object-oriented language is used across many industries and in applications such as software engineering, AI, machine learning, and mobile app development. Developer Joe Marini unpacks basic Python syntax and shares an example of how to construct and run a simple Python program. You will also learn to work with dates and times, read and write files, and retrieve and parse HTML, JSON, and XML data from the web.

3. Power BI Essential Training with Gini von Courter

Data is only as valuable as the insights it offers. Put your data to work with this course on how to use Power BI, the business analytics tools that allow you to create and share impactful visualisations with others in your organisation. In this course, Gini von Courter explains how to import data, create visualisations, and arrange those visualisations into reports. You will also learn how to use Power BI Mobile and how to use the data modelling capabilities in Power BI Desktop.

4. Project Management Foundations with Bonnie Biafore

We all have projects to manage – from our personal to-do lists to large-scale corporate projects. Regardless of the scope of work, Bonnie Biafore will teach you the fundamentals of project management such as establishing clear project goals and objectives, meeting deadlines, and closing out projects. Sprinkled throughout the course are tips on how to communicate effectively with your project team.

5. Communicating with Confidence with Jeff Ansell

Even the most gifted communicators can struggle with confidence, and confident individuals can find clear communication difficult. In this course, Jeff Ansell guides you through developing and honing this vital business skill. Topics covered include: how to organize your thoughts, how to use body and language to better express ideas, and how to overcome anxiety.

6. SQL Essential Training with Bill Weinman

Database wrangling is a valuable skill for anyone working in tech, and for that you need to know the most common database language: SQL. Tech advocate and programming expert Bill Weinman teaches the major features of SQL using SQLiteStudio, an intuitive and accessible database management software. You’ll learn fundamentals such as creating tables, defining relationships, and manipulating strings, numbers, and dates. Also included in the final chapter is a real-world example of building a simple application using SQL.

7. Speaking Confidently and Effectively with Pete Mockaitis

Adapted from the podcast How to Be Awesome at Your Job, Pete Mockaitis is joined by professional speaker Diane DiResta to discuss tips and tricks for crafting impactful and informative presentations around what’s important to the audience. The conversation touches on strategies such as shifting your focus away from yourself to gain confidence, using body language and tone to deliver consistent messaging, and crafting a plan to recover from a worst-case scenario incident.

8. Learning Java with Kathryn Hodge

Java is one of the most popular languages, found in websites, embedded controllers and Android app development. In this course you will get up to speed fast, covering the basics - from data types, strings, functions, and loops. You’ll learn how to control the flow and logic of your code, and debug your project to make sure it runs perfectly.

9. Digital Marketing Foundations with Brad Batesole

Digital marketing is constantly changing. Platforms come and go, trends ebb and flow, and then the next thing comes along. In this course, instructor Brad Batesole gives an overview of the building blocks of online marketing, then guides you through how to define your value proposition, identify your target market, and establish your goals and KPIs.

10. HTML Essential Training with Jen Simmons

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) underpins websites and web application development. In this course you’ll learn how to craft excellent HTML that smoothly connects your online audiences and the devices that deliver that content. With a focus on semantic markup, this course goes beyond formatting and convention to capture the full potential of HTML. This has a far-reaching impact for those who use the web differently by ensuring a screen reader or any other system can see exactly what the website contains and categorise the information.

11. Excel: Advanced Formulas and Functions with Dennis Taylor

Follow along with Excel expert Dennis Taylor as he demystifies the hundreds of formulas and functions available in Excel. Dennis starts with a few critical formula shortcuts that will speed up your work, then covers a variety of functions, such as VLOOKUP, MATCH, and INDEX, statistical functions, text functions, and date and time, math, text, and information functions. Dennis provides practical examples to help viewers easily transition to using Excel's most powerful formulas and functions in real-world scenarios. Note that this course is recorded in Excel for Office 365 but anyone using a recent version—including 2019, 2016, and 2013—will be able to follow along.

12. Python Essential Training with Bill Weinman

Python’s simplicity has made it the go to scripting language for many organisations. In this course, Bill Weinman demonstrates how to use Python 3 to create well-designed scripts and maintain existing projects. You’ll see real-world examples while learning the basics of the language syntax and usage, as well as advanced features such as objects, generators, and exceptions. Learn how types and values are related to objects; how to use control statements, loops, and functions; and how to work with generators and decorators.

13. Communication Foundations with Brenda Bailey-Hughes and Tatiana Kolovou

Clear communication is essential to career success. In this course, Brenda Bailey-Hughes and Tatiana Kolovou guide you through learning how to communicate more effectively in meetings, email messages, pitches, and presentations. You’ll learn about the four building blocks of communication – people, message, context, and listening – and how to apply them in a variety of professional circumstances.

14. Strategic Thinking with Dorie Clark

People may joke about 4D chess, but having the ability to think strategically in both space and time puts you at an advantage that will help you move forward – and up – in your career. In this course, Dorie Clark will teach you how to embrace a strategic mindset, how learning from the past can shape your vision of the future, how to be detailed in your strategic thinking, and how to share this skill with your team.

15. JavaScript Essential Training with Morten Rand-Hendriksen

Once seen as optional, JavaScript is now becoming an integral part of the web, infusing every layer of our fast evolving, increasingly dynamic internet with its script. Through practical examples and mini-projects, this engaging course helps you build your understanding of JavaScript piece by piece, from core principles like variables, data types, conditionals, and functions through advanced topics including loops, and DOM scripting.

16.  Excel: VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP for Beginners with Jess Stratton

Time savings using Excel’s new look up functions isn’t just for power users and spreadsheet svengalis! Everyone can master Excel’s most powerful functions in a few steps once Jess Stratton has walked you through them. Learn how to write error-proof formulas and supercharge your spreadsheet skills in this mini course.

17.  Learning Data Analytics with Robin Hunt

For all those curious about the world of data, this is a foundational course. In it you will master the basics, such as how to think about data, how to get the data you need, the tools you’ll use, such as Excel and Microsoft Access, SQL queries, and PowerBI, and how to properly manage data, including clearing and importing data files. Each chapter comes with a challenge, which helps you evaluate your skills.

18.  Critical Thinking for Better Judgement and Decision-Making with Becki Saltzman

The sheer pace of change and volume of information we encounter each day means many of us rely on biases and rule of thumb to make decisions. This course aims to break outmoded thinking to use objective and rational analysis to guide wise decision making. With an organisational focus, the course teaches skills that will improve how your team innovates, tackles challenges and navigates change.

19.  Interpersonal Communication with Dorie Clark

Many of us are seeing new faces around the in-person or virtual workplace. Maybe you're a new face on the team! Dorie Clark’s course will help you navigate the communication side of these new interpersonal relationships. She offers advice and techniques for dealing with complex and nuanced situations like interruptions, receiving critical feedback, and communicating across cultures.

20.  Agile Foundations with Doug Rose

An agile mindset prepares your team to respond well to whatever comes their way. Doug Rose leads you through the fundamentals of building an agile team. You’ll learn about the values and principles covered in the agile manifesto, as well as how to enhance communication with user stories and cross-functional teams. Doug also provides exercises that can help boost your team's agility and productivity.

Plus check out the top 20 most popular courses on LinkedIn Learning globally, for free until 31 August 2022.