The case for e-learning
A lot of debate happens on whether online courses are worth it or not.
There must be something to it, because there are plenty of platforms you can use for your online learning: Udemy, Udacity, Coursera, Skillshare and if you’re interested in coding, the resources are really endless: Team Treehouse, Codecademy, FreeCodeCamp, CodeInstitute and a massive amount of YouTube courses and tutorials. In 2020, the global online e-learning market was sized at approximately 250 billion U.S. dollars.
As someone with one of those useless poli-sci degrees, living in a country with one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, I had to be creative when I was trying to fill up my resume as I was searching for work right after graduation.
In my experience, online courses are worth your time, especially if you have more time in your hands than you have money. It’s a basic principle in economics; you have to put your resources to work for you. And if your most abundant resource is time, then you have to invest it, and be smart about it.
After getting my first job working in Customer Service for a travel agency in 2014, I did every course I could find in travel ticketing systems, which at the time was not a lot. The return on my investment was kind of low, as all I got from those courses was a better understanding on how to do my job, but they didn’t really help me in getting a better job in the same industry, like I hoped.
So I changed industries. I moved on to a new position that was related to Payments, Risk and Fraud, and I realised there are many resources available online, and took advantage of them. As I was learning more and more about risk and fraud, I grew a particular interest in Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crime, and started attending all the related trainings done internally by the company I worked at, so I gained some valuable in-depth knowledge on the topic in relation to the specific industry, iGaming.
At this stage, my time was as valuable as my money, meaning I was no longer unemployed but I wasn’t rich either. And having gained a momentum in e-learning, I kept at it, and I always included at least 3 courses in my new year’s resolutions every January 1st. And I have to say, I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.
This takes me to the next big reason I’m all for it: online courses promote life-long learning. Most of the time, most of what we learn in a course is forgotten within a week or two, so it’s really not about the knowledge gained. Having that spark of interest and knowing how to find information online, ensures that what you’re learning is always available to you.
But I know not everyone agrees with me; I’ve had this discussion with many friends over the years, who insist that no one lands a job because of some online course they did, and that it’s basically a waste of time and money. So I decided to run a poll in LinkedIn about a month ago and address the HR professionals and Hiring Managers in my network:
Out of the 51 people who voted, 35% said that online courses do not contribute any value to a resume, while 65% voted that they do.
I believe my former colleague Calvin’s comment was the most insightful part of this poll: You shouldn’t fill up your resume with every irrelevant course you’ve ever taken, especially if you’re an experienced professional in your career. The biggest contribution online courses have in your resume is that they show that you’re eager to learn and that you’re willing to invest in your development, which immediately separates you as a top applicant.
What’s also important to note is that, when learning technical skills like data analysis, coding, SEO etc, you should not stop at taking a course. You have to apply what you learn, otherwise it really is a waste of time. Those certificates bearing your name might make a big difference to you, but one day, you will sit in a room across your potential employer and see that most of them seem less impressed than you would expected with your certificates. Some don’t even extend the courtesy of acknowledging the time spent on getting those certificates. They just get straight to the point and say, “These certificates are useless if you have not worked on any projects”.
So I think the conclusion is that, while some stigma remains around online courses, you shouldn’t let that stand in your way. When it comes to the question of whether or not such courses are worth your time, the answer is simple: it depends. They can be a great way to learn new skills and further your career, in the right cases.