Learn Anything: Are online courses worth it? [3]
For a substantial fee starting from ₹3,000 approx. sites like Coursera and EdX offer verified Certificates. These essentially are a way to prove that the person registered for the course is indeed the person taking the course. They do this by taking a typing sample and asking you to submit a photo of yourself.
Verified certificates provide some level of traceability. For hiring managers and HR personnel, this is important to get you in the door at certain companies. Since MOOCs have a notoriously high attrition rate, verified certificates show that the candidate has some level of tenacity and accountability.
Verified Certificates give students a feeling of accomplishment and can be added to LinkedIn or other job portal sites. Verified certificates, in a way, compel the student to complete the course since he or she has paid money for it. When the course is free, students tend to take it for granted and either drop out or procrastinate by convincing themselves that they will take it later when they have time.
Hiring Statistics for MOOC certified Professionals
Increasingly companies are now seeing the worth of MOOCs. The reason they are becoming receptive to MOOCs is the factors like student debt, cost of higher education, and whether higher education as it stands actually prepares a student adequately for the workforce.
Some companies like IBM started building MOOCs and selling them to Coursera. The employees, as well as students, get familiar with the technical aspects to which they did not have much hands-on experience earlier.
Udacity has a career placement program, they place students as software engineers, web developers, data scientists, and instructors. They place students at a plethora of companies ranging from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups.
MOOCs have been proven to give quality education in terms of curriculum and content. They are comparable even with degree courses.
Open Education Alliance
Across the industry, a bunch of employers and educators has come together to form the Open Education Alliance to provide certain services to students. These services are in the form of courses or “Nanodegree” on the latest technology trends and relevant higher education courses. They aim to bridge the gap between the skills desired in the industry today and what is being taught in traditional universities. While the skill set of employees today changes continuously the institutions that provide higher education do not. This reduced employability of students who have just entered an already fiercely competitive job market.
Nanodegree or Specialization
Nanodegree is an online certification that you can earn in about 6 to 12 months( like the one mentioned above in the reference image, IBM Cybersecurity Analyst Certificate is a nanodegree comprised of 8 courses in one single specialization). Each degree costs about ₹6,000 a month. It teaches you skills that will qualify you for entry-level positions in many software companies. What separates nano degrees from other MOOCs is that there is some level of interaction beyond the recorded video and forums. They set up office hours where students can call in and ask questions.
Some companies like AT&T encourage Nanodegree by offering scholarships and internships to students. Some of the major companies that hire freshers having nanodegree are Google, AT&T, Autodesk, Nvidia, and Khan Academy.
Google has recently started giving less importance to College degrees in its hiring process. If a candidate has completed some nanodegree, Google hiring managers are more likely to consider that candidate than someone who just has a fancy college degree.
How to present MOOCs in a Resume
Overall whether you are keen on learning new skills or enhancing the ones you have, MOOCs are the way to go. Once you have decided to pursue this way of learning and have your certificate in hand, It is important to know how to present it to a prospective employer. While the job scene is slowly changing by way of determining good candidates, some companies are still unaware of the worth of these courses. You have to know how to prove the legitimacy of these studies. Here are a few tips:
- Do courses that are rigorous and tough but at the same time related to one another. Just one course will not perfect a skill. Build on the fact that you have done several courses and gained real expertise in the subject.
- List all your courses first under an “Education” or “Skills” section to pique the interest of employers.
- Rather than listing the courses, explain how they are related to each other. Tell a story with your course path. It helps bring clarity to resume screeners as well as makes for an interesting read.
- Augment your course work with practical experience. Volunteer, intern, or even apply your skills at your current workplace and explain how they have helped you advance. After all, practical knowledge beats all theoretical knowledge when it comes to a job.
- Showcase your work on a website or mention Credly. Make your portfolio visible, for coding skills, a repository like Github.
Learn Anything: Streamline your skills.[4]
