What are the best online courses Australia has to offer for the average learner? Traditional colleges, universities, and other higher or continuing education options available in Australia pose many challenges to those looking to increase their career options, practice self-development, start a new full-time business, or learn new skills for moonlighting in a part-time venture.
Fortunately, online courses are a growing resource and a popular avenue towards higher learning for students of all ages and from all walks of life. Online learning often faces criticism as an inferior choice to face-to-face education, but the truth is, for many students online education has proven to be just as effective as attending a physical location.
With Australia becoming better connected over the last few years, online education has become an increasingly viable option for many people looking to enhance their career, learn new skills, or create alternative sources of revenue. Advances in online technology mean that there isn’t much you can’t learn through an online course, and it is a lot more convenient than trying to rearrange your already busy life around a class schedule.
Every course imaginable is available for online study. Of course, with so much to choose from, deciding on an online course can be daunting, especially if you are trying to enhance your career prospects, or learn a new skill for a business venture and don’t quite know where to start. Here are some of the best online courses Australia has to offer which have been developed to help you learn in-demand skills, diversify your sources of income, provide a channel for personal development, or to learn more about a new hobby.
Best Online Courses for Adding to Your Skillset
Of course, the primary motivation for many people when trying to choose the best online courses is to improve their earning potential. Fortunately, our digitally connected and culturally diverse country has many areas of business crying out for skilled employees to fill their positions. Here are the best online courses Australia has to offer for those looking to increase their business or career prospects.
Internet Marketing
There is a growing demand for people who are skilled in internet marketing, and we’re not talking about the get-rich-quick schemes you so often see as spam in your inbox.
The internet is the first port of call for most people when researching a new business. After all, almost everybody has a mobile phone in their pocket, so when they want to locate the best deal on a product or find a service provider, the smartphone is the most convenient place to start a search.
What this means for every Australian business is that having an online presence is becoming more vital to maintaining a competitive edge. However, many small to medium-sized enterprises have little experience with internet marketing and don’t have the time to develop the skills themselves.
Creating a website is only the first step, but what comes next? An online internet marketing course will give you the skills you need to help your current or future employer use social media and other online applications to increase brand awareness, bring in more traffic to their website, and reach more prospects.
You will also learn how to choose an appropriate online channel for promoting a product or service, as not all platforms work for all types of businesses.
Knowing what type of content works best and where is a valuable internet marketing skill. The psychological component of internet marketing will help you learn new ways to deliver a compelling message that turns curious visitors into paying customers.
An Internet marketing course is the perfect skillset for increasing your value to an existing employer, improving your employment options, or striking out on your own to work with businesses as a professional internet marketing consultant. Internet marketing is also one of the best online courses available to create options for starting your own part-time business, which you can build into a full-time venture over time. Check out our internet marketing courses here
Human Resource Management
Human resource management is a vital skill that improves the effectiveness of a business through the placement of staff in positions where they will perform the best.
Good employees are valuable assets, but they are also expensive, so it makes sense to place them in areas of the business where they will do the most good. Strategic placement of employees is vital to improving operational efficiency, but careful management is also needed to ensure that staff morale remains high, and this is an area where a professionally trained human resources manager will shine.
The best online courses for human resources management will give you the skills you need to communicate with employees effectively, train them in safe work practices, be a valuable contributor to the recruitment process, and maintain discipline by creating a positive, and motivational workplace culture.
Multicultural Awareness
Australia is made up of a diverse range of cultures, so being able to navigate a workplace and get along with people of different races and cultural background is vital to being a valuable employee in more and more businesses.
Unfortunately, cultural awareness doesn’t always come naturally, but you can become more sensitive to the diverse cultures which surround you by taking an online cultural awareness course. Here you will develop an understanding of racism and prejudice and how it develops, as well understanding how to work with the needs of culturally diverse clients. You can read more about multicultural awareness course here.
Creative writing is one thing, but with so many businesses creating websites there is an increasing demand to fill those websites with compelling copy. As such, freelance writers who can write about a diverse range of subjects are in high demand.
An online course in writing will teach you how freelance writing works, determine your level of writing skills and where it could be improved, and prepare you for selling your freelance writing for profit. You will also learn where to find opportunities for paid work, how to write efficiently, and discover the basics of writing compelling advertising copy.
The best online courses for writing will cover the full range of writing styles, from writing for magazines and newspapers to planning and developing scripts and prose for a book.
If your grammar skills are a little lacking an online course can help you improve your level of writing and communication to better communicate at work, or improve your resume and cover letting writing skills so you can land that all-important interview. View our writing courses here
Aged Care
In an increasingly aging society, the demand for aged care professionals is set to go through the roof. The aged care industry is already crying out for individuals skilled in aged care so an online aged care and counselling course may be a stepping stone towards a rewarding new career.
It takes a special kind of person to care for the elderly, and if you know you have what it takes then an online course will help you develop the skills you need to provide the appropriate level of support.
An online course in elderly care will teach you how to counsel those who are suffering from dementia and other diseases, and understand what happens to a person’s mind as they age, the risks they face, and teach them how to create a better quality of life for themselves. The new skills you develop will also help you interact and support the elderly, while also providing pathways for professional development. Read more about Aged Care & Counselling Course here.
Best Online Courses for Personal Development
Some of us are perfectly happy in our careers and just want a little help choosing the best online courses for personal self-development, whether that be to improve our level of skills in a favourite hobby such as gardening or to find new interests. Fortunately, there are plenty of online training options for everyone travelling down the path of self-discovery. Here are a few popular course options:
Equine Care
For those considering a move to the country that will include greener pastures and a horse or two, a course in equine care will have you well equipped for tackling the challenges ahead. Of course, you could also be considering horses as a career change, which means you will want advanced options.
An advanced certificate in equine studies will teach you the finer points of horse husbandry skills, horse care, and quite a bit about the horse industry in general, so it has a little of everything. However, if you fancy yourself as more of a horse whisperer, then you will need an even more advanced skillset.
An online course in equine behaviour will develop your skills as a trainer and give you an understanding behind the psychology of horse training. You will also delve into the role of genetics, how horses perceive the world around them, and how they respond to stimuli. You will learn about the social structure horses adopt and how they communicate, as well as how to use conditioning and reinforcement in your training methods.
Having advanced skills in horse breeding will put you in an excellent position to start or advance your equine career because there’s a lot more to it than putting two horses in a paddock and hoping for the best.
An education in horse breeding will provide you with in-depth knowledge about the reproductive processes in horses, best breeding practices, how to manage pregnant mares, and all about the foaling process. If you are at all interested in keeping and breeding horses, then this course will ensure you get the best results. View all our equine care courses here.
Self-Sufficiency
With the growing environmental problems faced by Australia and the world, we would all benefit, and the planet as well, if each of us became a little more self-sufficient. There are varying levels of self-sufficiency, which means you can take it to any level you desire, and it doesn’t involve selling all your belongings to go live in a tree. Here are some of the best online courses that will help you reduce your carbon footprint and make the world a better place.
Aquaponics
Aquaponics is a fascinating subject which can be used for personal advantages but also makes sense as a viable commercial option. In a nutshell, aquaponics combines hydroponics (growing plants without soil) with aquaculture (growing fish as a food source).
The two disciplines combine symbiotically to produce a cycle of using waste from the fish to sustain the plants. The water is cycled through the plants, which clean and filter it of the fish waste and solids before it goes back to the fish. The plants can then use the waste to sustain their growth.
A course in Aquaponics will teach you how to create an efficient operation and scale it according to your needs. You will learn about the different systems popular for aquaponics and how to create setups for both indoor and outdoor use. You will also learn the fundamentals of nutrition, how to control growth, and how to regulate the system for optimal pH, oxygen, and bacterial levels.
Online Poultry Courses
There’s a lot more to raising chickens than throwing up some chicken wire and putting a few birds in the backyard. If you love your eggs fresh and don’t trust the supermarket, or you like to know where your chicken meat has been, then an online poultry course will teach you everything you need to know.
The best online poultry courses won’t just cover chickens, as there are also ducks, geese, and turkeys to consider. You will learn about every aspect of poultry raising and will be in an excellent position to start a professional business or have fresh eggs for yourself with some left over to share with the neighbours.
Permaculture
In a way, permaculture is a study of nature and its cycles. The word is an abbreviation of “Permanent Agriculture,” and it’s a philosophy that will get you as close to complete self-sufficiency as possible.
Permaculturists hold three main tenants:
* Returning surplus to the earth
* Caring for people
* Taking care of the earth
The idea of permaculture is to create a balance between animals and plant life, so one sustains the other in a never-ending circle of life. Unless you have access to a permaculture community, it can be tough to learn about its many intricacies. However, a permaculture online course will teach you everything you need to know about how to design a landscape that will be self-sustaining. It’s the perfect solution for those who live in remote areas or cannot access a community directly. We recommend students who want to learn permaculture check out Geoff Lawton’s online course.
Organic Farming
Organic farming is an agricultural process which has a decreasing reliance on artificial chemicals used for fertiliser and pest control. Modern methods of agriculture are hard on the environment, and over time are not self-sustaining. Each harvest means there are fewer nutrients left in the soil for the next crop, and bugs become resilient to chemicals, necessitating the need to increase strength and potency.
An online course for organic farming is for anybody who wants to improve the health of the planet and reduce their carbon footprint. The future of food production is in developing sustainable practices, and the best online courses in organic farming will teach you how to be a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem.
You will develop a deeper understanding of the environment, and how political issues and economic influences affect global food production. You will also learn about the fundamental processes involved in decomposition and the role living organisms play, how to create optimum soil conditions for growth and disease resistance, and how to manage pests and weeds without intervention from artificial chemicals and fertilisers.
Why Learn Online
The above are just a few of the subjects you can learn online, but what are the advantages of learning online over attending a physical place of learning.
Convenience
Any discussion about the best online courses Australia has should always start with convenience. If you work all day and only have the time to study at night and on the weekends then TAFE or university will hardly be accommodating to your needs. Arranging to be in a class can be tough for even part-time workers, where the boss’s demands often overrule the necessity of sitting in a lecture hall.
Online study is incredibly flexible, and you can study where you want and whenever you have the time. For a lot of people, online courses are the perfect way to develop extra skills while travelling on the bus or train to and from their day job. You can get a lot of study done on a 1-hour train ride.
You Don’t Have to Give up Your Day Job
Increasing your skill set through traditional means would usually require you to quit your day job or severely reduce your work hours, which all equates to lost income.
Studying online not only gives you the means to add to your skillset, but you can also continue to work your regular hours. Once you have the qualifications you will be able to bag that promotion to earn more money, take your newfound skills and start your own part-time business, or go out and get yourself a horse or a few chickens – the point is, the best online courses will give you more options to improving many areas of your life.
