14 Best GoSkills courses to learn professional skills in bite-sized chunks
Corona has thrust us into an online learning revolution. What was once a disruptive approach to education is becoming our – forgive me for running this cliché – “new normal”. GoSkills emerges in the midst of it all with a disruption to the disruption: a learning platform that offers flexibility in the form of “Bite-sized” learning.
GoSkills covers topics such Microsoft Excel and Office, Lean Six Sigma, Finance, Project Management, Soft Skills, Design and Web Development. So, what can they offer for your career aspirations or advance career prospects? Below, we list some of the best GoSkills courses to give you a quick snapshot of the platform.
GoSkills Courses – Overview
As mentioned, GoSkills offers the lessons that make up each course as separate educational units that you can do independently. Take a moment to let that sink in.
Learn specific skills – For example, say you wanted to learn how to make an Xbar-R Chart on Microsoft Excel. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry, just stay with me here. Well, a lesson on this particular skill could be embedded somewhere deep inside of an intermediate or advanced Excel course. A beginner course might never touch this.
You might have more of a chance of learning how to make an Excel Xbar-R Chart in an Excel Charts course. Nevertheless, you would have to sign up, pay for and sit through the entire course, hoping you might get the precise skill you are looking for. Not so on GoSkills.
Short tutorials – As a member, you can search for the particular thing you need and get a complete 5-minute tutorial. GoSkills lessons are served up as vital parts of comprehensive courses and also as quick, high-quality, specific tutorials. Hard to find even on YouTube, and providers such as LinkedIn, Skillshare or Pluralsight offer such a structure only partly.
Pricing – As other providers, GoSkills offers a subscription-based model. Whether it is monthly for $29 or annually for $199, students will get access to all GoSkills courses for that period of time. A free 7 day is available to test all GoSkills courses.
Get started – Without further ado, here’s your roundup of the best GoSkills courses and certifications (and the lessons embedded in them) that you can acquire as a paid member on GoSkills. You may also visit their website or start a free trial to form your own opinion.
GoSkills Alternatives – There are multiple other platforms to learn the skills GoSkills has to offer. You may want to explore our lists of the best Udemy courses, or Domestika courses, or Skillshare courses, or LinkedIn courses, or Coursera courses.
GoSkills Courses 2023 – Top Picks
Microsoft Excel | Leadership Training | Finance | Public Speaking |
---|---|---|---|
Basic & Advanced | Strategies | Project Managers | Communication |
★★★★☆ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★★ | ★★★★☆ |
View Course | View Course | View Course | View Course |
1. Microsoft Excel – Basics and Advanced
They had me at “Become a certified Excel ninja.” This course offers a laundry list of Microsoft Excel skills, including using functions, finding values, sorting and filtering and creating pivot tables and macros. If you have Microsoft 365, Excel for Windows 2010 or later, or even Excel for Mac, you can benefit from this course.
The Excel for Mac course is recorded in the 2016 version. If you have some excel skills and experience already, you have the option of skipping to Advanced Excel. Also, if you just need a specific skill, there are over 200 shortcuts and individual lessons from the course are easily accessed in the syllabus.
These skills can help raise your stock in your current job or give you an edge over another candidate on your resume for a wide range of careers. Some of the most popular and best GoSkills courses cover Microsoft tools. Apart from Excel, you will also find courses on GoSkills for Word, Outlook and Powerpoint teaching bite-sized skills.
Instructor: Ken Puls | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Video Lectures: 57 | Study Time: 26 hours
Course Rating: 4.6 ★★★★☆ | Subscription: $29/month or $199/year
2. Finance for Non-Financial Professionals
It goes without saying that even if you don’t work in finance, any professional can benefit from understanding finance principles. Add financial reports, budgets, asset capitalization & depreciation and cost variance reporting to your skill inventory with this course.
You also have the opportunity to learn how to “develop a business case to provide rationale for why a project should be undertaken.”
Beginning or growing your career in project management? If so, then you should take this course. You can find free lessons on “Amount and Timing”, Budget Baseline and Cost Behavior in the syllabus. Their certification for this course is backed by the Project Management Institute. Certainly one of the best GoSkills courses here.
Instructor: Ray Sheen | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Video Lectures: 16 | Study Time: 8 hours
Course Rating: 4.5 ★★★★☆ | Subscription: $29/month or $199/year
3. Finance for Project Managers
Here’s more for you aspiring and budding project managers. The important skills you will learn include interpreting data on financial reports, using budgets and estimates to plan and employing earned value analysis and forecasting.
As with the other GoSkills courses, all 37 lessons can be taken as separate modules when you need them. The Project Management Institute backs this certification also, and this course earns you credit towards a PMI accreditation.
GoSkills’s “friendly support team and tutors” are available to you as needed once you enroll. Reviewers happily attest to their responsiveness, which is a rare feature of online – anything – these days!
The finance category, furthermore, includes GoSkills courses for operation managers and directors and those that teach financial modeling basics and techniques.
Instructor: Ray Sheen | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Video Lectures: 37 | Study Time: 18.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.8 ★★★★★ | Access: Free trial. $29/month. $199/year.
Related: Project Management Courses | Personal Finance Courses | Productivity Courses
4. Leadership Training
The overview for this course rightly begins “Leadership skills are vital in any role or organization, and can dramatically increase your employability and performance.”
In 21 “practical tutorials”, learn how to set and achieve targets, overcome challenges, get leverage to motivate people, influence and lead. The syllabus includes lessons on triple constraint, deliverables deployment, and positive and negative risk.
It’s said that leaders are not born, they are made. If you agree, then this could be one of the best GoSkills courses to take a good first step towards making yourself into the leader you’ve always wanted to be!
Instructor: David Brownlee | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Lessons: 21 | Study Time: 10.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.8 ★★★★★ | Access: Free trial. $29/month. $199/year.
5. GoSkills Project Management Basics
This relatively short course will help you get off to a good start as a project manager. It can also help you if you are an entrepreneur in many aspects of running your own business. Learn how to “effectively manage projects from start to finish.” You will study project initiation and closeout, scope, and project execution and control.
These are vital skills for anyone on this career path. The certification for this GoSkills course is also backed by the Project Management Institute. This course also earns you credit towards a Project Management Institute Certification.
These aren’t the only GoSkills courses available for PM. After learning the basics, students can continue to upgrade their skills in advanced courses, enrol into a CAPM or PMP Certification Training or master SCRUM on various levels and for different purposes.
Instructor: Ray Sheen | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Lectures: 15 | Study Time: 7.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.6 ★★★★☆
6. Lean Six Sigma – Black Belt
You may have heard the term, but perhaps it’s still foggy. Here’s a little clarity. According to Investopedia, Lean Six Sigma is a managerial framework that is team-oriented.
It’s designed to improve performance and eliminate clutter from business processes. According to Will Kenton1, the Lean Six Sigma philosophy considers any “use of resources that doesn’t create value for the end customer” to be a waste that should be removed.
You probably knew all of that already if you are interested in learning Lean Six Sigma. If not and you are now intrigued, consider the fact that, according to Glassdoor, “Certified Lean Six Sigma Professionals are among the highest-paid globally”.
This certification contains 8 best GoSkills courses that prepare you to take the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC) Black Belt exam. Along the way, you will learn how to create and use control charts, conduct a failure mode effects analysis and master the 5 phases of DMAIC.
If you are looking to take your corporate career to a whole new level, this certification will help you do just that. Each of the 8 GoSkills courses contains anywhere from 25 to more than 45 lessons, so be prepared to invest a great deal of time into completing it.
Instructor: Ray Sheen | Certificate: Yes | Level: Beginner
Path: 8 GoSkills Courses. 263 Lessons | Study Time: 140 hours
Course Rating: 4.6 ★★★★☆
7. GoSkills Public Speaking
This is an indispensable skill even if you are not looking for a career as a speaker. You can apply this skill to a range of careers, to entrepreneurship, and also in social situations.
The course teaches you how to create a presentation, use PowerPoint, tell stories and engage your audience. Like any good course on speaking, the presenter also shows you how to overcome anxiety. Furthermore, students will get access to the instructor’s ebooks.
This course is good for beginners. They even have a lesson on how to recover from a “memory lapse”. This lesson is among a great selection of lessons designed to prepare you for numerous public speaking eventualities.
If you’re going into politics, management, or sales, and you have little or no speaking experience yet, this could be one of the best GoSkills courses to take. Students interested in this subject may also enroll in courses about body language or press releases.
Instructor: TJ Walker | Certificate: Yes
Level: All | Lessons: 36 | Study Time: 9 hours
GoSkills Course Rating: 4.7 ★★★★★
8. GoSkills Business Writing
An essential skill often overlooked until you make a mistake you can’t undo because you already pressed “send”. In fact, far more often, breakdowns in written communication ruin business connections. Sometimes the damage is deep and permanent.
Words are powerful. In this GoSkills course, you will learn how to communicate through letters, emails and memos, optimize your resume and use best practices on business websites and social media. Here, again, is a skill set that will give you the edge in any career or line of business.
The lesson on “Apologies, Explanations and Bad News” is the most interesting and probably extremely useful! The course will also help you structure your brand in the public eye in the “Customer Facing Communications” lesson. It is also among the popular GoSkills courses that cover business website essentials.
This is a great round-up of the writing skills a business person will need – especially as COVID-19 has shifted our perspective on in-person communications. Recommended.
Instructor: Faith Watson | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Lessons: 23 | Study Time: 11.5 hours
GoSkills Course Rating: 4.4 ★★★★☆
9. GoSkills Photoshop for Beginners
This beginner-level course is also recommended for people who need a refresher. It teaches layer masks, removing backgrounds, photo editing, creating custom shapes and various effects, and a range of other handy techniques. You will need Adobe Photoshop CS5 or CS6 to benefit from the lessons.
For people pursuing careers in graphic art and design, website development, or art directing, mastering Photoshop is essential. This course will get you started, and then you can take the advanced course to move your career to the next level.
Other best GoSkills courses to develop post-production and graphic design skills include Photoshop Advanced, Illustrator Basic and Illustrator Advanced.
Instructor: Howard Pinsky | Certificate: Yes
Level: Beginner | Lessons: 58 | Study Time: 29 hours
Course Rating: 4.6 ★★★★☆
10. Introduction to Marketing
Taking a marketing course is a must or at least highly recommended for any entrepreneur or sales person wanting to grow their online business or their career.
This one shows you how to create marketing plans, articulate your message and convert prospects into clients. You will also learn how to promote your products and services online and track your marketing activity to measure the effectiveness of your efforts.
The instructor, a business coach and bestselling author, has a 7 step process for effective marketing to give you an edge over the competition. You can access his wealth of experience with Fortune 500 clients in this comprehensive beginner’s course with your paid membership to GoSkills.
Instructor: David Brownlee | Certificate: Included
Level: Intro | Lessons: 21 | Study Time: 10.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.8 ★★★★★
11. Introduction to HTML
Even if you are good with languages, HTML may be Greek to you (insert another unintelligible language if you are fluent in Greek). Thus, this beginner’s course will help you better understand the inner workings of websites.
Indeed, if you are pursuing a career as a web developer or web freelancer, this is an essential starting point. Those of you who are interested in optimizing a blog can get what you need out of this GoSkills course as well. You will learn tags and attributes, text formatting, adding clickable link images, and how to back your code up.
It starts you out in beginner mode and eases you into intermediate with lessons on forms, lists, tables and Git. It even teaches Bootstrap so you can build yourself a great resume website. There’s a lot here for the interested student indeed!
Instructor: John Elder | Certificate: Included
Level: Beginner | Lectures: 38 | Study Time: 19 hours
Course Rating: 4.6 ★★★★☆
12. Introduction to CSS
If you’re going to take the HTML course above, you might as well consider this beginner’s CSS course also. That said, the description promises that no prior experience is required to get the most out of the course.
It uses hands-on application to teach you how to add attractive design elements to your website, use style links, and add buttons and pagination. It even shows you how HTML, CSS and JavaScript all work hand-in-hand.
Are you a web designer or developer who is just starting? If so, this could be one of the best GoSkills courses to gain essential knowledge, skills and hands-on experience. A recommended follow-up GoSkills course would be to learn Javascript.
Instructor: John Elder | Certificate: Included
Level: Beginner | Lectures: 39 | Study Time: 19.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.5 ★★★★☆
13. Introduction to Python
This extremely marketable skill is in demand across numerous industries. Understanding python will give you an edge as a web developer or data scientist. In this beginner’s course, you will learn how to install python, convert data types, import and create your own modules and write functions.
As with the HTML course, this one begins at the beginning but endeavors to level you up into intermediate and even advanced Python over the 41 lessons. There’s a free lesson in the syllabus that helps you create your first program and another one to show you how to do basic math in Python.
This is one of the best GoSkills courses that could open up a whole new world of opportunities and career perspectives to the right learner. Students can continue to learn and gain skills in PHP, SQL, Ruby on Rails, Django or Data Analysis with Python.
Instructor: John Elder | Certificate: Included
Level: Beginner | Lectures: 41 | Study Time: 20.5 hours
Course Rating: 4.7 ★★★★★
14. Customer Service Training
This is a highly practical skill that will serve any professional in almost every field. In this course, you will learn how customer service impacts business, the psychology of customer services, and how to “provide solutions that ‘wow’ customers”.
This a valuable skill set indeed for almost any profession, but particularly critical for salespeople and people working or doing business in retail. The free lessons include one on how to distinguish your business and another on active listening.
Once you’re done, you are supposed to be ready to develop loyal relationships with your clients and evaluate the customer experience. Put these skills into practice, and you may find yourself flooded with more business than you can handle.
Instructor: David Brownlee | Certificate: Included
Level: Beginner | Video Lectures: 22 | Study Time: 11 hours
Course Rating: 4.8 ★★★★★
GoSkills Courses – Pros and Cons
GoSkills is great, but no product or service is perfect. Weighing out the advantages and disadvantages to this online learning platform will help you figure out if it’s right for you.
Perhaps it isn’t now, but it could be in the future. You might pay for a month when you want it, or you may find that annual membership is worth it to you right now. Here are the pros and cons of GoSkills courses.
GoSkills Courses Pros
- Access to hundreds of lessons on micro topics you might need in a pinch
- Lots of free lessons available on a range of topics
- High quality content delivered by experienced, well credentialed instructors
- Exceptional customer service
GoSkills Courses Cons
- Narrow range of topics
- Not connected to any recognizable educational institutions
- No free access to certifications – not even during the free trial
Other GoSkills courses
GoSkills offers many other courses and topics not mentioned in this list. We do not claim to be comprehensive as their course catalog is much broader than we can cover here.
If you like productivity, there are GoSkills courses to better use Evernote, Keynote on Mac, Trello, ToDoist or Google Drive. There is also available Essential Productivity Training.
Best GoSkills Courses 2023 – Verdict
Here it is, the best GoSkills courses to learn new and in-demand skills. Whether you’re looking to pivot into a new career right now, or you have decided to invest in your own education for growth, GoSkills certainly has a lot to offer you.
On top of the huge, handy lesson catalog, the certifications are often connected to relevant professional organizations. There is enough in here to equip you with highly marketable skills and knowledge for a rapidly evolving marketplace.
With the GoSkills course and lesson offering, perhaps you could piece together your own degree program. For lifelong learners, GoSkills could be a resource well worth the membership fee! That said, names still matter in higher education.
You might want to build an educational core with certified courses connected to respected universities. GoSkills could then help you deepen your knowledge in specific skills. There’s definitely value here.
You just need to figure out if and how GoSkills courses can benefit you rigth now.
GoSkills Courses 2023 – Best Picks
- Microsoft Excel – Basics and Advanced | ★★★★☆
- Finance for Non-Financial Professionals | ★★★★★☆
- Finance for Project Managers | ★★★★★
- Leadership Training | ★★★★★
- Project Management Basics | ★★★★☆
- Lean Six Sigma – Black Belt | ★★★★☆
- Public Speaking | ★★★★★
- Business Writing | ★★★★☆
- Photoshop for Beginners | ★★★★☆
- Introduction to Marketing | ★★★★★
- Introduction to HTML | ★★★★★☆
- Introduction to CSS | ★★★★★☆
- Introduction to Python | ★★★★★
- Customer Service Training | ★★★★★☆
What are the best GoSkills courses? Let us know in the comments below.
Sources: *1 Kenton, W, Lean Six Sigma, Investopedia