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The federal government estimates that 87 per cent of today’s jobs across every sector and industry in Australia now require digital literacy. Add to this the prediction, in the government’s Digital Economy Strategy 2030, that by 2025, 250,000 new jobs will be created due to digitalisation – and it’s no wonder that many Australian employees feel like the pressure is on to improve their digital skills.
The shift is increasing demand for quality micro courses that can be completed in just a couple of hours. Digital marketplace Skill Finder has made a business out of the trend by indexing more than 3000 free courses from across the web.
The majority of these micro courses are targeted at individuals wanting to improve their overall digital fluency on topics like digital marketing, design or business tools.
Podcasters Sophie Dicker (left) and Maddy Guest have found micro courses essential in improving their digital skills.
However, the Skill Finder’s managing director, James Horne, says 25 per cent of the site’s micro courses are technical in nature, on topics like machine learning, AI, coding and cloud computing. Horne says a good ‘micro’ course should be practical, current, and easily consumable.
“It should have a good UI and a well-structured instructional design. The course itself should be like a scout badge, gained by learning to cook banana bread or tie a knot: consumable and achievable in a block, such as two hours,” he says.
It appears many big companies agree. Canva, Amazon Web Services, Adobe and Facebook (Meta) all offer free micro courses which feature on Skill Finder.
Canva aims to make its 150 courses on Skill Finder meet the needs of time-poor parents, students and full-time workers.
“The need for visual communication is no longer limited to a select number of industries and is quickly becoming an in-demand skill for just about every career,” says Amy Schultz, global head of talent acquisition at Canva.
“Whether you’re a marketer creating social content, a talent team creating onboarding decks for new hires, or even a financial analyst compiling quarterly reports, the use cases from our community are wide and varied,” Schultz says.