10 In-Demand Professional Skills Your Employees Need in December 2019

As the end of the year draws closer, it’s only natural to start thinking about how we’d like to close out 2019 and set the stage for 2020. For most of us, this means a renewed enthusiasm for work and planning out what we’d like to achieve in the new year. If you or your employees would like to brush up on technical and business skills, check out this list of 10 in-demand professional skills that have recently been added to Udemy and Udemy for Business.

Technical skills

1. Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products. Demand for GCP-certified professionals is growing tremendously as companies leverage their AI and data science cloud solutions. With initiatives like TensorFlow, an open-source machine learning library, Google differentiates itself from public cloud competitors AWS and Azure by leading in machine learning. To learn more about the growing importance of GCP, see blog Why Google Cloud Platform is on the Rise.

The Udemy course Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Fundamentals for Beginners introduces the basics of GCP, including how to use GCP compute, storage, and networking services and choose the right GCP service for your use case and business scenario. Instructor Janakiram MSV is a Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect and also a Google Developer Expert for Cloud and IoT technologies with over 10 years’ experience working on cloud computing at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

For learners who would like to dive deeper into GCP, Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer 2019 Prep Course on Udemy covers how to pass the Associate Cloud Engineer (ACE) exam. The certification is an ideal starting point for those new to cloud or GCP, and it can be used as a pathway to Professional-level certifications. Instructor Dan Sullivan is a cloud architect, systems developer, and author of the Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide. 

“Very structured and fine-grained explanations… very good course for beginners or if you want to map your knowledge of other clouds to Google Cloud (which is my case).” – Course review

2. iOS 13

With over 1.4 billion active mobile devices, Apple phones have such a wide global consumer reach that when updates to its corresponding software or hardware are made, the tech world takes notice. iOS 13 is the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating software and is equipped with plenty of new features, the most significant of which is the introduction of Apple’s own Single Sign-On (SSO) solution for logging into apps. Going forward, Apple requires any app that offers an SSO option, such as signing in with a Google account, must also provide a Sign in with Apple option at login. To learn more about the buzz that’s being generated by iOS 13, see blog The Best New iOS 13 Features to Enhance Your Apps.

To help your employees familiarize themselves with iOS 13, be sure to check out the Udemy course iOS 13 – How to Make Amazing iPhone Apps: Xcode 11 & Swift 5. Instructor Nick Walter is a self-taught programmer who has taught over 150,000 students on Udemy. Nick designed this course to be manageable — learners can plan to cover the content in about two weeks if they dedicate one or two hours to learning each day. And by the end of the course, they’ll develop an understanding of the latest updates to iOS 13 including SwiftUI, Dark Mode, Sign in with Apple, Swift Package Manager, and SF Symbols.

“Nick is honestly the best tutor I’ve had on any Udemy course and the structure and content of this particular course has made me feel confident to code in Swift.” – Course review

3. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer

“DevOps” is akin to a technical philosophy and overall process shift in software delivery. DevOps is intended to improve or create collaboration across the technical teams that build and deploy code. This professional-level certification for the AWS ecosystem is intended to foster DevOps practices by identifying and training engineers on the services with AWS that can power the spirit of partnership at the base of DevOps. 

The Udemy courses AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional 2019 – Hands On! and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional [Practice Exam] are designed to help learners develop their knowledge and prepare for the certification exam. The first course introduces the theory and the second course is designed as a complement to help learners practice for the exam with questions that are indicative of what appears on the exam. 

Instructor Stephane Maarek is a solutions architect, consultant, and software developer. He’s also an AWS Certified Developer, SysOps & Solutions Architect, and loves to teach people how to use the AWS properly to get them ready for their AWS certifications — and most importantly — for the real world. He’s taught over 170,000 students on Udemy and has a particular interest in all things related to Big Data, Cloud, and API. 

“This course covers almost everything required for the REAL exam. Passed DevOps exam today and credit goes to Stephane!” – Course review

4. Certified Ethical Hacker

To catch a hacker, IT and security teams must think like a hacker. Ethical hacking is about improving and proactively safeguarding an organization’s technical infrastructure. By passing the Certified Ethical Hacker certification exam, professionals will have learned the five skills of ethical hacking that not only help analysts to discover the vulnerabilities in a system but also how to gain and maintain access to the system and “clean up” after themselves. While these are all strategies a bad actor hacker would take, the difference with an ethical hacker is the desire to fix vulnerabilities for the good of a company.

The Udemy course Become a Certified Ethical Hacker is designed to help learners familiarize themselves with the content of the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH v10) exam. The CEH is an entry point to a part of the broad world of information security and this course covers the range of topics that are covered in the CEH certification such as the importance of ethics, basic testing methodology, wireless networks, social engineering attacks, and web application testing.

Instructor Ric Messier is an author, consultant, and educator who holds GCIH, GSEC, CEH, and CISSP certifications and has published several books on information security and digital forensics. 

“Ric knows how to create engaging, high-quality course content — and he’s clearly a recognized expert and practitioner within the information security (IS) community.” – Course review

5. CISM Certification 

“Data breaches have become so prevalent in the business world that cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue; rather it’s a company-wide issue requiring leadership by experts accredited with industry-renowned cybersecurity certifications. Technical teams now expect their systems to see attack attempts rather than wondering if one will ever happen,” writes Kelly Schwarze in the blog 7 Popular Cybersecurity Certifications for IT Professionals of All Levels. 

One of these popular cybersecurity certifications is the Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) certification from ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association). This is an intermediate-level certification for IT professionals with at least five years of verified information security work experience. The CISM is well recognized globally and ideal for security professionals working within an enterprise company, as organizations of this scale have unique vulnerabilities and risks. People who pass the exam will demonstrate skills in security program development, security risk management, governance, and incident response.

The Udemy course CISM Certification: FULL 150 question CISM practice test ’19 includes a full practice exam along with detailed descriptions of the right answers. Learners can review each question and sort them by CISM knowledge area, correct answers, wrong answers, skipped questions, and questions marked for review.

Instructor Thor Pedersen teaches IT, Cyber Security, and Project Management both online and in-person through his training company Thor Teaches. He currently holds many certifications including CISSP, CISM, and CompTIA Security+.

“Thor, this has been a wonderful practice test. Repeating it many times has only made me understand the concepts better.” – Course review

Business skills

1. Diversity, equity, and inclusion

Many companies have been prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) in recent years, and for good reason. Research shows that diverse teams are more productive, engage in more complex problem-solving, and produce better outcomes. This is because having different backgrounds and perspectives on a team allows biases to be checked and gives people the opportunity to see the world through the lens of someone else.

A McKinsey study found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians, and this number jumps to 35% for companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity. Think about it: that’s a lot of money and business opportunity that’s left behind when companies neglect building diverse teams.

Creating a company where DE&I is valued doesn’t happen automatically — it takes intentional effort to build this type of environment. In the Udemy course Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A Beginner’s Guide, instructor and DE&I strategist Ulysses Smith begins by defining many of the terms that are critical to the conversation on DE&I. He then helps learners explore their personal identity and consider how that might influence their experiences at work. The course also covers listening skills that help promote dialogue, empathy, and understanding. See Ulysses’ blog post How to Build a Company Dedicated to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Diversity & Inclusion: Building a Grassroots Foundation is an additional Udemy course that helps learners navigate the topics of diversity and inclusion. Instructor Jennifer Kim is an HR leader who has built a startup team well known for its diversity — 50/50 gender balance, significant representation of LGBTQ, Black/Latinx employees, parents/caregivers, and more — all when this was thought to be impossible in Silicon Valley. Her course uses the Advocate’s Journey framework to help learners meet people where they are and move them forward. She shares ideas for both short and long-term D&I initiatives.

“This course is very well structured and very easy to digest. It builds upon a strong basis and step by step it prepares you for your own D&I journey.” – Course review 

2. Conflict resolution

Conflict is a natural part of working with others. In fact, the CPP Global “Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness It to Thrive” report found that US employees spend 2.1 hours a week involved with interpersonal conflict, which amounts to about $359 billion in paid hours, or the equivalent of 385 million working days. There are many types of conflict that might arise in the workplace, including work style differences, cultural-based dissension, personality clashes, leadership conflict, etc. Yet, despite its prevalence, many people lack confidence in their ability to handle conflict. It’s not surprising, then, that conflict management was named the #1 business and soft skill for 2019.

In the Udemy course Mastering Conflict Management and Resolution at Work, learners will identify conflict-handling styles, gain tools to resolve conflict and remain calm, and develop methods for building trust and productive relationships at work. This course is designed to be actionable, fun, reflective, and thought-provoking. 

Instructor Dr. Priya Nalkur is a leadership and executive coach and Harvard and Yale-trained research psychologist. With over 15,000 hours of coaching, she has learned tons of tricks and tools for effective leadership communications, including how to manage conflict, make better decisions, have difficult conversations, listen effectively, and tell powerful stories. Priya writes, “Rather than fight against conflict, I believe we ought to embrace it and recognize it for what it is. Conflict is actually a gift. It’s an opportunity to get closer to that other person, clarify our relationship with that person, and understand who they are more holistically.” To learn more about Priya’s approach to conflict management, see her blog post, Conflict Is a Gift: 5 Steps to Better Conflict Management. 

3. Productivity

With the pace of the modern workplace — and the number of distractions in the form of notifications, alerts, and in-person disruptions — it’s become harder than ever to stay focused and manage our time. According to Udemy’s 2018 Employee Experience Report, half of the survey respondents (and 53% of managers) said they could improve their time management skills. And while the number of productivity tools like email, chat, and online collaboration spaces has proliferated in recent years, 37% of respondents said that these tools can be great “sometimes, but not always.” The difficulty many employees have with navigating workplace expectations led time management to be named one of the top business skills of 2019.

If you’d like to help your employees take more control over their time and learn how to reduce the effects of distractions, the Udemy course Master Planning: Plan Your Day, Week, Month, Quarter & Year can help. This course covers how to enjoy the feeling of full engagement for 80+% of the day, how to plan days better to be more efficient and spend more time in the flow, how to plan buffer time, and how to create a “time budget.” These practices help learners better understand and take control of their schedules.

Instructor Timothy Kenny is the author of Accelerated Learning for Entrepreneurs. He teaches classes and speaks to groups about how to accelerate their learning so that they can build successful businesses faster and with more confidence in their success.

“Timothy really touches on some fundamental concepts that are important for prioritization that can be used with whatever structure that you want to apply the techniques. Very useful. Will be revisiting this to keep my skills up as I apply it in multiple areas of my organizing.” – Course review

4. Instagram marketing

Instagram is a wildly popular social media platform, with 1 billion users every month and 500 million people using Instagram stories every day. For many businesses, Instagram has become an important part of their marketing strategy, whether it’s to make sales, share updates, or attract potential employees. But what’s the key to tapping into the platform’s popularity and transforming it into real business results? 

The Udemy course Instagram Marketing 2020: Grow from 0 to 40k in 4 Months introduces the theory and practice of creating a successful account, covering everything from choosing the account name and deciding on a content strategy to becoming familiar with tools for image and video creation, analytics, and more. With over 21 hours of video and 60+ custom resources and guides, this course is an extremely detailed and in-depth guide to mastering Instagram. The content was refreshed in October 2019 to reflect the latest updates to Instagram. Instructor Evan Kimbrell is a top-rated Udemy instructor who has taught over 426,000 students in over 30 courses on Entrepreneurship & Marketing. 

“Fantastic and very in-depth course. It went far beyond my expectations and is easily one of the best Udemy courses I have taken, and I have taken a lot of Udemy courses. And, the instructor is a lot of fun with a very dry sense of humor. Overall, 5-star course and well worth your money if you want to really understand how Instagram works and how to build a large following.” – Course review

5. Sales skills

Working in sales can be tough, which is why the average sales turnover rate is 35% compared to the 13% average turnover rate for all industries. One of the best ways to retain salespeople is to help them develop their skills with ongoing training and learning opportunities. In fact, some sales leaders, like Udemy’s Sales Enablement and Productivity Manager Nieka Mamczak, include fostering a culture of learning in their Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Read Nieka’s blog to get tips on how to build a culture of learning on your sales team here.

The Udemy course Sales objections handling: master objection sales skills helps learners develop critical sales skills like handling objections confidently, knowing what to say and how to say it, and tailoring their techniques to the specific situation and market. 

Instructor Stefan De Vito is a sales trainer with Udemy. He has spent over 4,000 hours drilling, rehearsing, and teaching sales techniques from various schools of selling, including Jordan Belfort, Brian Tracy, Grant Cardone, Jeb Blount, and Mike Brooks. He has a passion for making things easy and simple. Stefan has worked both as an entrepreneur, consultant, and employee in various positions and different countries, so that he only teaches what is universally applicable in different countries, cultures, and for different positions.

“Great course — highly recommend!” – Course review