9 Skills Your Employees Need in December 2018

Safia Abbasi

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Udemy for Business

To help employees keep up with change and prepare for what’s next, Udemy for Business adds hundreds of new courses each month on the latest technical and soft skills to help employees keep up with change and prepare for what’s next. Here are some of the latest trending topics added to the Udemy for Business collection.

Tech skills

1. Microsoft AZ certification

The emergence of cloud computing has introduced a big shift in how companies traditionally approached their IT resources. Created by Microsoft in 2010, Microsoft Azure is one of the most popular and fast-growing cloud computing platforms. It is used by IT professionals to build, test, deploy, and manage applications and services to reduce internal costs and scale businesses.

Companies like Adobe, HP, ExxonMobil, Publicis, and Bentley Systems rely on Microsoft Azure as their primary cloud provider to achieve their digital transformation goals. And, it’s growing twice as fast as the cloud computing leader, AWS by Amazon.

With Microsoft Azure’s fast growth, it has quickly become a key skill across IT and technical teams. In September 2018, Microsoft introduced brandnew certification exams to test the knowledge of developers. Udemy for Business has added three courses on these new tests that cover all critical components of the Microsoft Azure Certification and ensure developers are well prepared to pass:

Instructor Nick Colyer has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and spends his time educating learners to adopt Azure in a way that is meaningful for their business.

“This is excellent content—straight to the point and what is needed to pass. This should give you a very good idea and a starting point to implement solutions for your clients. Great Instructor and notes.” — Course Review

2. Agile fundamentals

Agile has emerged as a global business movement as a way for businesses to master continuous change. It is a flexible approach to planning through collaborative effort across cross-functional teams. While it was initially adopted by project managers and software developers, agile principles have spread rapidly to all types of teams and organizations.

In Agile Fundamentals: Including Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban, professionals of all levels will learn agile from the ground up and master popular frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and Scrumban. This course provides interactive and hands-on exercises, allowing learners to apply the course material immediately and enable them to excel in any agile position. Instructor Jeremy Aschenbrenner is a business analyst, trainer, and coach who has completed 1,000+ projects for companies across healthcare, telecommunications, automotive, consumer goods, and has nearly 50,000 learners on Udemy.

“The course information was perfect for new learners in this arena. Great material and very easy to follow and comprehend. Great exercises to help retain and work in the environment. Love the fact that I can also use Kanban methodology for my personal life as well.” — Course Review

3. Power BI

Power BI is an interactive data visualization tool created by Microsoft in 2014. It provides professionals with the ability to create reports and dashboards without relatively little effort. With Power BI, analysts and team leads can share customized dashboards across their organization and can easily explore and analyze data to make fast, informed decisions.

Udemy for Business recently curated three brand-new courses to its collection on Power BI:

Ideal for developers and business analytics looking for a comprehensive understanding of how to connect and transform data using Power BI, create data models and develop DAX formulas, build interactive reports and dashboards, and prepare for the Microsoft MCSA BI Reporting Exam 70-778.

Bestselling Udemy instructor Ian Littlejohn has over 10 years of management consulting experience and is an expert in Power BI, Excel, and Google Data Studio.

“Great course! I’ve learned so much that I didn’t know you could do with the tool! Very thorough!” — Course Review

4. Machine learning and Javascript

Machine learning is an application of artificial intelligence that provides systems with the ability to automatically improve and learn from experience. And, it’s continuing to grow fast. Forbes predicts that AI and machine learning will be leveraged across all major industries and business in the coming years. Created over two decades ago, Javascript is one of the most widely used programming languages to create interactive effects within web browsers.

Taught by bestselling Udemy tech instructor Stephen Grider, Machine Learning with Javascript merges these two technologies and provides foundational knowledge of how to assemble machine learning algorithms from scratch using Javascript and TensorflowJS through hands-on projects. Offering an industry-leading 17.5 hours of content, this course is ideal for developers interested in machine learning and helping to drive their business forward.

Instructor Stephen Grider is an engineering architect who consults many leading companies in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has over 120,000 students on Udemy.

“Stephen explains complex topics in a clear, step by step process that makes machine learning much more approachable. I really enjoy the course focus on intuitively understanding core principles of machine learning and then building up the algorithms from scratch. It’s an extremely powerful perspective and approach. Excellent course.” — Course Review

5. Test driven development

In today’s world, having proper, automated test coverage is key within software development to detect any errors, and is essential in providing consistent and reliable results and gaining confidence across customers.

In Testing Spring Boot: Beginner to Java, Java developers and Spring Framework developers will gain an understanding of the important concepts behind test driven development, learn different types of testing, and how to write tests leveraging open source tools. Instructor John Thompson has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry and over 44,000 learners on Udemy.

“Enjoying the course and I’m definitely going to be using the techniques John presents in the field. Have also enjoyed seeing a few of the alternatives to JUnit and some background of TDD.” — Course Review

Soft skills

1. Digital Marketing

With 89% of the population online and over 3.3 active social media users, companies are increasingly moving their business online and investing in reaching their buyers online as well. As a result, the Digital Marketing industry has seen transformative growth in the last few years with incredible opportunity for continued advancement.

Udemy for Business recently added several key courses on innovative digital marketing skills. In the courses below, marketers of all levels will learn how to sustainably grow their business through Google AdWords, understand the power of live video and streaming to build engaged, loyal customers, and how to leverage popular platforms like Twitter and Snapchat to reach the right audience.

“What I really liked about this course was that it was easy to understand. It was broken down into pieces that were clear and concise—not overwhelming with high tech jargon. The diagrams help to reinforce the information the instructor is giving.” — Course Review

2. Marketing Analytics

In the age of big data, understanding how to organize, analyze, and synthesize large quantities of marketing data is no longer a “nice-to-have”—it’s an essential skill to proving ROI and ensuring marketing is able to make investments across various channels and programs.

Ideal for marketing professionals, social media strategists, and digital advertisers, Marketing Analytics: Stand Out by Becoming an Analytics Pro! by Pavel Brecik provides a hands-on, case study method of learning the fundamentals of marketing analytics, including how to ask the right questions from your data, build a dynamic dashboard to summarize analysis, and build a marketing forecast model from the ground up.

“I came into the course knowing nothing about data analytics and now I’m coming out of it pretty confident about the subject. The instructor speaks quite comprehensively and explains what he’s doing. I also liked all the explanations and the train of thought behind the actions taken.” — Course Review

3. Personal branding

Personal branding is an essential soft skill that helps professionals build stronger networking connections and make themselves more memorable with the people they meet throughout their career.

For professionals who want to better communicate their background and expertise, navigate their career, or stand out when networking, Personal Branding: Master Your Elevator Pitch by Joseph Liu is a great resource that provides simple frameworks to deliver “elevator pitches,” practice techniques when networking, and concrete tips to come across confident and focused.

Instructor Joseph Liu is a career consultant, TEDx speaker, and has a decade of marketing experience at leading brands like Glad, Liquid-Plumr, Gü Puds, and Häagen-Dazs.

“Very practical guidance on how to explain who you are and where you want to take your career. Lessons were simple and easy-to-follow. I’ve taken Joseph’s other personal branding course, and found this one to be just as useful and clear.” — Course Review

4. Posture

Workplace skills development is no longer confined to just technical and business skills. Companies are increasingly thinking about developing the ‘whole self,’ and are offering health and wellness resources for employees. With professionals spending so much of their day sitting or at their desk, posture and proper ergonomics is key to maintaining personal health in the workplace.

Forward Head Posture: Cause & Cure by Dr. Paula Moore provides busy, working professionals with a quick overview of new posture habits to help the body maintain ideal alignment over time. Dr. Paula Moore has over a decade of clinical experience and is a self-professed “posture addict.” She is the best-selling author and instructor of posture and ergonomics, and has over 12,000 learners on Udemy.

“The course gave valuable information about head forward posture and exercises to help overcome this. I enjoyed the friendly way the information was presented.” — Course Review