How to upskill your career with free AI courses
This embedded content is not available in your region. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is already revolutionising the workplace and the rapidly evolving technology offers plenty of opportunities for those who embrace it. Benefits of AI include enhanced efficiency and productivity, improved decision-making and better customer experience, while downsides include potential for major job and skills displacement, ethical and privacy concerns, and lack of a human touch. Either way, the technology’s uptake is rapidly accelerating. A recent UK government report found that the proportion of job roles requiring AI use is expected to grow as a proportion of the overall job market from around 1.7% at present to almost 12% by 2035. When it comes to current AI use, one study from KPMG showed that 69% of Britons already use AI for work, study or personal reasons. Read more: 3 variables that will determine AI's economic impact However, while nearly half (48%) of respondents said they can use AI tools effectively, the UK is generally falling behind other countries when it comes to AI literacy and training – so those with a knowledge base could benefit when it comes to job hunting. “Everybody's going to be using it. People are using it. They don't even know they're using it,” says Penelope Silver, AI strategist at the ElAIvate Academy. “Those who have the skills are going to be looked at more attractively by employers.” So if you’re looking to find a job or progress your professional career, it’s worth brushing up on your AI knowledge ASAP. Here are a range of free AI courses and resources that can help you upskill your career. In a bid to upskill 10 million workers, the UK government has launched the AI Skills Hub, which offers free AI training that is built by leading industry partners and backed by Skills England and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology. The hub aims to help UK organisations and individuals to build their foundational AI skills through a programme of 14 courses, that can take anywhere between 20 minutes and a full day to complete. AI offers plenty of opportunities for those who embrace it. · d3sign via Getty Images Produced with partners including Accenture (ACN), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Salesforce (CRM) and Sage (SGE.L), the courses are designed to fit around working life and teach practical AI skills that can be used right away, whatever the industry or role. Subjects include Introduction to Generative AI, Working with AI: Digital pathway, Mastering Prompting and AI Fundamentals for Business. Complete certain courses and you can earn a Foundation AI Skills Boost Badge. The number of course providers in everything from art to languages and technology has boomed in recent years – with many offering free classes on subjects including AI. UK online learning platform FutureLearn offers dozens of courses on AI, with many of them free if you complete them within three weeks. You can then upgrade them to a certificate for £39 should that be useful for your career. Initiatives such as the Institute of Coding, a collaboration between employers, charities and universities, also provide free digital skills courses subject to certain requirements or completing them within a set amount of time. Read more: 'I launched my company before AI was sexy – theatre school helped me' While some of the Institute’s courses are also available on Futurelearn and subject to the same terms and conditions, there are others listed that are free to those that meet the eligibility criteria. These include Artificial Intelligence: Foundations for Practice and Research, which is developed by TechUPTraining and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). You can also access a range of AI skills courses through established global learning platforms like Coursera and Udemy, but these do generally come with a monthly fee. Edx.org also has a range of programmes covering everything from AI for business to generative AI for data scientists and using the technology in government procurement from notable providers, but you’ll need to pay if you want a certificate. Sector-specific AI training is also available from a wide range of providers, including charities, professional bodies, education establishments and government-backed initiatives. Charity Excellence, for example, offers free AI training for charities that covers everything from how to hold smarter meetings to understanding the risks associated with AI and using it for fundraising. Meanwhile, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) offers a free AI for accountants course that covers relevant AI tools, how generative AI can improve productivity and the role it can play in an audit. Those working in the National Health Service can access a catalogue of AI learning resources through the NHS Learning Hub, which covers topics including ethical, legal and regulatory considerations when using health data, and using digital technology in healthcare. It’s worth checking out what is available in your area too as many local authorities and their partners offer AI courses to support businesses and the regional economy. The Grad Recharge initiative from Manchester Digital on which Silver is a teacher, for example, is supported by the city council and is designed to help out-of-work STEM and digital bootcamp graduates launch careers in the wider region’s digital and tech sector. In Scotland, charity GlasgowLife offers a free 12-week Glasgow Code Learning Digital Skills Courses: Pro course, which takes place at one of Glasgow Clyde College’s three campuses. To find what’s available in your area, check out what’s on offer through local business associations, growth hubs and charities, alongside council initiatives. Many of the Big Tech companies also offer free AI courses, particularly ones focusing on their own products. IBM SkillsBuild is aimed at helping everyone from high school age up to power their “future in tech” and offers a wide range of AI skills courses for learners, educators and organisations alike on subjects such as prompt writing, creating a CV and using it in the workplace. Microsoft Learn’s AI learning hub is a good way of getting your head around using its AI-power digital assistant Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, alongside more general courses on generative AI. Many tech giants offer free courses in how to use their own AI products. · lixu via Getty Images Meanwhile, the OpenAI Academy has extensive free resources available on how to best use its flagship generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT. Grow with Google also has a range of resources on how to make the best out of AI and upskill your career, including videos, courses and online events, although disappointingly some of its courses appear to only be available through Coursera. It is worth keeping an eye out for offerings from other major organisations too. EY, for example, has collaborated with Microsoft on its free AI Skills Passport programme, a 10-hour course that covers everything from what AI is to ethical considerations and practical applications. However, one thing to watch out for is AI courses that claim to be free but are actually just marketing for paid-for courses. Free AI courses are somewhat scarce when it comes to cybersecurity, although some are better at covering issues of risk and security than others. James Bore, chartered security professional at Bores, highlights the University of Helsinki’s Elements of AI course for considering the impacts of AI and security risks more than others. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s DetectFakes experiment is helpful for learning how to recognise deepfakes and disinformation – “or, at least, realise how bad we as humans are at spotting it”, he adds. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also offers some guidance on understanding the risks and benefits of using AI tools in the workplace. As with anything AI-related, it’s always worth bearing in mind the technology’s limitations including its ability to “hallucinate” (creating plausible-sounding but incorrect information) and the potential for data bias. “The key rule to remember is that AI can be wrong, and often is in a very confident and plausible way,” says James Bore, chartered security professional at Bores. Read more: Pope Leo urges priests to stop using AI to write sermons “So anyone using it really needs to understand that any output should be checked before being relied upon.” AI strategist Silver echoes these sentiments. “The way that I look at AI is to do your heavy lifting in the middle, so mainly admin work, stuff like that,” she says. “And then at the end of it, you have to check everything.” The moral of the story? While AI can be an invaluable tool at boosting productivity and providing insights, always ensure you keep the human in the loop. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.
Comments (0)