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General Assembly's Tips For Social Innovators Who Are Ready To Level-Up
What if you were to grow these skills in-house, instead of waiting for the engineer who’s willing to take a pay cut or the designer whose personal passion is social change? There are now a range of affordable online programs that can help give you the tools to build on your passion for innovation.
In my time at General Assembly I’ve seen lower levels of participation in our tech and business programs from those working in nonprofits or government when compared with the private sector. While affordability may have once been a barrier for many changemakers, online education is making it possible for everyone to benefit from this movement.
There are many kinds of educational institutions that can help you learn the skills you want. For the sake of this article, I’ve focused on online education bootcamps, which offer a shorter, faster-paced learning experience, delivered online. Ready to get educated? Here’s a quick guide on how to choose the right online education program for you.
When it comes to your online educational program here are five factors to consider:
Know your goal
Whether trying to solve a particular work challenge or get a new job in design or development, knowing what you want to get out of your educational experience is critical. Many programs cater to specific career goals (such as getting a job) or a particular outcome (learning to build a website). Either way, by knowing your goal upfront, you can select the program that gets you there. CourseReport.com is a great resource as you’re trying to select the right bootcamp; offering a directory of schools, course schedules, and interviews with teachers, founders, students, and alumni.
General Assembly's Tips For Social Innovators Who Are Ready To Level-Up
Level of support
Similar to learning style, we’ve seen a huge variety in the level of support and guidance that students need when learning a new skill. So many students whom we’ve worked with at GA come to us after several failed attempts at learning on their own, only realizing later that they didn’t set themselves up in the environment that would make them successful. On the flip side, we’ve seen more than 200,000 students take advantage of Dash, our free, self-paced online learning tool to code basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Moreover, we’ve also seen that students who are learning a complimentary skillset, i.e. one they have had some kind of exposure to, are able to grasp the new skills much more quickly. For example, architects have a leg up when learning user experience design, and management consultants are able to make a smoother transition to product management.
Commitment
As the saying goes, you get from it what you put into it, and education is no different. The number-one predictor of your success is you and the level of commitment you make to your educational experience. Whether we like it or not, life gets in the way and we’ve seen time and again that those students who establish a commitment upfront are the ones who make it through. At GA, we call it grit and it’s something we discuss with all our students before they sign up. Whatever education solution you pick, make sure you are clear about the level of time and effort it will require, and don’t give up!
Cost
Pricing for bootcamp education is incredibly varied, with everything from free self-paced learning platforms (CodeAcademy, Dash), to pay-as-you-go models (Coursera, Udemy, FrontRow), to predefined experiences that optimize for a specific outcome (GA’s Web Design Circuit). I recommend finalizing your budget once you know where you stand on the four criteria outlined above. Even if you don’t have a lot to spend, many bootcamps are improving affordability of education by offering payment plans, financing and/or scholarships. At GA, we launched the Opportunity Fund, allowing underrepresented individuals to access our educational opportunities.
Aditi is the General Manager of Online Courses at General Assembly. She is passionate about the international talent deficit and how online education, such as the Web Design Circuit, can help address that by driving accessibility and affordability to underrepresented populations.
Source: FORBES