14 Courses To Help Healthcare Workers During The Coronavirus Outbreak

---

Tiger King was watched by nearly 34 million people during this quarantine. Maybe you watched it too, I know I did. 

While there is nothing wrong with watching TV shows during this “stay at home order” the hours you spend on Netflix should be matched (really exceeded) by time spent educating yourself for your next career or academic move right now. 

In the midst of all this chaos and uncertainty we are witnessing I think there will also be lots of opportunities…

For people who position themselves right.

Many people (who don’t have the luxury of relaxing) will be lulled into bad habits like hours of TV binging during this quarantine. A better alternative to this (in my humble opinion) would be acquiring new skills to help you once this virus thing blows over. 

In this guide, I’m going to share 13 course ideas that can help you obtain the knowledge, skills and in some cases certifications needed to potentially take your career to the next level after this quarantine is over. 

14 Online Course Ideas To Consider During The Coronavirus Outbreak

1. Teachable (online courses)

Teachable is a platform that allows creators to build online courses. To keep you occupied during the Coronavirus quarantine they’ve temporarily opened up a gang of free courses for you to take. 

Whether you’re needing to tighten up on tech skills, improve your fitness or master marketing you’ll find a course to fit your need at Teachable.  

Notable teachers who are offering free courses right now are Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income and Nicole Walters who I’ve seen my wife take courses from. 

Teachable is even an option for you if you have deep-dive expertise in a certain field. Create a course, share your knowledge, and get paid! 

2. Udemy (online courses)

Udemy is a lot like Teachable and they also offer free courses.  

3. Nonprofit Ready (online career development)

Nonprofit Ready is a site that offers professional development training to anyone interested in climbing the corporate ladder. 

Much of this site was free before the Coronavirus outbreak, so even if you don’t get to it until next month these courses will still be free.

In addition to offering free courses about grant writing, fundraising, marketing, and management you can also obtain certifications to improve your resume.  

4. Grant Cardone (improve business skills)

Grant Cardone is a real estate professional who also happens to create sales courses for companies and individuals.

Right now Grant is offering his whole Cardone University business training program for free during the Coronavirus outbreak. Basically you can digest as many of his courses as possible for 14 days.

If you want to improve phone sales, learn real estate or just negotiate a better salary at your current job you will find courses to help you in these areas. 

The only catch with this offer is you have to enter your credit card information. As long as you cancel your membership before 14 days is up your card won’t be charged. Grant is about his coins so I would expect nothing less! 

5. Dave Ramsey (money management classes)

Dave Ramsey is the complete opposite of Grant Cardone when it comes to savings. Grant’s money management advice is essentially “scared money don’t make money”, while Dave preaches prudence.

There is a lot of economic pain occurring in households all over this country, so if you are in this situation and need someone to help you sort out your finances Dave is your guy. 

Dave has a course called Financial Peace University that you can try on a 14-day free trial. 

In this course, Dave teaches students about things like paying off debt, creating an emergency fund, understanding your retirement options, and the basics of mortgages.  

6. Google Analytics Academy (master Google search engine)

If you can master the Google search engine the world is yours. 

Think about how many times you use their service a day to search for community resources, a mechanic near you, job openings. The higher a company ranks in Google the more successful they’ll likely be. 

This free course teaches you how to understand Google Analytics which will allow your business or nonprofit to rise in Google rankings. 

This would be a good course for anyone with a company website, a tech background or anyone wanting to possibly start a side hustle consulting companies on their rankings.

7. Free Copywriting Course (

Writing is essential to everything we do in our work; documenting assessments, sending emails, networking, etc. 

Writing is so important a supervisor once told me “everything that you did for that client means nothing if you can’t properly document it”. 

One way to improve your writing skills is by learning the basics of copywriting. 

Note: Copywriting is technically the occupation of writing advertisements or sales letters. 

I was introduced to copywriting at a site called Kopywriting Kourse. Neville Medhora is the creator and I believe he’s from Austin. 

On his site, Neville offers a free copywriting course where he teaches you how to not only sell products but more importantly ideas. The thing that I found most beneficial about copywriting is it forces you to consider the viewpoint of others as opposed to merely “what’s in it for me”.

In a way, this skill will turn you into a more generous and thoughtful employee and person. 

Anyway, check it out here. Neville has lots of great insights on psychology, plus his videos are really fun to watch. 

8. Side Hustle School Podcast (inspiration to start a business)

This option isn’t a course, but rather a podcast. 

Side Hustle School is a REALLY interesting podcast. The host, Chris Guillebeau, finds these weird side hustles that people have stumbled upon that surprisingly generate extra income for their families. 

Here are some of the strange ways people are making money: 

• Man writes fish tank reviews
• Guy makes saddles for pet chickens
• Airbnb for dogs
• Lady creates $900/month hammock biz
• Worm composting 
• Uber for tutoring
• Man on house arrest starts $500,000 food truck biz in his yard
• Oregon lady cleans animal skulls for income
• Office worker creates custom cup hustle by selling to coworkers

Not every topic will appeal to you, but episodes are only 5 minutes long, so you can easily run through 10 a day if your job involves lots of data entry. 

Bottom line, if you’ve ever doubted that you could start a business and get paid, the stories you will hear on this podcast will change your mind. 

9. Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy ($70K online courses for free)

When a coworker told me what her husband’s MIT tuition cost I realized I had absolutely nothing to complain about regarding my very modest student loans from Texas Southern. 

If you don’t have $70K per year to go to MIT an alternative could be their free online courses. 

On their website, they have 1000s of undergrad and graduate courses for you to take free of charge. Now you won’t get credit, but if you’ve got the time courses in business, medicine, mathematics, and health care management are all waiting for you right now. 

10. Edx Online Courses (free online courses from the best universities in the US)

EdX is another option for free online learning during the Coronavirus outbreak. 

On this website, you can find free courses offered by schools like MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Texas System, Boston University and even the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 

11. Khan Academy (free tutoring for you or your kids) 

Khan Academy was providing free online learning before the Coronavirus outbreak and they are still doing it today. 

This website is great for current students or adults needing to learn about those subjects in school that we may have slept through. 

You can find all sorts of history tutorials, algebra, chemistry, 4th-grade reading, SAT prep courses and more. 

12. Duolingo (learn a 2nd language for free)

I forgot all about Duolingo until making this list, but it’s one of the easiest ways to learn a 2nd language.  

They offer an app and website that is really user friendly and fun for anyone. My mother in law who calls my wife to send text messages can even navigate the Duolingo app.

Some of the languages you can learn on Duolingo include: 

• Spanish
• French
• German
• Japanese
• Italian
• Chinese
• Swahili
• And more…

13. Obtain A Certification

Certifications are a great idea for professionals who want to level up but don’t have the time for a 4-year degree. 

Healthcare Certifications 

An easy certification to obtain is a Community Health Worker Certification. Especially if you already work in the industry. Here’s why…

To obtain a Community Health Worker Certification all you have to do is prove you worked 1000 hours in health care the past 3 years and then submit an application (scroll down to Initial CHW Application). 

That’s it…

Do these 2 things and you could potentially receive your Community Health Worker Certification in 1 month.

In addition to the easy to obtain CHW certification you can also supplement your resume with these health care certifications: 

• Pharmacy Tech – Lindsey Bradford of LW Pharmacy has a great program and it’s local. 
• Nurse Aide – Ricki Smith of Smithwood Institute can help you train to become a nurse aide or phlebotomist. She is also in the Houston area. 
• Cardiac Monitor Tech
• Medical Billing and Coding Specialist
• Surgical Tech
• Medical Assistant
• Neurodiagnostic Tech
• Dental Assistant

Non-Healthcare Certifications 

If you are burned out on healthcare, don’t quit your job just yet. Instead, think about maybe getting a certification in another industry to help you make your exit. 

AD Banker is a website that offers online training for people seeking licenses in the financial sector, health/auto insurance, and also real estate. These could even be ways to supplement the income from your current healthcare job.

About 10 years ago I was tired of healthcare so I decided to see what the oil and gas industry was all about. I completed a 1-year certification at Lee College in Process Technology which helped me get a job in the field.

Community colleges like Lee in Baytown, San Jac, and Houston Community College have lots of options for 1-year certification to help you find a new career. Best of all community college classes are cheap in comparison to what you probably paid for your undergraduate degree. Some of these community college certifications even pay more than a bachelor’s degree! 

14. Finally, Start On The Path To Your Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree

For those even more ambitious consider finally obtaining that bachelor, MBA, a therapy license or nursing degree. 

Local schools like the University of Houston, Texas Southern or Texas Woman’s University can help you take steps toward achieving those academic goals you’ve put off for so long. 

Conclusion

These course ideas are merely suggestions for you.

Even if none of these options interest you, the key takeaway is to consider making a move to help your career and family during this downtime.

Soon we will all be back in our cubicles REALLY working 8 hours a day and I don’t want you to look back at this time as a missed opportunity.

Level up now and reap the rewards later my friend!