Basic education at school and college rarely prepares us for the technical skills required for a job. Today’s workplace is a web of highly specialized functions. Some of the general functions are manufacturing, marketing, advertising, finance, human relations, and information technology.

There are many online ‘schools’ and ‘universities’ that offer certified courses of study from the prevailing systems in all areas of work, be it accounting, project management, digital marketing, and information technology specific courses such as SAP training and career.

If one wants to remain relevant in the workplace, it makes sense to keep up to date on the latest developments at work. Taking short certification courses from time to time while you work is a good option. These courses can be done in the comfort of your home, through the Internet, which is also the source of study material, as well as being a virtual classroom and exam center.

One course that would benefit anyone, not necessarily an accountant, is bookkeeping and accounting. It’s helpful to read your own company’s balance sheets and know your financial status, which is important to you as an employee.

Digital marketing, SEO, and project management are important courses for the older generation to get up to date with current marketing principles, such as digital marketing and search engine optimization.

An institute that offers these degrees slowly builds its reputation over the years of providing consistently good and relevant study material. Feedback from students who have passed the courses before are good benchmarks.

IT – The benefits of additional training

Most companies have IT present in all processes of all departments. IT development itself is an industry, lending itself to all sectors of a country’s manufacturing and service industry.

So it makes a lot of sense to acquire the skills to thrive in such an IT-dominated workplace. As knowledge increases and processes become more sophisticated, the world’s knowledge bank accumulates exponentially with volumes of new information becoming available for us to study and apply.

What are some information technology courses and what are their applications?

There are millions of courses available online that are related to IT.

CCNA – An IT Certification from CISCO, certifying an associate level Cisco Certified Network Administrator, teaching how to install, configure, and operate LAN, WAN, and dial-up service for medium-sized networks.

SAP – This leader in software business applications, provides software and technology or enterprise resource planning solutions to all companies in all industries in all spheres of activity.

MCSE: Microsoft provides certification in server infrastructure, Windows server, or even a Microsoft Office Specialist certification. This is helping to learn the use of the wide range of Microsoft products.

There are locally designed courses that offer certification in programming, web support, web design, software applications, web page design, java, computer information management, six sigma certifications, ICT software, game development, ethical hacking, etc.

Some online academic courses offer IT education under headings such as business information, business intelligence, IT security, computer security, technology, and networking.