Woman working on a laptop ()
Moving all of the time can put a damper on a military spouse’s resume. Thankfully, there are a few resources out there to help military spouses maintain, grow and vary their careers and education. One of these resources is free access to Udemy courses through Military OneSource and Spouse Career and Education Opportunities (SECO).
Udemy is “a self-paced online learning platform offering courses taught by leading experts. Topics range from human resources and marketing to leadership, information technology and entrepreneurship.”
I signed up for this opportunity earlier this week to take some free creative writing courses as well as some free German language lessons. However, there seems to be no limit to the types of courses available. There are literally over 200,000 video courses on Udemy in many different languages.
1. Go to https://myseco.militaryonesource.mil/portal/article/udemy-free-online-courses
1a. You may have to create a MySECO account if you have not previously done so.
2. Click the blue “Get Started” button.
3. Fill out the information
4. In two business days, you will receive your “activate my account” email. You must claim your Udemy license within 30 days.
***** Two Business Days Later*****
5. Click “activate my account” in the email.
6. Once I activated my account, I was sent to a questionnaire. It asked what field I was in (or, I assume, want to be in for those wanting to gain new skills). There are 18 different choices including: HR to Finance, Education, Writing, Marketing and more.
7. I selected “Writing” and then was prompted to answer a more specific question about what type of writing occupation. Don’t worry, with all of these questions there is a “N/A” response.
8. After selecting the standard “Writer” occupation, I went to a screen where a list of writing-related skills were listed, and I selected the ones I was interested in.
9. It then asked if I was interested in obtaining a certificate from Amazon, Cisco, or the Project Management Institute. (I’m Not).
10. Finally, I clicked “Start Learning.”
There were two options for finding and searching for courses. Prior to receiving my “activate your account” email, I browsed Udemy to see what they offered, so I already had some courses in mind. But even if you don’t “pre-shop” like I did, your homepage has a section called “What to Learn Next” featuring top courses in your field and popular videos and courses taken by others in your field. You can also go to the top of the page and click “search anything.”
You are not committed to solely taking courses in whatever field you sign up for. I believe that you fill out all of that information so that Udemy can provide tailored course recommendations.
I typed “Creative Writing” into the search anything bar and then was able to filter results to courses in my language of choice and one that had a review rating of 4.5 stars and higher. Aside from English, they had options in 10 other languages.
I found the creative writing course that appeared to have everything I was looking for and simply clicked “Enroll Now.”
I repeated the search option for my German language course. That one had even more filter features such as letting me choose from courses that offered practice tests, subtitles and/or quizzes.
Both courses have “access on mobile” choices so I can learn from practically anywhere. Note that when downloading the app for your phone, download the Udemy Business App, not the regular Udemy App. (This took me about ten minutes to figure out; let me save you that time). It will ask for the business email: myseco.udemy.com. Then, you log in with your regular email and password.
I am so excited to begin these courses and I hope you find something that excites you too.
