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5 Online Platforms That Teach You The Life Skills That School Didn’t

Sophia Surrett  |  September 28, 2022

Need to learn a life skill? From everything to how to manage your emotions to how write a check, learn here with the best online platforms.

If you graduated high school and barely knew how to write a check, well, welcome to the club. Today, just 27 states require high school students to take a personal finance course to graduate, and sadly, that means most of us never receive those basics (unless mom and dad come in clutch with the info.)  Our lack of this essential financial training has become a source of frustration, but also a source of memes that can’t help but make us laugh:

Yes, learning how to file our taxes would have been nice, and almost 50% of high school students agree, saying they wish they’d  learned personal finance in school, according to Discovery Education. Thankfully, in 2022 there are now countless places to learn life skills that our education system did not teach us. Here’s a look at some of our favorites. 

EdX

From “Finance for Everyone” to ”Making Remote Humor Stick” EdX offers courses to help you learn those necessary life skills that can pave the way for a less stressful financial + career future. EdX is a learning platform that offers open online courses via different universities across the country. While most courses you need to pay for, some are available for free. The only thing you won’t get when taking a course for free is graded assignments and certificates of completion. 

SkillShare

Did you ever wish there was a class for managing your emotions? Well, with SkillShare, you can learn how to develop coping skills with the “How to Manage your Emotions” course. Or, if you want to organize your life on Google Chrome, Taylor Bruno can teach you how. Skill Share has classes on everything from Animation to how to work as a Freelancer. These courses have a variety of duration, so you can choose one that fits your schedule. Some can be as short as 17 minutes, or others as long as 6 hours and 24 minutes. When you sign up, you’ll get a month free which is plenty of time to squeeze in a short course and see how you like it before you incur monthly charges. 

Khan Academy 

As a non-profit educational organization, Khan Academy helps educate students of all ages, even though its target demographic is students K-12. Khan Academy also has classes on adulting, with a dedicated Life Skills page where you can brush up on the basics of personal finance. There is also a College Admissions section, Careers, Personal Finance, Growth Mindset and more, all offering countless helpful courses. For example, if you were thinking about applying to college and had no idea how or where to start, the College Admissions section can help you get started, and most all courses in the Life Skills section are totally free.  

LinkedIn Learning

You may be using LinkedIn for networking, but did you know that the site also has a “LinkedIn Learning ” platform where you can learn countless skills for free? A quick search for  “life skills” in the search bar yields 338 results: 145 courses to take, 175 videos to watch and 18 learning paths to choose from. You can learn to improve your communication, “Stay Ahead in Personal Finance” and how to assert yourself, “an Empowered Choice.” LinkedIn Learning isn’t free, but it does offer a one-month free trial before you decide on a membership. Pro tip for getting LinkedIn Learning for free: All public libraries have free access, which means that you can take all the courses you want, as long as you’re taking them on a library computer.  So if you don’t already have a library card, now’s the time to snag one. (LinkedIn Help even has a FAQ page just for public library card questions.) 

GCF Global Learning

With more than 6,000 lessons, and 2,000 videos (plus games!) all of which are free, GCF Global is making learning more accessible. The platform teaches everyday life skills, including Personal Finance,  Digital Media Literacy and Core Skills. For core skills, you can brush up on all things math, writing, reading, and even study for your GED. And honestly, couldn’t everyone use a refresher on the basics? There’s even a place to brush up on grammar,  if you’ve been feeling like there’s one too many misplaced modifiers in your emails as of late. You got this! 

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