Main image of article Boost Your Skills with New Online Technology Courses

According to Dice’s latest Salary Survey, 71 percent of tech professionals say that training and education are important. However, only 40 percent currently have access to company-paid programs. With that in mind, what’s the most economical way for a tech professional to learn the skills they need?

Fortunately, you can bridge the knowledge gap by taking advantage of free online courses. Even better, completing one or more of the latest training and development programs over the summer can help you acquire the skills to move into a hot specialty or high-paying job as early as next fall.

Mobile App Development

If your goal is to earn more money, consider becoming a mobile app developer. Applications developer ranked as the 10th-highest paying job for tech pros in the Dice Salary Report, with an average annual salary of $105,202 (a 7.6 percent increase from 2017). There’s always a need for tech professionals who can build apps for iOS and Android.

Fundamentals of Computers & Code in iOS
This 5-star course from Alison will teach you the fundamentals of iOS coding in just two to three hours.

Introduction to iOS app development, Xcode and Interface Builder
Elevate your career by learning how to set up, install and begin developing iOS applications in Xcode.

Mastering Maps and Location-based Apps in iOS
Learn how to integrate location and map functionality into an iOS app. This three to four hour course also provides an introduction to major iOS libraries/Cocoapods such as CLLocation and MapKit.

Developing Android Apps
Learn the tools, principles and best practices of mobile app development and build a cloud-connected Android app with this free, highly popular 60-hour course from Udacity.

For those who want to connect their iOS or Android app to a cloud-hosted database via native SDKs, consider using Firestore database technology. And propel your iOS development skills to the next level by mastering the Swift programming language; Swift was one of the top-paying skills in the latest Salary Survey, with an average annual salary of $101,631 (a 3.2 percent increase from 2017):

Big Data

Acquiring “Big Data” skills can boost the careers and marketability of anyone in today’s workforce. Coursera provides an “essential skills collection” that covers basics such as business case development, project planning, sentiment analysis and Python:

● Introduction to Data Science in Python offered by the University of Michigan

● Managing Data Analysis offered by Johns Hopkins University

A.I./Machine Learning

A.I. and machine learning job postings on Indeed rose 29.10 percent between May 2018 and May 2019, with machine-learning engineers earning an average salary of $142,858. These courses can help you can get started in this lucrative, expanding field.

AI for Everyone offered by deeplearning.ai
Covers all the basics.

Intro to TensorFlow for Deep Learning
This free course from Udacity takes a practical approach to deep learning for software developers, without requiring a background in math. If you can code, you can build A.I. with TensorFlow.

Introduction to TensorFlow for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning offered by deeplearning.ai
Another option for learning TensorFlow.

Secure and Private A.I.
This free, two-month course from Udacity was built in collaboration with Facebook and Andrew Trask, Leader of OpenMined and research scientist at DeepMind (who is also an instructor). Learn how to build better AI models that securely leverage distributed private data.

Sequence Models offered by deeplearning.ai with the NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute (DLI)
This course will teach you how to build models for natural language, audio and other sequence data.

Programming Skills

WeChat Mini Program Development by WeChat
Is WeChat really better than WhatsApp? See for yourself. This free, beginner-level course will teach you to build “mini-programs” on the WeChat platform, the most popular messaging app among Chinese consumers, in about four weeks.

Autonomous Systems

The rise of self-driving and electric cars will create more than 100,000 jobs in the U.S. over the next decade, including 30,000 jobs for engineers with computer science-related degrees, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Detroit Mobility Lab (DML).

Self-Driving Fundamentals: Featuring Apollo
This course will help you take the first step down the road to a new career by teaching you how to identify key parts of self-driving cars and utilize Apollo architecture including: HD Map, localization, perception, prediction, planning and control.

If the free, online course you want to take over the summer isn't listed above, use the links below to browse further.

Good luck!