The true value of online education cannot be emphasised enough, with the platform enabling both teacher and student to set their own learning pace as well as boasting the flexibility to set a schedule that suits everyone.

As a result, using an online educational platform allows for a better work-life balance, and the offering of the University of Cape Town (UCT) – a world-renowned, academically excellent institution that is committed to social change and development – is no different, as it continues its partnership with online learning expert GetSmarter.

GetSmarter is a 2U, Inc. brand, which is an American educational technology company that contracts with colleges and universities to build, deliver, and support online degree and non-degree programmes.

The UCT and GetSmarter partnership sees more than 80 online short courses being made available, which provide students and learners with valuable opportunities to upskill themselves within the modern workplace, or even to supplement their incomes.

With online learning, students are afforded the opportunity to learn online at their own pace, by working through the modules offered.

Students are also afforded the opportunity to engage with tutors, as well as other people who enrolled in the same course via chat forums and marketing feedback.

GetSmarter’s courses are university-backed, and provide practical, job-ready skills that allow learners to stand out from the crowd by taking control of their ability to impact positively within their workplace.

In addition, as the courses have no entry requirements, they are more easily accessible, whilst there are less financial and fewer time obligations when compared to in-person courses and programmes.

The “Property Development and Investment”; “Data Analysis”; “Digital Marketing” and “Project Management Foundations” online short courses are just some of the most popular courses on offer, largely owing to the useful skills being taught.

Launched in 2017, the Property Development and Investment online short course often draws the attention of middle-aged and experienced professionals with bachelor’s degrees, or higher, who are looking to create the skills to build a property portfolio in their private capacity to maximise investment and diversify their channels of income.

This course takes roughly eight weeks to complete.

The Data Analysis online short course, also launched in 2017, draws students who are generally about 35 years old, with either little or no experience, or with experience of up to 15 years.

Degreed professionals either early in their careers, who are looking for work-ready skills to help them advance, or mid-level professionals looking to gain skills to help them move into a new field, are attracted to this course, which takes about eight weeks to complete.

Meanwhile, the Digital Marketing online short course – which takes about 10 weeks to complete – generally attracts a younger crowd of between 25 and 32 years, who are largely young professionals without tertiary education looking for a popular and valuable set of skills to help them succeed.

Lastly, the Project Management Foundations online short course, which was launched in 2010, attracts professionals without tertiary qualifications looking to gain actionable and valuable workplace skills to either give their careers a head start, or help them to maintain relevance in their existing roles.

This course takes about 10 weeks to complete.

While these are only a few of the courses on offer, GetSmarter’s UCT portfolio has information on the entire range of courses available.