With so many people around the world being forced to work from home due to COVID-19 lock-downs – including the ICT industry – many companies are offering their online training courses for free or at discounted rates. This is a great way to not only increase your knowledge, but also retain your sanity while perhaps being stuck at home.
Below is a list of online courses from various industry organisations including non-profit associations and commercial companies that we’ve come across recently who are offering free and discounted online courses:
- Free and discounted BICSI Connect courses till 30 June – bicsi.org/education-certification/education-@-bicsi-learning-academy/bicsi-connect/online-courses
- Topics of courses that are free include: cabling design for intelligent buildings, healthcare and school facilities; IoT; data centre physical security; trends on copper connectivity; trends in optical fibre connectivity; pathways for cabling infrastructure; single pair cabling for IoT; DAS; and indoor wireless to name a few.
- Topics with 30% discounted courses include: remote access, virtualisation, and network services; IoT; cloud computing fundamentals; project management; and network storage and security to name a few.
- Free Avixa (professional AV association) online courses till 12 June – avixa.org/avixa-stands-with-the-av-industry
- Topics include: building, installing, configuring and testing AV systems to name a few.
- Free online supplier courses from:
- Commscope – commscopetraining.com/catalog/search/?q=free+courses – including cabling for IP and LED lighting systems; Fibre to the Antenna (FTTA); understanding RF paths; and more
- Fluke – youtube.com/user/FlukeNetworksSupport – short and sharp videos on a wide range of testing situations
- R&M – including Category 8, passive optical LAN; Power over Ethernet (PoE); digital ceiling; 1-pair Ethernet and more.
- Siemon – siemon.com/en/home/support/education/webinars – including AV over IP; Healthcare Infrastructure; PoE Standards; and more
- Anixter – anixter.com/en_us/services-and-solutions/technical-services/anixter-university.html – including data centres; industrial infrastructure; intelligent power; professional AV and more.
- Corning – optical fibre end-face cleaning and inspection standards –corning.com/asean/en/products/communication-networks/news-events/events/CleanAdvantage-Webinar.html
- Free online industry webinars
- Cabling Installation and Maintenance mag (US) – cablinginstall.com/webcasts – including fibre cleaning and inspection standards; installing, terminating and testing high-density fibre; applications beyond 100G; and more.
If you’re able to, we encourage you to avail yourself of some of these courses. Also let your colleagues and customers know about these courses. Many of them are in need of quality ICT education and perhaps have the time to acquire it now.