We are all struggling to find productive things to do with our time, especially us in the hospitality industry. Luckily for you, I have found some perfect, free courses that can help us hospitalians sharpen our skills and leave the quarantine stronger than ever!
Let’s start with a big one: Open Learn , from the UK, is a platform that offers free courses in many different subjects. While it doesn’t offer any hospitality specific courses, you can take advantage of it’s wide variety of courses to learn a language or four without paying a cent! As Hospitality often involves interacting with those of a different native language to yourself, this is an invaluable resource.
Oxford Home Study is another free online platform from the UK (such generous people!) that provides a particularly unique hotel management course. It is 20 hours long, entirely free and good for anyone who would like to learn what it is like to manage a hotel before paying for higher education.
The American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) is one of the most well respected research and policy bodies in hospitality. It has produced a large amount of research and educational resources for professionals and students in hospitality. Due to Coronavirus, the AHLEI has offered to open some of its courses for free which you can find in the above link.
Alison is one of the largest platforms for free online courses in the world. Their course of hospitality management is around 6-10 hours long. It is perfect for anyone wanting to scrape their teeth on hospitality without paying any money or much time.
The world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has a free online portal in which it has released numerous free-to-access lectures and notes. While there are no hospitality specific lessons, you can try your hand at marketing before moving onto more hotel/restaurant marketing later on, if this field of hospitality has ever interested you.
Coursera is a portal in which universities from across the globe can hold their courses online. The lessons themselves are mostly free, but you will need to pay for the certification/exam. The 4 hour course offered by Univerita Bocconi is an extensive look into the world of Food and Beverage management, useful for anyone wanting to start their career in a restaurant or outlet.
Another for those wanting to get into hospitality management for free before investing serious money into it. Brentwood open learning college provides a 20 hour online course that is the perfect opener for a career in hospitality.
Udemy is a massive online learning program filled with thousands of courses in every subject. The majority of which ask for a payment. There are however some free exceptions to this. A good example for this list is the fundamentals of hospitality inbound marketing. This 2 hour course gives the essentials of a very specific but very useful skill to all of you hospitality marketeers!
Cocoms is an online platform that focuses on regulation compliance in the hospitality industry through both free and paid classes. With the current crisis, food hygiene and safety has never been more important, so now is a perfect time to brush up on it!
Sushi is an age-old craft that takes years to perfect as a professional art. However if you are simply wanting to dabble and test the waters (or pick up an interesting new skill) then Sushi Magic provides numerous free online lessons and videos to help you on your way.
Typsy is an online platform for hospitality training in whichever position a student may need it. Their Bartending for beginners course is a perfect way to get started in the bartending field. Introducing you to the tools, ingredients and workstation standards needed to be a bartender in under 40 mins!.
Edx is a site very similar to Coursera, an educational portal filled with free courses (but often with an additional cost for the examination/certification) provided by reputable universities. In this case the course is provided by the American university, Harvard, one of the most reputable universities in the world. This course is perfect for any cook or foodie wanting to learn the scientific method of providing a perfect flavour
Skillshare is a sight in which professionals across the world can share their knowledge of their craft with the rest of the world. There is a large mix between free and paid courses, a good example of the former is given in Mixology. The course is 8 lessons long and given by Ivy Mix, head bartender at popular New York cocktail bar, Leyenda. The course is perfect for anyone who has a working knowledge of mixology and would like to top off their skills.
For those who don’t already know, Youtube is the largest free video site on the internet. For the most part, it is used primarily for pet videos, movie trailers and people doing ridiculous things for personal fame, however it also holds a wealth of knowledge for those who look for it. A perfect example of this is “Cakes and More!”. A channel dedicated to spreading the knowledge and joy of baking to beginners of the craft. The link in the title is just to the first video, the channel has over 130, so go on, make some cakes and more!
Similarly to Skillshare, Instructables is a site in which professionals and hobbyists can share their skills and collaborate in projects together. The linked class is not for professionals but for those just breaking into cooking and would like to learn the essential skills before trying to make a career out of it (or just want to spend less on takeout!).
English 101 is a portal in which users can sign up for free and have access to a number of free resources designed to help anyone from beginner to advanced learn English. The recently published material is all free but just bare in mind that it all eventually gets moved to their archive after some time, which you need to pay to access. So make sure you get the most of what's available at the time!
Another one from Skillshare! This class is a free beginners class given by the 2 owners of Rakka Chocolate, an organic chocolate company based in Brooklyn, New York. It is perfect for those in the pastry department who would like to incorporate homemade chocolate into their kitchen!
As the world has become more Eco-conscious in recent years, the trend of ecologically responsible tourism has become much more important. For those wanting to get a head start with this rapidly growing trend in the industry, Wageningen University in the Netherlands provides a surprisingly all encompassing course for free via Edx (with examination and certification coming as an extra expense)
There has never been a point since its creation that beer has not been popular. With this sweeping statement I introduce Brewing 101- an hour and a half long course teaching you the art of creating your own beer. If you are wanting to incorporate craft beer into your own bar, gain a fun new hobby or just learn a bit more about the wonder-drink, this course is for you!
Wine has many levels that those of us who have not studied and/or trained for years can only hope to understand. However if you would like to start the journey of becoming a sommelier later in life then the University of Adelaide, in Australia, provides an extensive starter course for anyone wanting to learn the basics of wine before adopting it as a career path.
BONUS ROUND
Ok, Ok, I know, I said “free” at the beginning of the article and that isn’t strictly true with this one, but trust me it’s worth mentioning. Cruises are an industry that have always generated an extraordinary amount of money- while that has taken somewhat of a hit recently- the cruises are set to recover!
The reason why this course is exceptional from all of the others is that you will be given placement assistance straight afterwards. So not only will you learn all of the essential skills of working on a cruise ship and gain a qualification for life but Placement International will personally assist you with the application process for a cruise ship straight afterwards! Best of all, as it’s a lifetime qualification, there is no rush in finding a placement- you can do the course while you have all the time in the world right now, then come back once you feel ready to start.
Apply now to our cruise course while there are still spaces!
