Learning
Practise first. Learn what’s missing.
Credible ways to practise, learn and prove the skills employers ask for, and a straight answer when you don’t need a course.
Before you take a course: a keyword missing from your CV, or proof you haven’t shown yet, doesn’t mean you need one. If you’ve already done the work, the gap is proof, not skill. How to tell the difference.
What do you want to do?
Close a skill gap
Pick a skill. Check it's really missing, practise first, then learn only what you still need.
Get a credential
See which certificates are free, which need a paid exam, and where you don't need one at all.
Practise a skill
Start with a project or drill so you can see what you can already do.
Gain real experience
Places to use a skill for real organisations, and how to describe it honestly.
Not sure which role to aim for? Start with how to choose a realistic remote career path.
Close a skill gap
Skills
Each page starts with one question: is this actually your gap?
Spreadsheets (Excel & Google Sheets)
Organising, cleaning and summarising information in rows and columns, with formulas, sorting, filters and simple charts.
SQL
Asking a database questions: selecting, filtering, joining and summarising records with queries.
HubSpot CRM
Keeping contacts, companies and deals organised in HubSpot so a sales or support team can see what happened and what comes next.
Salesforce
Setting up and looking after Salesforce: records, fields, users, access and simple automation.
SEO
Helping search engines understand and show a website: content, structure, technical checks and reading search performance.
Email marketing
Planning, writing, sending and measuring email campaigns to people who have agreed to receive them.
Project coordination (Trello & Jira)
Keeping work moving: breaking it into tasks, tracking owners and deadlines, and reporting progress, often on a Trello or Jira board.
Customer support writing
Answering customers clearly in writing, by email, chat or help articles, so the problem gets solved and the customer knows what happens next.
Practise a skill
Where to start practising
Practice shows what you can already do. It is not work experience.
- Spreadsheets (Excel & Google Sheets)World Bank: Nigeria indicators (Excel download) · Practice project
- SQLfreeCodeCamp: Relational Databases Certification (five required projects) · Practice project
- HubSpot CRMHubSpot: Free tools plan · Drill
- SalesforceSalesforce Trailhead: Superbadge: Flow Administration · Proven practice
- SEOGoogle: Search Console (audit a site you own) · Practice project
- Email marketingMailchimp: Basic Free plan · Practice project
- Project coordination (Trello & Jira)Trello: Free plan (plan a real project on a board) · Practice project
- Customer support writingVCJ practice brief · Practice project
Get a credential
Do you need a certificate?
Often not. For each skill, here is what the provider’s own site says. Learning to do something and proving you’ve done it for work are different things.
- Spreadsheets (Excel & Google Sheets)Microsoft: Paid / Subscription · Paid certificate/exam
- SQLNot needed
- HubSpot CRMNot needed
- SalesforceNot needed
- SEOSemrush Academy: Free · Free certificate
- Email marketingNot needed
- Project coordination (Trello & Jira)PMI: Paid / Subscription · Paid certificate/exam
- Customer support writingNot needed
Learning a skill isn’t the same as proving experience
Finishing a course or earning a certificate shows what you studied. It doesn’t, on its own, show that you used the skill at work. Each resource shows the date we last checked it on the provider’s own site. We don’t take payment from any provider listed here.