For years now, millennials have been known to prize experiences over owning luxuries. That can cause problems during the holiday season because it’s much easier to buy a hat or an iPhone than an “experience.” Now it’s not.
A company called Udemy is offering up thousands of its 80,000 online courses for as little as 10 bucks a pop during its Black Friday holiday sale. On top of that, if you buy one of these course during Black Friday itself (between Nov. 22 and 23), you’ll get a second, free course that you can redeem during Cyber Monday (Nov. 26 and 27).
Each course comes with lectures — sometimes several hundred of them — from experts-in-their-field. And there’s no pressure on the pace of study — once you buy a course, it’s available to you forever. Now’s the right time to gift packages of knowledge like this — they immerse their students in topics and subjects without the usual expensive price tag of a college course.
Anyone can find out if they are interested in, good at, or likely to pursue virtually anything. But it doesn’t have to be about academic subjects, either. If you’re thinking it (like we were), rest assured: This sale isn’t just for the crummy underbelly of classes. Udemy’s sale covers its bestsellers, from the ubiquitous Spanish to forensic psychology, from sewing to wedding photography, from blockchain to Google Sheets, and on and on. For just $9.99, for example, you can gift someone…
- A guitar course that’ll take them from zero to master (normally $145)
- A digital marketing compendium of courses rolled into one, covering everything from email marketing to social media analytics (normally $199)
- An artificial intelligence how-to at whose conclusion a student will be able to code AI and solve real-world problems using it.
We know this can be overwhelming. How should you choose the right course with so many options? To make it easier for you, we sifted through the pickings and broke down Udemy’s top courses for a few choice categories, including what each course has in store (and how much money you’ll be saving if you buy it).
Our top picks of Udemy courses
Learn web development. The Complete Python Bootcamp teaches that code-hungry millennial how to professionally use a programming language — which coders use to write and create anything from web applications to games. It’s regularly priced $194.99, so you’re looking at 95 percent savings. The package includes 24 videos, 19 articles, and 19 coding exercises.
Practice self-defense. Everyone loves calling millennials snowflakes, so toughen them up a bit. The Elite Close Combat Training: Bullets, Bats & Blades will teach students “how to disarm, disfigure and dismember anyone stupid enough to pull a blade, bat, or gun on you or your family…” Okay, whoa. This 3.5-hour course includes 28 lectures and is regularly priced at $144.99, so you’re getting 93 percent off.
Master the art of singing. If you’re gifting someone who’s more a lover than a fighter, then perhaps a lesson in serenades makes more sense. The Become a Great Singer: Your Complete Vocal Training System is jampacked with 164 lectures, 22 hours of video, and three articles. Dropping from its normal $199.99, it’s 95 percent off now.
Accelerate beyond arithmetic. If the millennial in your life doesn’t like fun, you know what to do. The Become a Calculus 1 Master, originally at $149.99, is 93 percent off now. Its 283 lectures comprise 18.5 hours of video, 144 articles, and more than 200 resources, like quizzes, available for download.
Whatever you want to gift your friend or family member to help them learn something new this holiday season, Udemy can probably deliver for $10. And hey, at least it’ll keep them busy for dozens of hours, which is usually hard to do for the price of a sandwich.
