Earning a degree can often be your best ticket to career advancement. No matter whether you decide to pursue a traditional four-year undergraduate degree, master’s degree, or certificate, there are many options specifically designed for non-traditional students who are looking to fit a formal education into their already busy schedules.

Of course, building a schedule of classes around a 40-hour week and still having time to fulfill responsibilities as a friend, parent, or spouse takes a little bit of balancing. Here, we’re sharing the perks of online learning and opportunities to take advantage of it.

Accessibility of Time and Place

One of the advantages of online education for non-traditional students is that you can learn from anywhere there’s an internet connection. Indeed, the world is your oyster, and that means learning and completing coursework from a neighborhood coffee shop, local library, co-working space, and/or your home are just a few options at your disposal. Today, the internet has made high-quality education more attainable for just about anyone.

Greater Efficiency

The structure of traditional in-person education isn’t necessarily the ideal learning environment for everyone, especially if you have an already demanding work and personal schedule. However, many online schools and universities offer classes where you can work at your own pace, allowing you to engage with the material on your own terms and in ways that help you connect with the content on a deeper level. In that same vein, students who often get bored with the linear instruction style of in-person classes can speed through the material with which they’re already familiar.

Hands-on Learning Opportunities

The benefits of online education don’t end with flexibility and accessibility, although those are two hugely important factors for many prospective students. Online school also means students don’t have to uproot their lives to pursue their unique interests. With specific degrees and certificates offered on the internet, tech students can get hands-on learning opportunities in everything from IT essentials to data mining and analytics. Furthermore, there are data analytics tools like the ones offered by Cumul.io that provide an alternative to static reporting – instead, data can be visualized using interactive dashboards with snappy and attractive analytics. 

Pursuing an online IT certificate is a less time- and money-consuming opportunity for non-traditional students to gain and use unique and sought-after skills that employers are looking for. With online options available, many of which offer curricula that can be completed in less than a year, students have the freedom to pursue the life they want without having to sacrifice the one they have, wherever it is.

Choose Your Own Adventure

By requiring less time, a more affordable price point, and a less restrictive class schedule, online learning options are giving professionals the opportunity to break out of their career ruts and into the broad, fascinating, and notoriously well-paying world of tech.

With so many options and specializations from which to choose, the hardest part about pursuing higher education will be choosing the path you want your career — and life — to take.