Virtual assistance as a career has grown by leaps and bounds over the years.  An increasing number of individuals and companies are now relying on Virtual Assistants more than ever.  VAs have evolved from just being able to help in the day to day tasks of a business, and are now considered experts in their field.

This means the VA industry has become a competitive market with experienced people in various fields joining the fray.  One way to keep up with the growing market is to evolve as a knowledgeable Virtual Assistant who has the skills and the certification to prove it.

Fortunately, there’s a lot of free training for Virtual Assistants offered online.  These are guaranteed to equip you with the skills you need to be a successful Virtual Assistant, as you have to be on par with what’s going on in everything digital marketing.  There is no better way to learn them than by learning it from the pros . . . Here’s a list of some websites offering free resources:

1. Google Online Marketing Challenge is a tutorial that offers courses and modules covering digital and search engine marketing, search and display advertising, campaigns via mobile, social media, and video, as well as for analytics. Google AdWords Certification is also available for the VA who aims to excel in the digital marketing niche.

2. Hubspot Academy offers the following courses for free to everyone: Inbound (marketing methodology) Certification, Email Marketing Certification, Inbound Sales Certification, HubSpot Design Certification.

3. Quicksprout University offers beginner, intermediate and advanced courses on SEO, Link Building, Content Marketing, Paid Advertising, and Social Media, as well as courses on Email Marketing, Reputation Management, and Conversion Optimization. All presentations are on video.

4. Search Engine Journal is an authoritative site with heaps of articles about how to make the most of SEO, content marketing, social media, and paid search. They have a FREE e-book – Search Engine Journal Whitepaper: “What Works in Content Marketing: Case Studies & Tools for Success” that will assist VAs in their search for the best practices in content marketing.

5. Moz SEO for beginners is a ten chapter module that covers everything a beginner asks. Questions like “how a search engine operates”, “why search engine marketing is necessary”, “keyword search”, “usability, experience and content”, “search engine tools”, and “how to measure and track success”.

6. Social Media Quickstarter combines email marketing with social media marketing through its modules: Facebook 101, Twitter 101, LinkedIn 101, Pinterest 101, Instagram 101, Google+ 101, YouTube 101, Snapchat 101, and Blogging 101.

7. An Internet Marketing Education in 16 Ebooks and 20 Emails is a tutorial that outlines a smart way to combine social media, content marketing, and SEO for optimal lead generation. Sign up for free to get started.

8. YouTube/Video Marketing teaches VAs to make the most of YouTube as a marketing tool. The FREE 5-part series of videos is a walk-through that helps create customers out of viewers.

9. e- Marketing Institute offers online courses such as digital marketing, search engine marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and web analytics. All these are FREE with certification.

10. PPC University by WordStream offers a free course on Pay-per-click advertising 101. Learn the basics of PPC such as What is PPC? Keywords? Click-through rates? Quality Score? and everything you need to know to have a clear overview of what PPC is.

11. Class Central offers “35 Free Digital Marketing Courses to Upgrade Your Marketing Skills”. This is a list of top-rated courses on marketing, which were discovered by Class Central and are taught by the world’s best universities. This will help VAs be up-to-date with marketing trends and hone their skills in the growing online marketing platform.

12. RACE Digital Marketing Plan is an e-learning module that helps you create a fully structured digital marketing plan complete with budget, objectives, and evaluation guides to improve digital marketing results. A basic or free membership gives you access to templates that will aid you in creating actionable plans to take your marketing to the next level.

13. Search and Social Media Marketing for International Business is a course offered by the University of Salford. It comprises of 12 videos from academics and industry speakers to help their students create a professional online profile.

Also, don’t forget to visit big MOOC sites to search for free training on various topics aside from digital marketing. Like project management, entrepreneurship, programming, and a lot more:

14. Alison is a worldwide learning community offering free online courses that are standards-based and certified. The lessons range from Technical resources, Publishing courses, Analytics classes, as well as Sales, Operations, and Marketing classes.

15. Udemy offers more than 40,000 courses conducted by experts in their field. Udemy students can learn and earn certificates at their own pace on any device. They offer free courses for Python, Java, and Microsoft programs. Sign up to their newsletter and receive updates on their promos where you can get up to 70% discounts (maybe more) on paid courses.

16. Coursera aims for its students to learn better and faster, and designed their teaching methods with these four key ideas: Online Learning, Mastery Learning, Peer Assessments, and Blended Learning. Students can learn at their own schedule and earn certificates for their course.

17. FutureLearn offers hundreds of free flexible online course programs from universities worldwide. While learning from a leading university or organization, students can earn academic credit or even professional accreditation.

18. Iversity is a personalized learning platform for professional development and higher education. A varied range of courses focuses on growing a business with digital analytics, digital marketing plan, and many more.

This is a no-brainer. As a Virtual Assistant, you should be very adept in Microsoft Office. If you’re not or would want to learn more, here are 2 sites for you to check out:

19. GFC Learn Free offers everything for free. All 125 modules from Microsoft Office classes to android and technology basics, social media and cloud use, digital photography and graphics, are all free. Don’t you just love them?

20. MS Excel video tutorials are created to assist VAs in everything Excel. The FREE tutorials include financial planning analysis, functions, and formulas, checking and monitoring, and many more.

Now, let’s get techie. If you find time to focus on studying techie stuff, you’ll eventually be a techie. So, don’t be afraid. Although, there will be lots of trial and error. Good thing, these courses can help you set up the basic foundation of your techie skills:

21. CodeGym is an interactive online course for learning Java programming language from scratch. Our course is good for both beginners and more advanced students because the complexity of tasks increases as you go through the course. The first levels teach basic Java concepts, such as ‘objects’, ‘classes’, ‘variables’, ‘methods’, and so on. Gradually, the topics become more and more sophisticated, and so do the tasks.

22. CodeAcademy offers complete web development education. You can learn specific web development skills, language skills, and more.

23. WordPress 101 by WPBeginner is FREE a video tutorial on how to create and manage a website using WordPress as a platform. Just create an account to view the videos.

24. Joomla 101 allows you to learn to use Joomla quickly and easily for FREE. Learn to design and manage Joomla web sites properly with their short video tutorials.

25. Podcast course by John Lee Dumas is free on YouTube. It consists of 19 videos ranging from 3 to 20 minutes in length. It covers beginner’s podcasting, how to succeed, ways to fail, how to monetize podcasts, and more.

Creating clean, professional-looking images is a must. So jump right in and learn about design basics from:

26. Design School by Canva teaches you to create designs that make an impact. If you are struggling with how to easily go from an idea to a completed design, sign up to Canva’s Design School.

27. HackDesign gives weekly lessons that will help you have the confidence in using typography, color combinations, and designs for multiple platforms including web, mobile, and iPhone apps, among many others.

Tip: It is inevitable that VAs would have to learn a new tool or two as a part of their daily tasks. Fortunately, learning new software would not be a problem because chances are, the software’s website offers FAQs, support, and free basic training on how to use their product, so make sure to check on their site first.

28. Camtasia offers free video tutorials to familiarize clients within 30 minutes with the basics of video presentations via screencast or Microsoft PowerPoint.

29. Infusionsoft meanwhile offers a tutorial on customer relationship management from e-mail marketing to lead capture and e-commerce.

Of course! Don’t forget to sharpen your skills in writing because this will comprise 50% of your work.

30. Writing for the Web by Open 2 Study teaches students to understand and accommodate the needs of online readers as opposed to other readers. Discover different writing styles, web designs, and structures that cater to online readers.

31. Copywriting 101 by CopyBlogger will teach you how to write a compelling copy by introducing you to the basics of copywriting. Even if you don’t plan on being a copywriter, it is always good to learn about the strategy of using the right words that will make people take action.

Do you know any other sources for free training for Virtual Assistants?  Feel free to share them in the comment section below!

If you’d want to get started working from home, you may also wish to read the Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Virtual Assistant.