I have recently taken a couple of courses on Springboard, and I am very excited to share my experience with their premium courses. As my career track is UX/UI and Digital Marketing, I have taken the same, Digital Marketing Career Track and UX Design premium courses from Springboard.
I have taken many courses from various learning platforms, like lynda.com, Interaction Design Foundation, Udemy, etc., hence, I can safely say that my experience with Springboard is a little different compared to other self-paced courses available in the market.
So, lets begin with…
What is Springboard?
Springboard is a unique online education platform that provides
professional courses. Over 5000 students from more than 77 countries across the world have enrolled in it, so far, apparently. They have a simple process of enrollment where students need to select and apply for the course they are interested to take. Once that is done, the student advisor screens through the application, understands the student goals, and matches up & assigns a mentor. They are open to offering courses to individual students who aim to succeed in their chosen careers, as well as companies that are looking to enhance their employees’ professional skills.
Courses Offered
Springboard currently provides selective courses that are in demand to prepare individuals to carve a successful career pathway. Their courses are specifically designed, considering the current industry requirements of skills and tools, to make you job-ready.
The offered courses include
- UX Design
- Data Science
- Digital Marketing
- Business Analytics, and
- Cybersecurity
What is ‘unique’ about Springboard?
There are two things I found unique about Springboard.
1. It’s unparalleled belief system, which is summed-up in 6 key points.
I totally agree to all the said believes, particularly, ‘the current education system is unprepared to meet the talent demands of the 21 st century’. With upgrading technology so often, in this fast-paced millennial era, is professionally challenging and demands the skills that bring forth constant innovation and adaptability. This is only possible through continual learning and springboard understands it well.
2. Assigning a dedicated mentor, who works in the selected industry, to every individual student.
As we all know, times have changed vastly, especially in the education system. The majority of people are now preferring virtual education compared to traditional classroom education; and with improving technology virtual teaching and learning have become easy and more common. With these changes, comes the responsibility to provide the best training to the students, and Springboard understands it very well and helps by assigning mentor to each individual student (1:1 ratio), considering the learner’s availability hours. Besides teaching the course content, mentors provide technical guidance, career advice, and accountability.
My Personal Experience with Springboard
As mentioned earlier, I have taken Digital Marketing Career Track and UX Design premium courses from Springboard. My learning journey was smooth throughout the course duration.
The best part of the course was the dedicated SME mentor who guided me at every step, during the course. I received genuine and personal feedback regularly, especially on the project I’ve worked, during my learning phase. Also, they provided career advice regarding the skills in demand, well in advance, and the areas you need to improve in order to make a mark in the competitive world and land the right job that is most suitable for you.
Additionally, there were face-to-face video calls scheduled weekly where my personal mentor used to call and provided 1:1 training. This, in turn, provides students with an opportunity to communicate with various subject matter experts from their chosen career tracks.
At the end of each unit, my personal feedback was taken with regards to the content & videos used during the course training, which helps in covering the gaps in the course, if any. Also, there were review quizzes from-time-to-time to check the student’s understanding of the course topics. At any point of time, during the course, you can freely go back to units that you would like to refer again.
Besides, I have also noticed that the mentors made sure to give courtesy to the original authors, for the content used during the course. The etiquette, which adds respect and value to the original writer, shows springboard’s genuineness, which is highly admirable and appreciative.
The course material includes:
- Original videos from the Springboard team, and from other real authors in the specified topics.
- Links to various useful and worth reading articles, which were written by the course experts/mentors, etc.
- Projects that are assigned to work on, during the course; to give you a better understanding and hands-on experience in your chosen career track.
- Face-to-face video calls with mentors
- Private communities for each career track
- Student Guide
Here’s the icing on the cake, Springboard offers course takers to communicate and connect/network with fellow learners or virtual classmates, via their private communities created for each course/career track. This serves as a great platform to get acquainted with fellow students, as well as get career advice from the learners/students.
Lastly, besides enhancing the skills, Springboard also awards the course of the completion certificate, which will add value to your resume and help in placing you in the right career position.
