Choosing courses in design school was occasionally agonizing: Do I take Transportation or Furniture Design? Why the heck are they on the same day? but after you graduate, you realize what a luxury it was that you had those options at all.
Now let's say that you're out of school and you want to pick up a new skill. A company called Skillshare aims to offer the same wealth of creative educational options, within a miniature timeframe and decidedly lower tuition: Three-hour sessions are as low as $20 a pop for an intro to graphic design, while heavier classes, like how to make objects out of concrete, clock in at $65.
Skillshare's tagline is "Make, Build & Create," and most of the classes subjects reflect this; but there are also outlier courses like "Life Hack: How to Live Rent-Free in NYC" ($70.) Taught by a retired Sotheby's realtor, most of the four sessions are, unsurprisingly, already sold out.
Classes are either local or online; you search for the former by entering your zip code, while the latter are globally available. (The course examples I listed above are all NYC-area classes.) And if you've got an area of expertise that you're looking to share with prospective students, you can apply to teach a class either online or locally. Skillshare lets you keep 88% of the tuition. The other 12% goes in their pocket, as that's how they keep the lights on. Not a bad deal, considering they take care of the promotion and sign-up, leaving you free to plot your syllabus.
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