For a reasonable monthly subscription fee, you can delve into fantastic courses on subjects ranging from art to creative writing. The intuitive platform is straightforward to use and delivers near-endless content.
For the over-50s, Skillshare is the perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in new skills and knowledge, whether for personal or professional development, hobbies, or simply out of curiosity.
Here are the top 15 Skillshare classes for over-50s.
If arts, crafts, or DIY are high on your hobbies lists, you probably spend a lot of time shopping around for supplies and essentials. Find everything you need from our leading brands in the table below!
What is Skillshare?
First, here’s a brief description of Skillshare. In short, Skillshare is a platform for online courses, similar to Udemy.
With a monthly Skillshare membership, Skillshare Premium, you can access all courses on the platform.
Skillshare courses range from creative disciplines like art, writing, and music to technical topics such as graphic design, coding, and digital marketing. It's excellent for taking various online classes and is cost-effective, provided you're taking enough courses.
The best Skillshare classes have thousands of students, but you'll find plenty of hidden gems, too.
Additionally, the platform welcomes all learners from all age groups and backgrounds.
That’s the great thing about Skillshare – it’s highly diverse, with famous instructors who are leaders in their fields to smaller independent creators.
Digital Illustration: Learn to Use Procreate by Jarom Vogel
Digital art is fun, engaging, and stimulating. Plus, it’s more accessible than you think.
With Jarom Vogel's tutorial to Procreate, you'll learn the ins and outs of this dynamic, award-winning app, making it easier to bring your ideas to life digitally. Vogel takes you on a creative journey through digital art and illustration, including nifty tips and tricks to accelerate your workflow.
Procreate is available for Apple devices and is intuitive and easy to use. This guide will teach you the basics of getting to grips with the app and its main features, giving you a platform to experiment with your own designs.
Graphic Design Basics: Core Principles for Visual Design by Ellen Lupton
It’s never too late to get into graphic design, a fun and engaging way to express artistic style using digital apps.
This top-rated course teaches the five core principles of graphic design: symmetry, scale, framing, hierarchy, and grids.
Taught by two seasoned professionals who have been working in the industry for decades, this course is excellent for anyone looking to get involved in digital or graphic design, either as a hobby or a part or full-time career for later life.
Storytelling 101: Character, Conflict, Context & Craft by Daniel José Older
Daniel José Older is a New York Times Bestselling Author – his creative writing-focused course expertly guides learners in crafting compelling stories and narratives.
It covers everything from creating complex characters to constructing engaging conflicts, establishing immersive context, and writing intricate stories.
As one of the most popular courses on Skillshare, this serves as a brilliant and inspiring introduction to storytelling.
Character Illustration: Drawing Faces, Figures & Clothing by Gabriel Picolo
Character illustration is essential for drawing people, animals, or other characters for art, books, and poetry. However, conceptualizing and drawing characters can be a real challenge for anyone just starting out.
This course has 12 lessons, and you can follow with traditional art media, e.g., paper and pens or pencils, or on a computer with apps like Procreate.
The course teaches the fundamentals of building and illustrating characters, including facial expressions and movements. It's the perfect companion for anyone creating their own books, novels, poetry, or memoirs.
Social Media Marketing: Top Tips for Growing Your Followers & Going Viral by Cat Coquillette
This course is a goldmine of advice for anyone seeking to boost their online presence across social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.
Coquillette, a successful artist and entrepreneur, shares practical strategies for increasing your social media followers and creating content that resonates with your audience.
This course demystifies aspects of social media marketing, such as crafting compelling posts, maximizing the use of hashtags, and hopping on trending themes. Coquillette also shares insights into the algorithms of popular platforms like Instagram and Facebook, helping you understand how to increase your visibility.
If you want to promote your business or build a personal brand, this course offers valuable tips and techniques for social media success.
Basic Skills / Getting Started with Drawing by Brent Eviston
Drawing has many benefits, from promoting relaxation to enhancing observation skills. This is the ideal course for beginner artists looking to take their drawing skills to the next level.
Basic Skills / Getting Started with Drawing teaches how to use the pencil like an artist, drawing shapes and breaking down subjects into easy-to-draw components. This course focuses on traditional drawing with a pen and paper, so you don’t need digital art apps or devices to get started.
It's also worth highlighting that this course offers over four hours of content, which is pretty exceptional for Skillshare. It’s highly comprehensive, shows you Eviston’s drawing process and techniques, and is one of the most highly regarded art-related courses on Skillshare.
Plants at Home: Uplift Your Spirit & Your Space by Christopher Griffin
Griffin designed this delightful course for anyone who wants to bring the benefits of nature indoors.
Nurturing an indoor garden can boost mood, improve air quality, and reduce stress – but you’ve got to know a thing or two about which houseplants to choose and where to place them.
If you’re an experienced outdoor gardener, this course may still interest you if you want to grow and look after unusual tropical houseplants.
This course helps you choose suitable plants for your space and learn crucial plant care practices like proper watering, feeding, and managing potential diseases. Griffin’s enthusiasm is infectious in this practical but lighthearted course for anyone interested in enhancing their interior space with plants.
Writing The Truth: How to Start Writing Your Memoir by Mary Karr
Memoir journaling is a cathartic means of exploring life’s highs, lows, achievements, and blunders. This excellent course provides actionable tips for converting memories into evocative memoirs that engage the senses.
Writing memoirs is a journey of reflective self-discovery and expression that you can use to occupy countless hours on quiet evenings, sunny days, and holidays. Mary Karr is a famous poet and essayist, so you’re receiving advice straight from the best in the business – which is one of Skillshare’s main benefits.
Photography Essentials: Understanding the Basics by Sean Dalton
This course is a beginner’s guide for anyone wishing to capture the world around them through the lens of a camera. Perfect for beginners or those needing a refresher, this class breaks down photography fundamentals, transforming complex concepts into easy-to-understand lessons.
Dalton starts with photography basics, discussing different types of cameras, lenses, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. He then moves on to creating photographic compositions, editing, and posting to social media. It’s an in-depth 13-lesson course with over 1 hour and 30 minutes of content, which is excellent for anyone looking to develop or advance a hobby or career in photography.
NEW CONFIDENCE: Boost Your Self Confidence, Self Esteem & Social Skills by Alain Wolf.
This highly rated and comprehensive course focuses on mental health, self-care, and building confidence. Wolf offers techniques to boost self-confidence, unlocking newfound levels of self-esteem and, ultimately, happiness.
This comprehensive 40+ lesson course is one of the most detailed on the Skillshare platform, covering an immense range of topics and scenarios.
It delves into common self-esteem problems, such as the fear of meeting new people and trying new things, which are salient topics for those over-50s looking to get involved in new experiences.
Introduction to Modern Script Calligraphy by Bryn Chernoff
This intro calligraphy course serves as an excellent entry point for those interested in more modern calligraphy techniques.
Chernoff covers the basics and intricacies of modern script calligraphy and hand lettering, beginning with an overview of the tools required, including various nibs, inks, and paper types.
Next, she teaches different strokes and how they combine to create lettering, emphasizing practice and persistence as the key to becoming an accomplished calligrapher. It’s a wonderful course for anyone interested in lettering for their own hobbies or professional pursuits.
Design Great Stuff: How to Make Merch with Draplin by Aaron Draplin
This course by accomplished designer Aaron Draplin teaches everything you need to design and print your own merchandise.
From t-shirts to tote bags, Draplin’s course covers everything from understanding your audience to creating effective design briefs and refining your design for printing.
This course is an excellent choice for anyone over 50 looking to turn their creative ideas into tangible products as a hobby, side hustle, or self-employed business. He shares his own workflow and gives away valuable tips that helped him create successful merch brands.
Draplin’s design courses are some of the most popular classes on the Skillshare platform, so they’re all worth checking out.
Figma UI UX Design Essentials by Daniel Scott
Daniel Scott's "Figma UI UX Design Essentials" is a masterclass guide to Figma, one of the most popular web development and design tools.
Scott, an Adobe Certified Trainer, walks students through Figma's features and functionalities while discussing key UI/UX design concepts. He breaks down topics into easy-to-digest chunks, which is perfect even for those who are complete strangers to UI/UX design.
This course is excellent for anyone over 50 interested in developing their digital skills or exploring a new career in this exciting creative discipline.
Going Freelance: Building and Branding Your Own Success by Justin Gignac
In Going Freelance: Building and Branding Your Own Success, Justin Gignac, co-founder of Working Not Working, offers step-by-step advice for anyone considering a freelance career.
The course covers freelancing fundamentals, including how to find and pitch to clients, build a strong personal brand, and manage your business.
For those over 50, this course can provide the knowledge and tools needed to explore a new professional path or transform a hobby into a source of income. It teaches the fundamentals of freelance entrepreneurship, the psychology required to succeed, and how to persist toward your goals.
Who knows, maybe you'll use this course to transform other skills you've learned on Skillshare into a blossoming career or side hustle.
Adobe Photoshop CC – Essentials Training Course by Daniel Scott
Photoshop is the most popular professional image editing tool in the world. This in-depth guide to Photoshop covers everything from basic photo editing to creating custom graphics and other advanced techniques.
Daniel Scott is a renowned Skillshare teacher that runs many highly-rated design-focused courses, including Figma UI UX Design Essentials.
Mastering Photoshop can open up new creative possibilities for exploring hobbies like photography or as a foundation for starting a new career in graphic design and image editing.
In fact, Photoshop skills are nearly universally relevant for creatives, which makes this an excellent course to support any number of other courses in this article.
There's a course for everyone on Skillshare!
Skillshare is a wonderful platform for anyone seeking new skills in various creative disciplines, from traditional art and drawing to digital design, UX building, web development, entrepreneurship, and product merchandising.
Once you’re familiar with the platform, digging through the many thousands of courses becomes fun and easy. Plus, you’re supporting creators and joining a vibrant community with millions of other students.
For the over-50s seeking new skills and knowledge for hobbies, self-development or professional reasons, Skillshare is well worth exploring.
Image Credit: Tim Mossholder at Unsplash
