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Online Work Platform Elance Offering Free Courses

Elance

Online work platform Elance is making available 20,000 online courses and a skill assessment platform.

Through a partnership with SkilledUp, freelancers can now access curriculum covering over 500 different skill areas, says the Mountain View, California-based company. 6,000 courses are available for free, and there are several openly licensed college-level courses. Freelancers on Elance also have access to assessments from Smarterer that quantify professional skills. 

Over 800,000 businesses and 2.8 million freelancers use Elance in 170+ countries, according to the company.

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