HP LIFE

HP LIFE is a free online training program in business and digital skills, run as a program of the HP Foundation. It is aimed at students, educators and lifelong learners anywhere in the world, and its courses cover core business concepts alongside newer topics such as AI and critical thinking. Everything is free: the home page invites visitors to join for free, says learners can "Learn critical skills free of charge", and gives a free Certificate of Completion each time a learner finishes a course. The site counts more than 30 courses in eight languages and says new courses are added each year. For a learner, HP LIFE is a catalog to dip into rather than a program to enroll in: you pick a course, work through it at your own pace, and collect a certificate when you finish.

Reach

The home page puts numbers on the program's reach. It reports 6.5 million+ online courses taken in eight languages, 3.3 million+ new learners since 2016, and learners in 200+ countries and territories. Course cards show enrollment too, which shows what people take most. Effective Presentations lists 209303 students enrolled, Basics of Finance 149952, Business Email 148860, Business Communications 139138 and Cash Flow 119023. The more specialized finance courses draw smaller but still large numbers: Profit and Loss at 69699, Finding Funding at 61108 and Sales Forecasting at 60509.

The catalog

Courses are grouped under six topics: Communication, Digital Business Skills, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Marketing and Professional Development.

The communication courses featured on the home page are practical and job-facing. Business Email teaches how to write effective, professional business emails, both for day-to-day work and when seeking new opportunities. Effective Presentations covers developing and giving presentations that express a message clearly to a specific audience. Business Communications explains why communication matters in business and builds a simple framework for improving it.

The finance category, which the site says takes learners through the basics, is written for people running or planning a small business. Cash Flow explains why cash flow matters and how to make decisions based on the resources available. Basics of Finance covers calculating expenses and working out when a business will make a profit. Profit and Loss explains what a profit and loss statement is, how it is structured and why it matters. Finding Funding surveys funding sources, how to match them to your needs, and what to consider before applying for business funding. Sales Forecasting explains why forecasts matter and how to gather the information needed to build one.

Two newer courses show the catalog moving toward AI. Strategic Planning in the AI Age covers the components of a strategic plan, practical planning frameworks and how to use AI thoughtfully to support strategic thinking. Critical Thinking in the AI Era teaches how to evaluate online content, detect misinformation and bias, and make better informed decisions.

Learner stories on the home page fill in what the entrepreneurship and marketing courses teach. Charity Selorm says the courses covered using the business model canvas to develop and refine a business idea, finding a break-even point, pricing services properly and identifying a target market. Anis Assali describes learning to use Microsoft Excel to determine a business's break-even point and analyze expenses to estimate real costs. Jalel Echaybi singles out the marketing courses: "I use these every day in the planning and growth of my business." Cameron Early, a student with YMCA Scotland, says the interactive content and videos made learning about running an enterprise engaging even without previous knowledge.

How learning works

Courses are self-paced and online, and there is no fixed sequence to follow. Barbara Millard, of Johnson County Community College in the US, describes the format from a teacher's side: "Each module stands alone and can be mixed and matched according to individual class needs." She uses the modules as basic course content or as a refresher.

Courses can also be taken offline. The HP LIFE mobile app, for Android and iOS, lets learners take available courses offline and study wherever they go, and course cards mark which ones work that way. Business Email, Effective Presentations, Business Communications, Cash Flow and Basics of Finance all carry the "Available offline" label.

Each finished course earns a free Certificate of Completion, which the site describes as celebrating your new skills every time you finish a course. Because each course stands alone, a learner can collect certificates one topic at a time, for example working through the finance courses before moving on to marketing.

Educators and partners

HP LIFE is also used by teachers and organizations. Roger Blair, a professor of entrepreneurship, says that incorporating HP LIFE into an upper-level entrepreneurship course gave students "a high-quality open-access learning resource" and supported the goal of finding long-term solutions to textbook affordability.

Partner organizations bring HP LIFE courses into their own programs, and the success stories on the home page name several: programs by ITU and UNDP ICPSD in the Dominican Republic, which a quoted participant credits with expanding learning opportunities for disadvantaged communities; YMCA Ethiopia and YMCA Scotland; JA Greece and JA Malaysia; Mundo Aflora; YALI participants; and the Mashrou3i program in Tunisia, where five entrepreneurs learned to grow their businesses through cooperation. Argiris Tzikopoulos, CEO of JA Greece, says the organization is expanding the partnership "to reach more students through HP LIFE courses". Sondess Amara adds that the program gave mentoring to complete a business plan and taught how to advertise a business and keep the accounts from one year to the next.

Who it suits

HP LIFE suits anyone who wants a free, self-paced grounding in business skills with a certificate for each course: students preparing for work, people starting or running a small business who need the basics of finance, pricing and planning, and employees brushing up on email, presentations and business communication. Teachers, youth organizations and nonprofits get modular, open-access content they can fit into their own classes without paying for it. The offline app and the eight languages widen who can use it, including learners with unreliable internet.

The courses concentrate on core business concepts and critical skills rather than advanced specialization, and the certificates record completion of free, self-paced courses. Learners who need deep specialist training or live instruction will want to pair it with something else, but as a starting point that costs nothing it covers a lot of ground.