If you’ve ever felt unfulfilled by your career, solutions now exist to make sure you’re realizing your potential.
There’s an amazing amount of online courses that are easy to access and free to take. The certifications that you gain will demonstrate your aptitude to potential employers.
If you can do it, and you can show it, there’s a high chance that employers will factor that into their decision-making process when it’s hiring time.
We’ve gathered the best websites that host free courses and give free certificates for you to take at your own leisure.
If you’re looking to expand your skillset, check them all out and find which one is suitable for your needs. Enjoy!
As part of the Government’s “Plan For Jobs” initiative, they are funding Level 3 qualifications for the workforce.
Level 3’s are equivalent to A Levels and are considered an advanced qualification, much greater than any certification.
They also include “skill bootcamps” which are heavily recognized by UK employers due to their extremely fast nature at delivering the knowledge required to start in the respective industry the camp represents.
This is entirely free and is the most encouraged, by us, to participate in. Not all are online, so make sure you do your research beforehand.
Coursera is a similar alternative to Udemy, but in the eyes of most employers, offers more credibility in terms of their certifications.
This is due to Coursera being the preferred choice for most major companies and universities to offer their own courses to people.
If you’re after a more technological skill, like machine learning or coding, Coursera has been known to offer better structure in their courses.
Reed offers free courses, but in a more casual setting. It will require some digging, but all certifications are free and there’s some genuine diamonds littered within the available course list.
For example, this marketing course (no affiliation with us) offers a great introduction into the world of marketing and comes with a certificate of completion.
Whilst not as credible as the paid certifications at Harvard or Stanford Universities, it will show that you are competent within the marketing industry, and you’ve taken the initiative to improve yourself.
Open EDU is part of Open University, which most will have heard about. Their selection of free courses are amazing, offering over 900 courses, as stated by their own website.
Whilst you don’t get any formal certificates, you do obtain a “Statement Of Participation”, as well as a “Digital Badge”.
These are still recognizable by most employers, acknowledging that you do have knowledge in their respective sectors.
Udemy is one of the many online course sites that enable anyone to create a course and sell it.
Courses are rated by users to make sure that any future potential students know that the course is of high quality and useful for employability.
Udemy has a free course section with almost 600 courses to choose from, all tailored to what skill you wish to achieve.
From learning how to build a WordPress site, to even meditation, there’s a lot of options to choose from.
Blueprint is a bit different compared to the other offerings, and it might be for good reason. Blueprint deals in providing you with micro-lessons, meaning you would take lessons that are short but add up.
You can then move onto taking one of their exams after digesting most of their classes. If you pass, you gain a Blueprint certificate, which are highly recognized by employers, based on the name alone.
Whether it’s to learn something new, supplement your skillset, or to add credibility to your skills, all choices here are applicable offerings.
Each of the platforms are tailored, intentionally or not, to specific skillsets, so it’s important to realize which one is worth sinking your time into.
If you’re looking for an extra advantage in the job market, this is the best method of doing so, for you and your wallet#1.