Are you trying to find websites that will give you free online courses with certificates to print yourself? Then please keep reading, as I am about to reveal the top 10 best courses that provide this option. Free courses with printable certificates are an amazing way to boost your resume without spending any money.
It is tough trying to wade through the mountains of information and content online, especially when many sites charge a fee before you can complete your course and download your certificate.
It is a current trend for some websites to offer a product or service and allow you to complete some of it before blocking access to the rest of it behind a paid screen. This just isn’t nice and nobody wants to have their time wasted, like this. So follow this advice and head straight to the top places that provide free training and certification at genuinely no cost to yourself.
I have made an effort to cover a variety of different industries here for your convenience. You will find free courses and certificates on just about every subject that has employment options. This can include; family law, criminal law, and logistics just to name a few. This is a great way to build up your resume without risking anything.
A word of warning …
Plenty of websites will pretend to offer courses with certificates for free. They will allow you to follow through with the process and then attempt to charge a fee when you feel you are committed.
This is a tactic used by many companies to force users to continue through a paywall to achieve their final certification. This can be as much as $400, so beware of these.
None of the companies in this list do this to gain your certification and that is why they are they are valued by myself.
Sound great? Then let’s take a look at the first one.
Udemy.com
Udemy has recently grown to accommodate a massive following and employers are now very well-versed in qualifications gained and printed using this learning platform. Meaning they are universally recognised and respected.
You can currently gain free access to over 820 free courses without having to spend anything. There is a lot of paid content on Udemy, so do be aware of this before you visit the site.
Lynda.com (now Linked-in Learning)
Lynda.com is a well-established trusted source of educational content. There is training on the site for virtually any subject you can think of. There are over 13000 courses covering a wide range of industries, from cloud computing, Photoshop, Leadership and management and animation and illustration.
Their training is largely video-based as they have moved with the times. They even have apps, found in Google Play and IOS stores that allow you to learn on the go. Their courses are taught by qualified professionals that are strictly chosen, so anyone using their content to learn a new skill can rest assured that they are in good hands.
To gain your free qualifications from Lynda.com all you have to do is sign up for the free trial. This will allow you 30-days to explore the site, complete your course and gain your printable certificate to prove you have completed the training. You can complete as many courses for free during this trial period, so make your course count.
Google Digital Garage
This is a relatively unknown online training center, although it is mostly focused around digital and marketing. Most people are unaware that Google themselves actually run an online training platform. There are all sorts of courses on Google Digital Garage and you have unlimited access to all modules and video training whenever you like.
There are some real treasures in this platform. You can take a course on machine learning, social psychology, business security and many more. There are over 100 different courses available on the platform currently.
Alison.com
This is a great option for free online courses with certificates. There are over 1000 free courses to choose from. This site is mainly centered around computing, programming and coding courses. But they also cover web design, art and humanities, lifestyle and mathematics.
One thing I’m not so keen on with Alison is that they don’t really host their own courses or video training, they rather source them from various places online. So they are an aggregator of sorts for online learning. They are not so keen on moving with the latest technology either so don’t currently provide an app for learning whilst travelling.
Alison does however provide a certificate for many of the free courses so you can print them out whenever you like.
Microsoft Learn
Now as the title suggests, this educational platform offers courses in all things Microsoft. But if this is the career road you want to start down, then this is definitely for you. WIth Microsoft Learn you have the option to take any of their courses for free. If you wish to excel with your skills in a certain software produced by this giant, then do check out this free training.
Most of the courses come with certification at the end and these are recognized as an industry standard if you want to get a job based with Microsoft software. Much of the training involves learning about Microsoft Dynamics and Azure, but there are other courses available too.
Your certificate will generally show your name alongside your status as a Microsoft certified professional. This will look amazing on any resume or curriculum vitae and help you to stand out from the crowd. It may just be the edge you need over your competition.
OpenLearning
Over 1300 university standard free online courses to choose from on this provider. They offer plenty of free educational content and the chance to gain a free certificate at the end of the course. This is a really up and coming provider of online education and they have a massive variety of subjects to choose from.
The same way that one of our companies listed above collated free courses from all over the web, OpenLearning gather all the free courses with certificates that Universities and schools provide for free and make them easy to find. Many are free and provide a certificate at the end of the course.
They offer courses in so many different subjects. They offer free courses in Japanese, Physics, English, cyber security and more.
PluralSight
This is a great option for free courses online with certificates. This website offers free training that is based around helping educate the next generation of developers. This site has aligned themselves with the biggest companies , not only in the industry, but also the world. You will find content that helps support your career journey into Google, Microsoft, Adobe and many more.
PluralSight is a little generous when it comes to providing courses for free to help you excel. But, if you make the most of the free 10 day trial option, then you will be able to come out with a great deal of knowledge without spending a cent.
All of their courses come with accreditation or a certificate in some technical subjects such as Python, C+, AI, Machine learning, Javascript and many more. This place is a burgeoning programmers dream. It is mostly aimed at younger people as they may wish to hone their skills and knowledge before they start along a career path that may lead them into one the the most technologically advanced companies in the world.
Free Code Camp
This is a smaller company but still worth mentioning as they have over 100 courses which are all focused around learning how to code. This is a much in-demand skill that employers look for now when they are recruiting. Having this free certificate on your resume will really help make you get ahead when applying for jobs in this area.
This is not just textbook-based training either. You can learn via the medium of interactive lessons which are vital for this industry. Alongside this are thousands of hours or training and lessons. Free Code Camp are leaders in their field of education.
Whilst this option is technically free as in not costing money, there is something of a caveat. There will be some unpaid work required to fund the training you receive. But when you complete your free online course with a certificate then you will be pleased you put the effort in.
Final thoughts on choosing free courses with certification
There are lots of ways you can improve your resume using any of the resources above. There is a lot of snobbery in eucation and you may find yourself wondering if free course ceritifcates will actually do you any good in the long run. Will emplyers like to see a free course accreditation on your resume or cv?
No one person can answer this question, but if you look at the positive aspects then the answer is definitely yes. Employers like to hire someone who is active, resourceful and stands out from the rest of the applicants. If your resume has a long list of accreditation to your name and the person next to you only has the basics, even if they are from a university, then you are definitely going to look more favorable.
Always look to better yourself and add to your resume whenever you can. Having time off work is a great opportunity to do this if you have some spare time.