A Free Way to Get Certified in Something You Love
Continuing your education, regardless of age, is one of the best ways to improve yourself. Gaining new knowledge in areas of interest will help you become more valuable to employers, to your own business, or just assist you in growing as a human being.
One of the simplest ways to further your education without costing you a dime is through free online courses for adults.
There are literally thousands of these free courses to choose from. Moreover, completing these courses can add a few valuable certificates to your resume.
Where to Find Free Online Courses with Certificates
Coursera is a huge online course provider created in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller.
The Google empire also offers free online courses with certificates available at the end of completion.
Skillshare is another online learning community that provides free online courses and appropriate certificates when available.
6 Free Online Courses with Certificates
While countless free courses with certificates are available, some organizations require a monthly subscription to use their services.
Here are some of the best free online courses that will provide the skills you need to succeed while earning certificates along the way.
Finance
The course Financial Markets, offered by Yale for free from Coursera, is perfect for someone who works in financing, is interested in switching careers to financing, or would just like to understand the market better. The course provides information on managing risk and analyzing prospects for the future. The course is entirely online, takes approximately 33 hours, and a certificate is available upon completion.
Statistics
Introduction to Statistics is a course provided by Stanford through Coursera. It could be valuable to many companies interested in having an employee specializing in statistics because of how useful such knowledge can be. Statistics help governments, organizations, and businesses make informed decisions based on data analysis. The course is free, takes approximately 15 hours to finish, and earns you a certificate.
Google IT Support
With Google being the largest search engine and expanding its offerings every year (i.e., Google Docs apps), it would be beneficial for someone to familiarize themselves with its products. They could even become a Google IT Support Specialist by earning a professional certificate.
The Google IT Support Professional Certificate program is offered by Google and is also available through Coursera. It can be completed in six months, enabling the person to become a Google professional quickly. The five free courses by Google for obtaining the certificate include IT support fundamentals, operating systems, computer networking, and infrastructure services.
Digital Marketing
Whether you are self-employed or work for a company, everyone could use a bit more (or a lot more) digital marketing to improve their presence online. The more people see what you can offer, the more business will come through the door.
The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing course presented by Google takes about 40 hours to complete. In this class, you will learn important things such as:
- SEO techniques.
- How to build a strong online presence.
- How to develop an online business strategy.
- How to improve your current social media accounts.
- How to strengthen content marketing.
- How to use analytics to determine what does or doesn’t work.
Creating a YouTube Channel
While some people mistakenly think that those with YouTube channels are just doing it to increase their ego and presence on social media, it can earn someone quite a bit of money. In fact, the person who teaches this course proclaims they are making 50 times more money from their YouTube channel than they earned in their profession as a doctor!
YouTube for Beginners - How to Start & Grow Your YouTube Channel is offered free by Skillshare, and while it may not earn you a certificate to date, it will provide plenty of skills you can use for your own business or help your employer increase their business. This course is highly rated by those who have taken it in the past. It can be completed in a little over four hours by watching the videos and creating your own channel in the process.
On YouTube for Beginners, you will realize:
- What your channel should be about.
- How much money can be expected from your videos.
- How to shoot the videos.
- How to brainstorm ideas for your channel to make them stand out from the rest.
And plenty of other helpful tips that should be able to make your YouTube channel a success.