Free Online Courses and Certifications

 

Upskill Faster with Free Online Courses with Certificates

 

Online learning is constantly shaping the current further education landscape. Thanks to popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms such as Coursera, edX, Udemy and many more, acquiring high-quality training from Ivy League schools and their global equivalents is becoming much more accessible and convenient. To top it all, you can upgrade your professional skills from any part of the world with their free online courses. 

 

Free online courses with certificates offer career-transforming advantages. They help you learn invaluable industry skills for free that make you highly employable in a much shorter span of time. Most of them provide the best learning experience through recorded video lectures and even free exercises that you can download for future use. 

 

Free Online Courses with Certificates: Free vs Paid Certifications

 

Not all free online courses offer free certificates. Just to keep your confusion at bay, a majority of online course providers have four different models of free online courses.

1. With one, you can enrol for free and audit the entire course online without a free certificate
2. In another model, you can complete an online course with a professional certificate by paying a fixed or monthly amount
3. One is where you can subscribe and enrol in multiple courses with certifications
4. The other is one that is free to enrol and even offers a free course certificate of completion

Let’s find out their individual benefits. 

 

Free Online Courses with Free Certifications or No Certifications	Free Online Courses with Paid Certifications
Best for freelancing or growing one’s own business	Best for getting a quality education at an economical price
Mostly about learning by doing - for people who just want to explore the topic or who want to learn something specific to apply	Mostly about building credentials and learning deeply about certain technologies and concepts
You will have to complement your learning with additional resources as the course would mostly be elementary	Additional resources like mentorship experience, regular assignments, and doubt clarification are usually available

 

Top Course Providers Offering Free Online Courses with Certificates

 

Be it, any skill or level, we, at Shiksha Online, regularly curate courses for professionals from every major professional field. Apart from the renowned MOOC platforms, do check out some of the new online higher education platforms from India. Some of them provide a large number of free online courses with certificates of completion and you get the advantage of learning from industry experts. 

 

On our platform, we collect and curate courses across every domain under technology, management, data science, finance, and more. Some free online courses with certificates across various fields are listed below. 

 

Free Python Courses	Free Big Data Analytics Courses
Free Fullstack Development Courses	Free Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition Courses
Free Artificial Intelligence Courses	Free Digital Marketing Courses
Free Entrepreneurship and Start-ups Courses	Free Corporate Finance Courses
Free Graphic Design Courses	Free Business Communication Courses
Free General Management Courses	Free Investing and Markets Courses

 

Here is a list of the major free online learning platforms from abroad and India. 

 

Coursera  

 

Undeniably, Coursera is among the most popular MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms for the best free courses. It also offers many paid courses online with different specialisations along with masters and bachelors programmes. Over 200 universities and 100 Fortune 500 companies, including Stanford, Yale and IBM have a tie-up with this platform. 

 

The free online courses with certificates on Coursera offer only free enrolment, aka free classes. One of the best advantages of taking up courses for free on this platform is that you can reschedule the exam deadlines at your convenience. Coursera’s free certification courses offer a great many opportunities for immediate career development in various areas of management, technology, and finance, among others. The duration of the free Coursera courses ranges from less than two hours to three months. 

 

Udemy

 

Udemy is known for its instructional course framework through instructors with rich industry expertise. The platform has over 57000 certified instructors for a variety of niche and mainstream industries in over 65 languages. 

 

Udemy’s free learning courses only offer video lectures. You will find beginner to advanced level tutorials, starting from 30 minutes to more than two hours. One of the best advantages of Udemy’s free online courses is that you not only get to indulge in continuous professional development but also improve your personal growth and learn about increasing productivity. 

 

edX

 

edX has partnered with over 160 universities globally, but, unlike Coursera, it majorly offers free-to-audit online courses without certification. Apart from its pay-for-certification, online specialisations and masters programmes, it has a tie-up with top universities and companies offering MicroMasters and MicroBachelors programmes. 

 

edX offers the most trending courses in engineering, computer science, artificial intelligence and business for students, professionals, and educators to study online for free. This means that the edX free courses registrations are open to anyone. 

 

The platform even features ‘optional upgrades’ for each of its free e training courses in case you want a professional certificate. The advantage you get from these course certificates is that they will have the stamp of major universities, including Harvard, IIM, etc. The durations of free edX courses can range from 2 weeks to a few months. 

 

Google

 

Google’s online certificate programmes are free. Known as Google Digital Unlocked, they are specifically designed by the brand’s own team of instructors with exceptional industry experience. Being one of the biggest names on the planet, a free online course with a certificate from Google does offer a significant career boost, especially when you are considering entering a relevant industry. 

 

Google offers free online courses for digital marketing and many business topics. They are extremely helpful for beginners as well as experts in the industry. You can also find Google’s free certification courses that are available in collaboration with other MOOC platforms and top-ranking universities from around the world.  

 

Those looking for free online computer courses with certificates can also find them from Google.

 

Great Learning

 

This leading Indian higher education platform features a number of postgraduate programmes in high growth sectors, including data science, cloud computing and business analytics. These PG courses come with experts designing and teaching the curricula while partnering with major B-schools and technical institutes from India and abroad. 

 

The same platform also offers one- or two-hour-long introductory online courses with certificates that are completely free. Taught by the in-house industry experts of Great Learning Academy and included quizzes, you get a free certificate of completion. Overall, Great Learning free courses are for beginners across domains. 

 

Udacity

 

If you are looking for free online tech courses, Udacity is the answer. Currently, there are over 193+ free tech courses for beginners, intermediates and advanced. Along with the paid ones, Udacity free courses feature classroom-like learning experience with videos of expert instructors and learning exercises. 

 

Unlike other course providers offering financial aid for free online courses with paid certificates, Udacity offers 10 scholarship programmes. Those are sponsored by Google, AT&T, Lyft and Accenture. 

 

Alison

 

Alison has been around since 2007 offering free online courses with completion certificate. Over 3500 free online courses on Alison, this platform covers engineering, management, science, coding and a lot of other subjects. For most of the free online courses, you will need to purchase the certificates. The platform also ships the certificates no matter where you are for free. Even if you do not pay for the certification, you can download the ‘learner record’ that proves that you completed the course. 

 

HubSpot Academy

 

If you ever aspire to grow in the vast digital marketing domain, HubSpot Academy is there for your professional development. 

 

HubSpot Academy provides free certification courses in all important areas of marketing, sales, and customer relationship, and across different experience levels, the courses will get you job-ready. The best part is, that the academy provides free online certification exams to assess your knowledge. If you do not make it on the first go, you can take the assessment again.  

 

Another advantage of HubSpot is that it offers many free short online courses with certificates. These will quickly boost your skills in specialised areas and help you grow. 

 

SWAYAM

 

It offers certificates approved by the Indian government. The free courses online from SWAYAM are for a wide age group - students from Class 9 onwards to postgraduate students. There are 9 national coordinators, including AICTE, NIOS, NCERT, NITTTR, IIMB, CEC, UGC, NPTEL, and IGNOU. 

 

NPTEL

 

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning or NPTEL has become a staple MOOC platform among learners and professionals in India. Having a tie-up with IITs and IISc, you can find a wide range of online courses across 23 domains. Best is, there is no requirement to enrol here for free NPTEL courses online. Apart from technology, AI, and engineering-related courses, also check out the soft skills development NPTEL courses online. 

 

FutureLearn

 

FutureLearn is one of the best free learning websites among other MOOCs with plenty of options to upgrade your career. Learners can choose subject-based online courses ranging from business and management to law and history. Then there are online courses in partnership with international organisations of repute. 

 

If this does not convince you, FutureLearn further provides ExpertTracks for continuing your specialisations with practical exercises adequate for your professional development. If you want academic accreditations and/or academic credits, you can choose Microcredentials. Or if you want to pursue UG or PG completely online, FutureLearn has you covered there too. 

 

But, all in all, the free online courses from FutureLearn are only to audit. They do not come with certificates. To get one, you would have to upgrade the account. 

 

Other Course Providers Offering Free Online Courses with Certificates in India

 

Apart from the ones mentioned above, you will also find a large number of free online courses with institutes and instructors from abroad and India. Below are free online courses with certificates in India by Government, and from other popular course providers. 

 

Course Title	Platform	Availability
Brand Management	Swayam	Free
Programming in Java	NPTEL	Free
Communication and Interpersonal Skills at Work	FutureLearn	Free
Big Data Analytics: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Future	FutureLearn	Free access for 4 weeks
Unleash Your Potential: Innovation and Enterprise	FutureLearn	Free access for 6 weeks
Introduction to Programming	Udacity	Free
Introduction to TensorFlow for Deep Learning	Udacity	Free
Scientific Computing using Matlab	NPTEL	Free to enrol
Fundamentals Of Artificial Intelligence	NPTEL	Free to enrol
Digital Marketing Course: Get Certified in Digital Marketing	HubSpot Academy	Free
Google IT Support Professional Certificate	Coursera	Free to enrol
Python Fundamentals for Beginners	Great Learning	Free
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing	Google	Free
Fundamentals of Project Management	Alison	Free
Data Science: Machine Learning	edX	Free to enrol
FREE Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners	Udemy	Free

 

You can explore beyond this list of online courses on our platform. 

 

Kickstart Your Career with Free Online Courses with Certificates

 

By now, you must have figured how you can enhance your career opportunities with online courses for free. On the online Shiksha platform, you can also find several such programmes for many other sectors, including finance and healthcare. Whether it is a job promotion you are after or a career transition, select courses that offer real-world training necessary to compete in your respective industry. Gain specialised skills and stay ahead of the curve, starting today!

Aarushi Kalra03-25-2022 00:00