Introduction
Coursera is a great platform to learn some career skills and get a professional certificate. While the platform as much as possible does offer some concessions to getting access to their training materials, the certifications themselves are not free.
Coursera subscription costs about $49 monthly. If cannot pay for a certificate and want a legitimate way to get the Coursera certificate for free, this blog post will help you achieve just that.
Coursera has stated in the past that they are committed to making access to training and education materials accessible to all, irrespective of their economic backgrounds. So the options I shall highlight in this article are a part of that commitment.
How to get a Coursera Free Certificate
There are 3 ways to get access to Coursera Courses for free, and legally so. These are as follows;
- Coursera Course Audit
- Financial Aid
- Free Trial Subscription
There are limitations to each of these. To get the Coursera Certificate for free, I shall discuss the technically available options for you.
But first, let’s see the details of each of the points in the highlights above.
Coursera Course Audit
The Coursera audit option is a feature on the Coursera Platform that allows you to access many of its Courses for free. The only restriction however is that you do not have access to graded assignments and tests or means to submit them.
Ultimately, if you access any Training resource using this option, you will not be awarded a Certificate or a Badge to prove that you took the training.
For a step-by-step guide on how to use the Coursera Course audit, see this blog post: HOW TO GET FREE COURSES ON COURSERA
There is no deadline for the completion of a course using this option.
Course Audit + Free Trial Option
The best option I found to get a Coursera Certificate for free is to combine both the Course audit option (which I already showed above ) with the free 7-day trial options.
Here is how it works.
Search for the Certification Course you are interested in, and then use the course audit option to start your learning. Some Certifications consist of multiple courses, you will need to audit all of these individually to access them.
Upon completion of all the certification curriculum, you can then activate the 7-day free trial subscription. This trial period is for you to complete your assessment and projects. In my experience, it is usually enough to complete every other detail and get the certificate for free.
Remember to cancel your subscription if you do not intend to continue with a subscription plan.
Financial Aid
Coursera has its financial aid program to assist you in getting a full certification for free. You will need to fill out an application for financial aid and meet certain conditions according to Coursera standards.
Note that your application for Financial aid can take Coursera several weeks to review before you get approval.
There are some limitations to Coursera Financial aid. You can only apply to a certain threshold – about 75 percent of the total cost. You will need to state this in your application.
100% Full Financial Aid will likely be rejected.
Additionally, if you are applying for Financial Aid, do not also simultaneously be using the 7-day free trial subscription. Otherwise, they will reject your application.
You can apply for financial aid see; https://www.coursera.support/s/article/209819033-Apply-for-Financial-Aid-or-a-Scholarship?language=en_US#apply
Conclusion
Coursera provides financial aid for you to take a course on their platform and get a professional certificate for free.
The other option is for you to use the Course audit to access the certificate courses. After you complete the courses, you can use the 7-day free trial subscription to complete assignments and get a free certificate.
