Are Udemy Courses Accredited & Its Certificates Recognized?
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In life, we are constantly learning. There is always something new to discover, a new skill to gain. That is why it is fantastic that there are sites out there that can help you learn these new skills.
Udemy is one of these sites. Udemy provides over 80,000 courses in everything you can imagine. They have the slogan ‘The Academy of You’. It has become more and more popular in recent years and you may now be wondering if it is worth it?
Many people want to learn new skills and gain new information that may help them in a current or new career, without having to go back to school. Udemy can help you learn these skills, but are they accredited?
Will an employer recognize an Udemy certificate as legitimate?
You may not have the time to go and study a year-long course, and so something like Udemy will look attractive. Yet, you want to have a read of what we have to say before you delve into Udemy courses.
Not all employers give weight to Udemy courses. Let’s take a look into what this means, what others are saying, and what your alternatives are.
Are Udemy Courses Accredited?
You probably made it here because you have been seeking something to add to your resume. Udemy looks good and you’re wondering if you should invest in an Udemy course.
Perhaps the biggest question is if anyone will recognize the legitimacy of them. These are questions that you should be asking.
The short version of the answer is that a majority of Udemy courses are not accredited by any educational or governing bodies. With that being said though, there is more to this learning platform than just the end recognition.
So many people opt for this platform over other ones and there are plenty of reasons why. Part of this is due to its lifetime access to all courses at a massively discounted rate.
While a majority of Udemy courses are not accredited there are a few that do have some accreditation.
These courses are often approved by not-for-profit organizations, or sometimes small institutions, and are therefore not accredited by a recognized university. These courses are often, not career specified.
Despite this Udemy courses can hold value and do still have benefits that can still help you.
First of all, let’s have a look at what makes a course accredited.
- To be accredited, a course must meet the community, enterprise, or industry needs.
- To be accredited, a course must also provide adequate competency and satisfactory assessment.
- To be accredited, a course must meet national quality assurance requirements.
This means that a course completed on Udemy, with a certificate does indicate that you have achieved a certain level of training in a specific course, however, the certificate you received is not necessarily meeting the standards required by an official governing agency or education standard.
This does not mean that you cannot add an Udemy course certificate to your work portfolio or that a particular course may not be required by an employer. That being said, it also does not mean that it will be accepted by any potential employer either.
Udemy Review
Udemy is an online course platform that lets you learn whatever you want in a short period. There are tens of thousands of online courses on Udemy.
There are some that focus on building professional skills and others focus on hobbies, you can even learn how to play games on Udemy.
Some employers may choose to access Udemy’s most popular courses for employees, encouraging them to learn and build necessary skills.
Even some of the biggest companies such as Adidas, Pinterest, and even Eventbrite have taken advantage of Udemy’s learning opportunities.
Udemy has such a large range of courses as it lets anyone publish a course, this is why a great deal of them are not accredited. It is also why you can find courses on things such as plant care and other livelihood topics that you will not find on other learning platforms.
Letting anyone publish a course can be good, as it can let people share their expertise and knowledge even if they do not have certification to back them up.
However, due to the openness of Udemy, it does not have many big named professors or instructors who are genuine, credited experts in the field.
Since anyway can post a course on Udemy, a good way to sift through the potentially half-effort courses is to choose more highly-rated ones. However, this continues to bring issues as Udemy’s review system is not perfect either.
The issue with the review system can be traced back to its discounts. While many of its courses are discounted up to 90% most of the time, a lot of the reviews will be from when it was discounted.
If you are writing a review on a course, your expectations will be a lot lower if it is $10, compared to if it is $100. So, if you check the reviews for a course when it is not discounted, you should be aware that a lot of the best reviews were likely written when the course was at its most discounted.
There are a few overall points we would like to make about Udemy courses. First of all, the video and sound quality is good. Udemy courses are always video courses, and having good visual and audio is very important to learn so this is very beneficial.
It is also well-paced for the most part, very few courses are rushed, and a lot of these courses are made for beginners, so the content tends to reflect well on this.
Each section is often covered in a reasonable amount of time, meaning you won’t get bored easily and start twiddling your thumbs. However, this is a for a majority of these courses, not always all.
Finally, not all courses are kept up-to-date. Quite a few stay as they are meaning that as time, learning, and technology advance, these courses do not necessarily advance with them.
It may have blindspots that should be considered and may miss out on some potentially vital information due to its age.
Generally, Udemy is good for relaxing learning but you should also consider what you are getting. If you do decide to use Udemy, it’s best to do so during the times in which courses are discounted.
The Benefits of Udemy
While there are plenty of things about Udemy to be cautious of, there are also plenty of things that are good about it.
It is cheap, there’s a massive range of courses, you don’t need any previous qualifications to learn, it is immediate access, and it is doable at your own pace. While few of the courses are accredited, there is still plenty of reasons to use Udemy for your learning.
- All Udemy courses are viewable on any internet-connected device, so even if you do not have a laptop or PC, you can still use your mobile phone, or a tablet to learn through Udemy.
- There is a very wide range of courses available. For example, if you wanted to learn a rather unique and different instrument that you can’t often find courses in, Udemy probably has it. In music, there are thousands of courses, with plenty under piano and guitar, but also courses in saxophone, ukelele, and harmonica.
- You get a 30-day money-back guarantee. Meaning that if you decide that you do not wish to pursue the course for whatever reason within the first 30 days of purchasing, then Udemy will return the fees 100%.
- You learn at your own pace. This is probably one of the best features of Udemy. Rather than in a classroom, or on another type of course where you may have to dedicate a certain amount of time around your probably already busy lifestyle. Udemy allows you to learn whenever you feel able to. Once you have bought the course, you have it for life.
Are Udemy Certificates Recognised by Employers?
Generally speaking, Udemy certificates are not recognized by employers. These certificates are used to demonstrate your accomplishments to friends, family, co-workers, and even prospective employers. However, an Udemy certificate does not represent any formal accreditation.
You can download or print your certificate and can upload your certificate to platforms such as LinkedIn to show to potential employers, or even onto Facebook, to have a little brag.
Nonetheless, these certificates are not seen as proof of competency in the field the course is in as it is not accredited.
However, even though the certificates are generally not recognized and the courses are not accredited. There are still some benefits to doing a course and getting a certificate of completion.
First of all, by completing a course you are upgrading your knowledge. Even if you are doing a course in something you already have experience in, doing a recent course with updated information can keep you in-keeping with the current changes in that area.
If you do want to use Udemy, we suggest it for hobbies, it can be fantastic for this. Learning new pastimes such as musical instruments, dance, horticulture, yoga, and so on can be extremely exciting, and learning online in your own time can certainly be a great road to personal growth.
If you are looking for a course that will add to your resume, some Udemy courses may provide this but not all employers will accept it, so it is best to look elsewhere if you are seeking a course for employment focus. For hobbies, however, it is a fantastic choice.
Alternatives to Udemy
There are plenty of alternative options available if Udemy is not your thing. There are countless websites out there that will help you develop skills for different things.
While Udemy students may not always be pleased with the quality of the courses, the professionalism of the instructors, or the fact that instructors are not screened. There are alternative platforms that do these things and offer more.
We have four alternatives to Udemy that we like.
- Fiverr– The best option for freelancers looking to build their skills.
- Coursera– The best option for college/school-based learning career development.
- SkillShare– The best for learning by doing- a hands-on option.
- MasterClass– The best option for learning hobbies.
Fiverr is a site for freelancers, it is a place to find freelancers and also a place for freelancers to learn and grow. It has a separate section called Fiverr Learn, which is filled with courses specifically for freelancers.
The only downside to this option is that the course selection is rather small. However, the course selection is specified to the needs and requirements of freelancers.
It provides a detailed syllabus, badges for each time you take a course and that can be seen by potential clients. It offers bundles of relevant courses and most of these courses only take a few hours to complete.
Coursera is like going back to school. This is an option where you learn through an accredited University which gives your end qualification more validity.
These courses are formatted more like a college course with start and end dates, although are much shorter than a normal semester.
Despite the benefit of the validity, you do not get the flexibility that you do with Udemy. For these, you will have to pay more but this is evened out by the high-quality content you receive, you can also get financial aid for these too.
SkillShare is a lot like Udemy, however, they have fewer courses but each course and instructor is approved. Which is a big jump from how things are run at Udemy. You can get all content for their cheap Premium membership. Although their free membership is tempting it is also deceiving as you cannot watch a full class.
They are praised for their creative classes. Their premium membership is monthly, so you can cancel at any time. There is a tight community, so you can connect with other students.
You get a course outline which shows you what you have covered rather than just the objectives, such as in Udemy. And you get a Project preview that shows you the main assignment and examples of other student projects.
Finally, MasterClass is the best for hobbies. The classes here are taught by celebrities, you can be taught cooking by Gordon Ramsey, or tennis with Serena Williams.
It is a bit different compared to other sites but it still offers fantastic learning. You can get an all-access pass for a yearly fee, the lessons are short but plentiful, there is a gifting option for those hard to buy for people in your life, and you can also watch your lessons on an AppleTV device too.
Final Thoughts
Udemy is good and fun to use, not to mention affordable. However, it does lack accreditation and screening of instructors. The fees are often low and the visual and aural quality good, however, there are plenty of other options out there that may suit you better.
If you are seeking to get a certificate that will benefit your credibility on your resume, we suggest going for something more like Coursera than Udemy, with accreditation and more scholastic learning.
But if you are seeking learning for hobbies Udemy is still a good choice and can be beneficial for any hobby you wish to pursue with the plethora of options available.
Although we would probably choose SkillShare or MasterClass over Udemy, Udemy does have a wider variety of options available.
Yet, it is safe to say, Udemy courses are not accredited, and the certificates are not recognized by employers.
About the Author Jacob M.
Jacob has a background in finance and engineering. Outside of his day job, he is a lifelong learner, who enjoys reading, taking online courses, and writing about what he's learned.
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