13 Free Online Courses In Canada With Certificates

There are several free online courses in Canada with certificates cutting across, health, humanities, entertainment, management, architecture, environment, food processing, and more. You can take any of the courses from home and earn a recognized certificate at the end of the courses.

Free online courses in Canada are open to interested persons and they are offered by top universities and colleges in Canada. They are mostly taken online on Coursera, Udemy, and other online learning platforms.

Online courses can be viewed as career boosters as they add to what a person already knows or serve as a source of new knowledge. Whether you are looking to polish existing skills or gain new ones, online courses are your best source and there are ones you can take for free which are discussed here.

Online courses help many obtain beneficial certificates online and it is for the reason of helping students access online courses with free and printable certificates and online classes on nursing for high school students who want to pursue careers in nursing.

You should also know, that apart from taking online courses for free, there are some online colleges that can pay you to study with them.

In this particular article are also online courses with certificates of completion in Canada that you will find very rewarding.

There are some free online courses offered by the government of Canada which also come with certification.

Canadian students and international students in Canada can leverage these courses to acquire more knowledge and improve their CVs.

There are several online courses around the world. Some with certificates, some without. Some free, some paid. Some are made for some specific countries, and some for every international student.

Here, my focus is on free online courses in Canada with certificates and I will be sharing about ten of these with you.

These courses are offered by some of those universities that you have wished to be part of in Canada and the most interesting thing about taking part in these courses is that you can study online from the comfort of your home and be awarded a certificate at the end.

10 Free Online Courses In Canada With Certificates

  • Software Development free online courses
  • Fashion and Design free online courses
  • Free Online Courses on Good Writing Skills
  • Free IELTS preparation online courses
  • Free Online Courses on Accounting & Finance
  • Free Online Courses on Business Communication Skills
  • Free Online Course on Learning to Teach Online
  • Free Online Course On English For Development
  • Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology
  • Foundations of Originator and Biosimilar Biologics: for Patients and Caregivers
  • Introduction to Software Engineering

1. Software Development free online courses

According to Wikipedia, Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug-fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components.

The software development courses are offered on the Coursera platform. Applicants can even obtain a bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science which covers software development fully online on this platform. If you wish to become a Python developer, or front-end developer, or gain mastery of Javae programming, this is the course for you. The courses may be free but the certifications are paid.

Apply for Course

2. Fashion and Design free online courses

With no particular entry requirement nor any entry fee, this free online course in Canada is fully done online alongside its certification and it takes just about 20 hours to complete. Still, you can complete it at your own pace.

This fashion design online course is offered at Brentwood Open Learning College and enrollment is open all year round which means you can apply for the course even right now. The course has three topics; Introduction to Fashion Design, Elements of Design, and Principles of Design.

Apply for Course

3. Free Online Courses on Good Writing Skills

These free online writing skill courses are offered by a number of top universities like Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. The free online writing courses are targeted toward helping participants improve skills in essay writing, reports, grammar, stories, business writing, and more. Also, the courses are designed for you to learn at your own pace, meaning that you can complete it whenever you like from when you enroll.

Apply for Course

4. Free IELTS Preparation Online Courses

The International English Language Test System (IELTS) is one of the compulsory academic tests for students from non-English countries who want to study in Canada, Australia, the US, or some other English countries, and taking this course will help you prepare for your IELTS examination.

This free online course covers lessons on listening, speaking, reading, and writing for the IELTS test. The course is comprehensive and self-paced, allowing participants to take lessons judiciously at their most favorable time. There are no prerequisites to take the course. The certificate for this course is not free but the course itself is 100% free.

Apply for Course

5. Free Online Courses on Accounting & Finance

This free online accounting course requires no initial entry requirement. It is self-paced and takes an approx of about 20 hours to complete. This is a short course and it is open to receive applications from interested participants all year round.

The course is designed for beginners and covers the objectives, functions, importance, and limitations of accounting. If you want to pursue a degree in accounting & finance, you may want to consider taking this online course in accounting and finance to test the waters.

Apply for Course

6. Free Online Courses on Business Communication Skills

This free course takes about 10 to 15 hours to complete and there are assessments in the course that every participant who wants to pass the course satisfactorily to obtain a certificate should score 80% or higher.

The course consists of 13 modules in total with a final assessment to obtain the certification. Within this course, you will learn how to enhance your business writing techniques and improve your interpersonal and presentation abilities. At the end of the course, you will gain hardcore skills in business and report writing and softcore skills in communication and presentation.

Apply for Course

7. Free Online Course on Learning to Teach Online

This free online course in Canada, Learning to Teach Online, is a beginner-level course taught on Coursera by professors from renowned institutions. The course is designed for educators to polish their skills in teaching students online. It is also for those who wish to become educators or online teachers.

The course is taught in English language but there are subtitles in more than 20 other languages so that interested persons from any part of the world can participate. It takes approximately 17 hours to complete the course but you can learn at your own pace. There is a certification of completion but it is not free only the course itself is free.

Apply for Course

8. Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology

Dino 101 is a free online course offered by the University of Alberta. The course teaches a comprehensive overview of non-avian dinosaurs. This is the course for you if you want to pursue a career in paleontology later in life or if you just have a curiosity about dinosaurs and want to learn about them.

The course consists of 12 lessons that are self-paced. You will about how dinosaurs lived, ate, fought, and their extinction. Another interesting thing about this course is that it is delivered from museums, fossil-preparation labs, and dig sites. So, if you think this is going to be a tedious course, it won’t.

Apply for Course

9. Foundations of Originator and Biosimilar Biologics: for Patients and Caregivers

The above-named course is offered on edX by the University of Toronto, a prestigious higher institution in Canada. Although the course is offered by a top university in Canada, it is made available to everyone anywhere in the world who wants to enhance their knowledge and skills in using an originator or biosimilar biologic medicine on patients.

It is particularly for those in the healthcare/medicine field. The course can be completed in 16 weeks if you dedicate a time commitment of 3-6 hours per week but you can always learn at your own pace. Although the course itself is free the certification is paid. You can take the free course without getting the certification if you cannot afford it.

Apply for Course

10. Introduction to Software Engineering

Introduction to Software Engineering is one of the free online courses in Canada offered on edX by the University of British Columbia. It is a 6-week long course that introduces learners to the design, build, and testing of software systems.

It is an advanced-level course, so you must have prerequisite programming knowledge to be able to take the course. You can take the course for free but there won’t be a certificate plus you will have limited access to the course materials. While the paid version comes with unlimited access to the course plus a certificate.

Apply for Course

11. Behavioral Economics in Action

Behavioral Economics in Action is one of the free online courses by the University of Toronto. Anyone with an interest in economics can enroll in this course entirely for free and learn how to use principles and methods of behavioral economics to change behaviors, improve welfare, and make better products and policies.

The course takes 6 hours to complete if you study for 4-5 hours per week but it is self-paced which means you can study on your own time. There is paid certification at the end of the course.

Apply for Course

12. Food for Thought

Food for Thought is a 10-week course offered by McGill University and made available for free to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of food and how it affects human health. If you are looking to pursue a career as a food scientist or nutritionist, you may want to consider taking this course to test the waters.

Participating in this course will give you a better understanding of the main nutritional components of a healthy diet and some of the issues around food production and health. The course is 100% free but this free version does not come with a certificate of completion plus you will have limited access to the course materials. However, the paid version will provide you with a certificate and unlimited access to the course materials.

Apply for Course

13. Natural Disasters

What courses natural disasters? What are the different types of natural disasters? How do we control and predict natural disasters? Get answers to all of these questions from this free online course, Natural Disasters, offered by McGill University.

In addition, you will explore the scientific principles behind the occurrence of natural disasters and the ongoing conflict between humans and nature. This is a free online course with a paid certificate.

Apply for Course

Some of these courses at the time of their release come along with a full certificate after completion all for free but as time goes on, payment is required for certification, though not all of them, there are still several free online courses in Canada with certificates that do not require that you make payment before certification rather that you complete the course to the very last.

Free Online Diploma Courses in Canada

To cut a long story short, there are several online diploma courses in Canada but none of them are free. Below are some of the featured online Diploma courses in Canada.

  • Diploma in Applied Psychology and Counselling
  • Diploma in Animation
  • Diplomas in Digital Marketing
  • Diploma in Business – Accounting
  • Video Production Diploma Online

Free Online Courses in Canada for International Students

Below are some free online courses in Canada specifically for international students.

  • Free IELTS online courses
  • Free GRE preparation online courses
  • Free GMAT preparation online courses

While all of the special free courses listed above can be taken by both international and domestic students alike, we want to stress specifically some of the free online courses that are basically beneficial to international students alone.

Free IELTS Online Courses

You know, to study in Canada, you are requested to present a good IELTS result so this course was considered one of the items to be on my list of free online courses in Canada with certificates to help international students who want to study in Canada but has not been making good scores with IELTS which results to their persistent rejection.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers.

It is jointly managed by the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, and Cambridge Assessment English and it is a compulsory requirement for international students who want to study in Canada unless in cases where there are other options one can choose in place of submitting an IELTS cert or score.

You can learn more about the free online course on IELTS preparation here.

Free GRE Preparation Online Courses

While there are many GRE prep online courses in Canada, I’m interested in getting you connected to the source.

The Graduate Record Examinations(GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada. The GRE is owned and administered by the Educational Testing Service(ETS).

The ETS is the official body in charge of the GRE and you can click here to access free online GRE practice test courses and resources by ETS itself.

Free Gmat preparation online courses

The Graduate Management Admission Test is a computer adaptive test intended to assess certain analytical, writing, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in written English for use in admission to a graduate management program, such as an MBA program.

GMAT is required by several universities in Canada, the US, and a number of other places for graduate programs.

MBA.com is the official body in charge of the GMAT and they have several free online GMAT courses in Canada that all international students can access from anywhere in the world.

Free Online University Courses Canada

There are several free online university courses offered by different international universities from all around the world but in this section, I will be focusing on free online university courses in Canada particularly.

  1. Women in Leadership free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  2. Data for Machine Learning free online university course in Canada
    By Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, Canada.
  3. App Design and Development for iOS free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  4. Learn to Program: The Fundamentals free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  5. GIS Data Acquisition and Map Design free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  6. Insect-Human Interactions free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Alberta, Canada.
  7. Software Architecture free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Alberta, Canada.
  8. Introduction to GIS Mapping free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  9. Plant Bioinformatics free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Toronto, Canada.
  10. Software Processes and Agile Practices free online university course in Canada
    By the University of Alberta, Canada.

These are among the best free online courses with certificates you can find in Canada that international and domestic students can apply for from anywhere in the world. One thing you have to note though is that there is a fee attached to taking the final exam and obtaining the certificate of completion of the course.

Conclusion

As a student, taking part in any of these courses is advisable. Even if you find out that the course you are taking requires payment before certification you can go ahead and obtain the certificate if you have the finance but if you don’t, grab the knowledge first.

Knowledge is more important than a mere paper certificate. You can still put the knowledge you gathered from such courses to good use without having a certificate.

For those deeply in love with Canada, I have compiled a list of universities in Canada that charge no application fee.

These universities are open for both domestic and international students and as they do not charge any application fee, you can apply for admission online in these universities all for free! Just get your documents ready in a PDF format and that would be all.

Recommendations

Below are some of our articles on different free online courses that may interest you;

15 comments

  1. Please send me about free pharmaceutical
    Online certificate course in Canada universities
    Thanks.

  2. Sir, I want to learn from this e-learning platform. Please send me an e-mail with instructions on how to learn courses from this platform.Thank you.

    Abul Hasan Belal.

  3. I have been out of job since the pandemic lockdown started.. Unfortunately ,until now, it was still hard for me to find one. So I decided that while looking for another job, to take online classes to keep me occupied. I am interested on English courses (diploma or certificate). I would appreciate if there will be free online classes or with minimal fee will be fine.

    Thank you . Stay safe.

Comments are closed.