Best Online Certificate Programs

This quick guide to accredited online certificate programs can give you an overview of what these programs are all about and how online certificates are taking off in popularity.

According to a 2019 report published jointly by the Strada Education Network and Lumina Foundation, policymakers, employers, educators, and learners themselves are progressively realizing the potential of non-degree certificates for building the skillsets of the labor force. The manufacturing industry, for example, is a major source of good jobs (i.e. jobs paying a minimum of $35,000 for workers between the ages of 25 and 44 and at least $45,000 for workers between the ages of 45 and 64) for individual with ‘middle skills’ or education more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor’s degree, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Earning an online certificate can help you gain the skills you need to be eligible for these jobs.

It is only natural to want to find the best online college for certificate programs. Look no further! We’ve used data like retention rates, average in-state tuitions, student-to-faculty ratios, placement services and more to give you unbiased rankings of the ten best colleges offering online certificate programs.

Have a look at our methodology section at the bottom of the page to see why these particular colleges made it to the top.

Certificate programs are short, non-degree granting programs that help individuals learn specific skills or study specific topics within a larger field. Naturally, most people considering a college education first think of completing an entire degree, however, not everyone has the time available to do so or the finances. Certificate programs can offer focused learning in a particular field or topic and can allow individuals to be employment ready within a relatively short span of time when compared to associate degree or bachelor’s degree programs.

Unlike undergraduate degree programs, most certificate programs also do not require students to take general education courses thereby cutting short time to completion and tuition. Online certificate programs can offer working adults the flexibility they need while gaining a college education as well as allow them to apply their lessons to real world scenarios as they learn them.

Additionally, attending an accredited online certificate program may allow students to transfer the credits they earn toward a degree should they wish to pursue further education at a later date.

Online certificate programs are typically of two types:

• Undergraduate: These are usually entry-level certificate programs designed for students who have a high school diploma or GED. They can prepare individuals with the skills needed for entry-level jobs in the field. Some certificate programs may also be geared toward students currently enrolled in an associate or bachelor’s degree program in order to allow them to gain skills and knowledge that complements their degree
• Graduate: Graduate certificates are usually meant for individuals who have completed a bachelor’s or a master’s degree but want to hone their skills in a particular aspect of their field.

While the two terms may sound the same, they are actually completely different.

• Certificates demonstrate that you have earned educational credits by completing a particular course of study through an educational institution with a set curriculum. You do not earn a degree after the completion of the program.
• Certifications are credentials you earn usually through a third party professional body in order to demonstrate your competence in a field or a particular aspect of it. Certifications may also need to be renewed periodically through continuing education classes or recertification examinations.

The short answer is yes – depending on your educational and career goals of course. The best online certificate programs can help you meet both! In fact, the Strada-Lumina report states that many certificates do have value in the marketplace with non-degree certificate holders reporting higher rates of full-time employment as well as higher incomes. They also discovered that these individuals were also more confident overall about their marketability and education than those without.

Online certificate programs can provide individuals with an opportunity to build their skills for better employment that can go way beyond average annual wages for most occupations according Strada-Lumina’s findings with individuals with certifications in fields like engineering and architecture earnings median annual wages of $85,000. And it’s not just people with certificates in technical fields that can earn higher wages – the same report found that even those individuals in the lowest income quartile earned $9000 more annually than those without.

Graduate certificates can help working professionals build their expertise in their chosen fields and apply that knowledge to their work. Certificates may also enable them to apply for promotions or change their work profiles.

Online certificate programs can provide individuals with an opportunity to access the same high-quality learning that is available on traditional brick-and-mortar campuses that they may not have available in their localities. Curricula are usually the same for on-campus and online certificate programs, often with the same professors teaching both. Students earning an online certificate can usually interact with their professors and peers through discussion boards, email, and video conferencing.

Online certificate programs may vary in terms of flexibility and the delivery of lessons. Some important terms to understand are:

It is important to explore these aspects of an online certificate program you are considering to see how it fits in with your schedule.

We looked at a number of different certificate programs to find the ones that are most popular with online students based on the number of certificates conferred. The table below shows our rankings along with employment projections and associated mean wages using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Fastest-Growing Occupations that Require an Certificate Degree

Certificates can allow you to be eligible for entry-level roles in various industries and occupations. The table below uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to describe the fastest growing jobs you may qualify for along with their median wages and job growth.

We ranked the best online certificate programs that give students the opportunity to earn incomes that are above the national average for all occupations. However, just because a particular occupation pays well, doesn’t mean that there are likely to be plenty of job openings in the field. So, in order for these rankings to be useful in real-world scenarios, we’ve also looked at factors like projected job openings over the next 10 years and the number of online certificate programs available using data from the BLS and NCES.

You may find online certificate programs in most fields of study whether it’s financial accounting or biology, graphic design or healthcare that interests you. Click the buttons below to explore online certificate programs in more depth including the jobs you can get and the courses you may take.