Online Personal Development Courses & Certifications

FutureLearn offers the Logical and Critical Thinking programme in collaboration with the University of Auckland, New Zealand. It is an eight weeks training course that you can take for free. The course is particularly intended for individuals looking to refine their logical and critical thinking skills. The programme curriculum will help you in identifying and assessing arguments and avoiding common thinking mistakes.

The Logical and Critical Thinking online course is an informative programme for understanding the basic logical tools for analysing arguments. You will learn the application of these tools in various fields, including moral theories, science, and law. The programme curriculum comprises engaging video content, assignments, and articles.

FutureLearn’s Logical and Critical Thinking course can also offer you a course completion certificate. However, it is not part of the free enrolment option. You need to upgrade to receive the shareable digital certificate by paying a certain amount as a fee. It is an eight-week course that has a self-directed training model.

We have all faced some or other calamity or distress in life. Under these circumstances, we reach out to the people who make us feel comfortable and have a knack for providing solutions and leading the way out of distress. 

These people have certain imperceptible skills known as soft skills, making them more emotionally intelligent, better at communicating and leading. The Enhancing Soft Skills and Personality course aims to train candidates for the same. 

Going beyond technical skills, the Enhancing Soft Skills and Personality training will train candidates to develop qualities like emotional intelligence, effective communication skills, self-confidence, friendliness, humor, etiquette, and more. This will lead to the all-around development of candidates. 

This course on Enhancing Soft Skills and Personality by Swayam is a Faculty Development Program approved by AICTE. The course will run for eight weeks and focus on managerial and interpersonal skills. Candidates will acquire soft skills for all-around personality development.

The Soft Skill Development course by Swayam primarily aims to help candidates polish their communication skills by raising relevant issues and practical scenarios. The extensive curriculum provides various critical pointers and tips for the candidates to utilise their soft skills in their workplace and social environments. Several vital topics are the key focus of this programme, such as persuasion skills, group skills, emotional and positive thinking skills, conversational and vocational skills.

The Soft Skill Development certification syllabus is IIT Kharagpur’s curation, taught by the institute’s top faculty, Professors V.N. Giri, D. Suar, and Priyadarshi Patnaik. It is an elective programme under the “Humanities and Social Sciences” category that takes around eight weeks to complete. The curriculum supports PG and UG-level learning and is therefore open to any learner.

The Soft Skill Development online course is rife with video tutorials and study material for candidates to access at their own pace. They will also be eligible for an e-certificate after completing the programme, for which they must appear for a certification exam when the term concludes.

Self-learning materials or SLM are designed to facilitate students’ learning with little or no supervision in their own time and pace. However, even for bright and motivated students like you, it can be a challenging process.

Development of Self Learning Material programme will introduce you to SLM in a new light. You will learn about the concept of learning material development, its purpose, and general principles. In terms of SLM, you will learn about essential characteristics, structure, challenges, trends, and much more.

National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh, has designed and developed the Development of Self Learning Material certification syllabus. The course will use a combination of video lectures, online tutorials, and assignments to motivate you to complete the programme. Dr Sunil Dutt of NITTTR, Chandigarh will deliver this AICTE-approved course.

Development of Self-Learning Material training is an eight-week online course that offers certification for interested participants. This curriculum belongs to the ‘Teacher Education’ domain.

The ‘Developing Soft Skills and Personality’ online certification program is designed for the students to improve their soft skills and communication competencies to achieve supremacy in their profession and personality. This massive open online course is provided by Swayam and National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). The classes of this elective course are offered online through video lectures, assessments, and other online resources for eight weeks.

The instructor for this program is an English professor from the department of humanities and social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Prof. T. Ravichandran who will guide the students into gaining insights on the concepts and strategies to develop one’s personality and soft skills. 

The ‘Developing Soft Skills and Personality’ certification course ensures that the students receive a course certificate at the end of the program which is valued at two credit points. This training is approved by the All India Council for Technical Education. 

For the comfort of the applicants, the Fitness Management Certification is specifically designed to give the individual a blend of understanding of business concepts and fitness instruction so they may service, motivate, and counsel various clients in an effective manner.

Fitness Management Classes are organised into six chapters that cover a variety of fitness management topics, such as the concept of fitness and wellness and their importance in modern society, a holistic approach to managing health and fitness that includes diet and exercise (both aerobic and anaerobic), all of which are covered in the Fitness Management Certification Syllabus.

All students get a Fitness Management Certification by Manipur University, Imphal under the Swayam Initiative by the Government of India.

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking programme is an introductory course focused on the theory and practice of rhetoric. In this comprehensive programme, participants will learn the crucial skill of building and defending compelling arguments.

Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking by edX uses selected speeches from important twentieth-century Americans such as Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Chase Smith, and John F. Kennedy. Using this analysis, you will understand how writers and speakers engage an audience and persuade them to adopt their perspective.

Moreover, Rhetoric certification is crafted around Harvard Professor James Engell's on-campus course called "Elements of Rhetoric". It will allow you to examine and apply rhetorical style and structure and admire the relevance of persuasive communication in your daily life. Furthermore, you can also earn a certificate upon completing this course and share it on your resume to widen job opportunities. The candidates are given the option of two tracks which may be chosen so that the courses can be completed. Both the course tracks are self-paced but there is a time limit until which the course remains accessible during the free audit mode. But in the case of the paid verified track, the students get unlimited access to the course materials.

The Certificate Course on English for Doing Business in Asia- Writing by edX is designed for candidates who already have a skill in the English language but want to acquire more knowledge and skills to develop their communication proficiency in the written English language about doing business in the continent of Asia. The English for Doing Business in Asia- Writing course will help students tackle the different facades of business challenges in a multidimensional business setting and also make the Asian economy a part of the global business model.

In the seven-week English for Doing Business in Asia- Writing training, the students will learn descriptively on topics related to the audience, business presentation, rhythm, pronunciation, format, and many more. The challenges that the candidates need to overcome to build a successful business venture will be covered by this programme. The importance of writing professionally in a business deal or transaction will be imparted to the participants so that they can create a professional impact in their business transactions and deals. The candidates will be able to learn this course by enrolling in 2 tracks, audit track and verified track. The audit track offers only limited access to the materials of the course for free whereas the verified track offers unlimited access to the materials.

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore collaborates with edX to offer a certificate program called Crafting Realities: Work, Happiness, and Meaning. This course is formulated in a way that helps in crafting the candidate’s work experiences. It connects the information obtained from several areas into a lecture series and practical exercises. 

This course is designed for any professional who wishes to create change through an inside-out approach and the focus of this course will be to work on the individual’s models of thinking and beliefs in regards to what they consider as work, success, identity, failure, and career. Crafting Realities: Work, Happiness, and Meaning certification course benefits the candidate in three levels namely the intellectual, the practical, and the experiential.

The learners can take the programme in two different tracks; the paid and free track. In the free audit track, the candidates will be given access only for a limited time period. 

Spanish is a global language, with over 500 million native speakers. If you want to learn conversational Spanish, enrol in the Basic Spanish 1: Getting Started course by edX. It is an ideal programme for gaining proficiency in the basics of Spanish. The training runs for seven weeks and will introduce the participants to A1-level mastery (according to CEFRL, Council of Europe 2001).

The Basic Spanish 1 online course houses activities for practising the four language skills, namely writing, reading comprehension, speaking, and listening comprehension. Once you take this training, you will be able to introduce yourself in Spanish and ask basic questions as well. Moreover, you will learn to hold basic conversations in this foreign language.

Furthermore, the Basic Spanish 1: Getting Started certification course is developed by Universitat Politècnica de Valencia, Spain. Throughout the training, you can make use of cultural notes, reference notes, and grammar explanations. It has a self-directed training approach with an introductory level of difficulty.

Students can choose either of the 2 tracks namely verified or audit tracks. If the student has chosen the verified track then he or she will be able to view and learn the materials for an unlimited period of time. Again, on the other hand, the candidates will be able to view the materials for a limited period of time only if they select the audit track.

English is the global language and also the crucial subject in all government and non-government exams. As the subject, it carries a lot of marks and the applicant can score better just by learning the basic concepts of the language. The online course of English Language for Government Bank, Insurance, and SSC Exams by TCS iON shall train the learners about the foundational concepts of the language. The courses focus on all the important topics that form the syllabus of government exams. It is really disheartening that the candidate is not able to clear the exam just by a few numbers. The course ensures that the candidate will score better in the language and hence, increases the chances of clearing any exam. 

English Language for Government Bank, Insurance, and SSC Exams certification course is a 7-week course with the commitment of 3 hours per week from the candidate. The course is designed in a way that it shall guide the candidate for perfection with fewer books and activities rather than crowding a pile of books. The self-paced course gives the advantage of convenient learning and the assessments will track the learning outcome. To enroll in the course and avail of all the benefits associated with the course candidates must pay a one-time certification fee. After the completion of the course, candidates will receive the English Language for Government Bank, Insurance, and SSC Exams certification by TCS iON. 

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The Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success course is designed to boost your creative thinking and help you come up with innovative ideas more frequently. It will help you communicate novel ideas in engaging using innovative ways, produce original solutions, and address problems from unique angles.

By using the lessons from the Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success programme, you can train yourself to use your natural creativity at optimum potential, break away from conventional thoughts, and grab opportunities at the right time. You will develop the ability to view things from new viewpoints and act accordingly. This course is offered in the self-paced mode and it can be taken by paying the course fee or free. In the free audit mode, the candidates will be given access only for a limited period. 

Today’s information overload makes it difficult to think out-of-the-box. Innovative employees are highly in demand across various industries. The Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success MOOC will provide you with a ‘toolbox’, which will give you some techniques and behaviours that will spark your inventiveness and ingenuity.

Quantitative aptitude is an integral part of the syllabus for any government examination. It checks the quantitative and logical reasoning skills of the candidate. The internet is flooded with different kinds of books with multiple authors. This often confuses the aspirant because of less time for preparation and many concepts to grab for the preparation. To ease this the course of Learning Quantitative Aptitude is provided by TCS iON. The course shall help the candidates in learning the concepts of quantitative aptitude and also guide them with the frequently asked questions.

The Learning Quantitative Aptitude training will be beneficial for the aspirants giving exams for SSC, RRB, IBPS, RBI to grab and polish their quantitative aptitude with the convenience of time and place.  In addition to this, the Learning Quantitative Aptitude syllabus has assessments at the end of each module for self-tracking and practising the topics which are part of the exam. The duration of the course is 7 weeks in which the learner must commit to 6-8 hours per day to complete the course in time. The course is a self-paced online course that is available on the TCS iON portal. The learning portal of TCS is trusted by more than 3 lakh students and is reliable for the best content.

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Germany is one of the most attractive destinations for young professionals worldwide. If you are a graduate or an international student planning to embark on your career in Germany, this Employability Skills course is an ideal fit for you. This programme will help you know the ins and outs of the German work culture and employment market.

The Employability Skills programme is a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC, meaning the course access is entirely free of cost for all. This programme will improve some essential skills, enabling a smooth transition from academia to employment. Over the seven weeks, you will learn about career identities, the German job market, workplace competencies, and the psychology that drives employability.

You will also indulge in some hands-on projects, which are a part of the Employability Skills course syllabus. For the project, you will develop your personal career development plan, which will provide immediate guidance for your next career steps. The video lectures are delivered by the course mentor- Antti Kapanen.

The Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills program by EdX teaches how to negotiate in four crucial steps – preparation, negotiation, performance, and evaluation. The course is rife with short videos and interactive tutorials. 

Candidates also receive access to various practice tests to assess their skills and understanding of related concepts. Since this course is self-paced, candidates can watch the videos at convenience, and as many times as they need, to understand the concepts properly. 

Moreover, the University of Michigan offers the Successful Negotiation online course, and George Siedel, Williamson Family Professor of Business Administration and Thurnau Professor of Business Law, instructs it. Throughout this course, you will learn to apply negotiation skills in practical scenarios and understand how they are the key to business success. 

After completing the Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills program successfully in the paid mode, candidates will be eligible for a certificate of achievement. Besides, interested candidates can audit the course for free and will get limited access. 

Business and academic writing gained prominence over the years because they helped businesses build credibility and trust among people. However, many fail to realize that they should learn business writing because its nuances are very different from regular writing. Therefore, the Academic and Business Writing online course will immensely help management students or professionals bring more credibility to their organisations’ roles.

The Academic and Business Writing certification syllabus covers numerous topics like writing styles, grammatical correctness, tone, development of vocabulary, diction, and editing skills. The course is highly engaging and is equipped with many writing assignments for candidates to practice, learn, and improve. 

Offered by the prominent Berkeley University of California, the Academic and Business Writing course by edX is taught by Maggie Sokolik. This training curriculum is also equipped with reading materials and video lectures given to candidates from time to time, besides their weekly quizzes, journal entry writing, and long essay assignments. 

The candidates are given two tracks either of which may be chosen so that the course can be completed. Though both the course tracks are self-paced there is a time limit until which the course remains accessible in the audit mode. But in the case of the verified track, students an pay the fee and get unlimited course material access. 

Technical Report Writing for Engineers certification is a 100% online course that is aimed at the engineers to help them write a proper technical report where they can communicate their ideas in a proper manner. Though this course has been made ready by The University of Sheffield, its platform provider is FutureLearn. The learners do not need to purchase books since all course content will be made available by FutureLearn itself.

Technical Report Writing for Engineers certification syllabus teaches Engineers a vital tool of report writing in its technical sense so that better communication is possible. It also empowers the participants with skills to write well-constructed Engineering reports covering areas like equations, referring, and citations, making use of data, diagrams and finally the language in a proper sense.

Since the Technical Report Writing for Engineers training is for 6 weeks only it becomes easier for learners to attend and learn faster. After the participants get their certificate they can apply it to their degree learning of engineering or can apply it for being successful at their career as an engineer.

The ‘Creative Writing’ online certification program is offered for individuals to develop creativity in writing to make an impact in the minds of the readers. This course will enable students to improve their writing skills and expand one’s perspectives for effective writing. This online training is provided by Internshala and the course modules are designed at the basic level. The classes in this course are conducted online through videos, tutorials, and other sessions for a period of six weeks. The course content will be available to be accessed by the students even after completion of the program.

In this program, students are guided by academically and industrially qualified teachers, Kulpreet Yadav(a bestselling author) and Ashank Rudola (Instructional designer). The students of this course are trained to improve their skills that will enhance their career opportunities. The course certificate is given at the end of the program after successfully finishing the course and the assessments.

Career success is directly related to networking. Social and professional connections are vital for acquiring the right opportunities at the right time. The Preparing to Network in English certification course will take you through the basics of networking and why it is important for you. It is a part of the professional certificate in English for Business networking.

The course curriculum for the Preparing to Network in English online programme houses the knowledge and skills to grow your business network. You will learn to focus on your qualities and how you can refine them. The course also places special emphasis on the English language as it happens to be a global language known and valued by most employers. It is a six weeks training course.

You will have the opportunity of exploring the business culture around the globe with the Preparing to Network in English course by edX. The course also enables you to improve your command of the English language. The instructors from the University of Washington will train you to speak confidently while introducing yourself in English. 

There are 2 modes of study - Audit and Verified Track that can be selected by the candidates to complete their studies. In the case of Audit tracks, the candidates will get a particular time limit in which they will have to learn the course materials but in the case of Verified tracks, the candidates will have an unlimited period in which they may complete the course.

Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies certification is a 6 weeks course that belongs to the Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking Specialization course. This certification course is a joint association between Coursera, and Duke University. In everyday lives everyone encounters fallacies. Everyone, including children, salespersons, and politicians, are mainly known for using fallacies that can be identified with this course.

Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies certification syllabus is divided into many different video segments. These videos are followed by some small ungraded quizzes after every segment. All this then is topped off with a final quiz that is graded at the end of the course.

Think Again IV: How to Avoid Fallacies training allows people to avoid common fallacies so that they never get fooled by others, and not think what these people want them to believe. Also learning about fallacies is important as the participants can stop using fallacies themselves. 

The ‘Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language’ online course is delivered to engage students in gaining persuasive speaking skills and abilities to make compelling arguments, discuss solutions and identify problems during speech. This online certification course is provided by the Coursera education portal in collaboration with the University of Washington (UW) for the development of the course curriculum. The classes are conducted on the virtual platform and can be completed in an estimated period of fifteen hours organized for six weeks.

The instructor for this beginner-level program is Dr. Matt McGarrity who is a teaching professor from the department of communication at UW. The participants of this course can learn through videos, readings, quizzes, practice exercises, and graded assessments which can be completed at their own pace.

The ‘Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language’ online training enables students to get a course completion certificate that can be shared online benefitting them.

FutureLearn’s Intercultural Communication training focuses on the necessities of cross-cultural communication and relations. China’s renowned foreign language institutions, Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) has developed the course. The training will be mentored by expert instructors from the university, Steve Kulich, Hongling Zhang, and Ruobing Chi. 

Considering that businesses have become global, the Intercultural Communication online course helps candidates recognise the distinctions of intercultural interaction from all over the world. The study process is facilitated by teaching the candidates to understand their own cultural identities along with those of others. The syllabus emphasises on different communication styles, the contrast in values across countries, cultivation of intercultural adaptation, etc.

The Intercultural Communication: Dynamics of cultural identities in global interactionis a five-week course and requires a weekly study of four hours. Candidates can participate in the training for free and start learning at their own pace immediately. Additionally, applicants can avail of unique features and a printable certificate by picking the upgrade or unlimited option. 

Writing, Presenting and Submitting Scientific Papers in English certification course is offered by one of China’s leading institutes, Tsinghua University. The programme familiarises students with the nuances of writing a paper as per international standards. Students will learn to choose research topics, give attributions, and cite references properly. 

The Writing, Presenting and Submitting Scientific Papers in English certification syllabus includes chapters dedicated to writing and presenting scientific papers. Candidates also master the process of submitting and reviewing their work while understanding how to participate in the academic community. The five-week-long communications course comprises real-life examples of abstracts, responses to reviewers, etc.

Xiaohong Guan from the Tsinghua University’s Centre for Intelligent and Networked Systems will be your course instructor. The Writing, Presenting and Submitting Scientific Papers in English programme is an intermediate training. Students must have preliminary research training and college-level English proficiency. Candidates will also learn from advice and experiences to conduct better scientific research. 

Learners have the option to choose anyone from the audit or the verified track and complete the programme. Both these tracks are self-paced but there is a time constraint if the students choose the free audit mode since it offers only limited period access to the course materials. The verified track is on the other hand a paid version which offers paid but unlimited access to the materials of the course.

This 5 weeks Discovering Your PhD. Potential: Writing a Research Proposal certification is a programme that is 100% online and is made jointly by the efforts of the University of Leicester and also FutureLearn. With this course, participants will be learning about the entire process involved in doing research to write the best postgraduate application proposal for postgraduate applications.

Discovering Your PhD. Potential: Writing a Research Proposal certification syllabus inculcates students on why a carefully curated research proposal is important for doctoral studies and can be the first step towards a postgraduate study. The course has a special focus on Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts, but the content can cater to all disciplines.

Discovering Your PhD. Potential: Writing a Research Proposal training gives you the confidence to build up the tools, and skills for writing a well-premeditated research proposal, that actually helps in the betterment of the postgraduate application. Agin this course will also provide a taste of the self-study that is a must for all participating in doctoral research.

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English for Journalists, Part 1 programme by edX is an English language development instruction course. It focuses on journalism students and professional journalists interested in improving their English proficiency. It is also useful for students aspiring to study journalism and build a career in this field. It is a programme with a duration of five weeks.

English for Journalists, Part 1 online course covers important topics useful to journalists across the globe. These include topics such as ethics in journalism, the job of a journalist, citizen journalism, local vs global journalism, and inclusive journalism. The U.S Department of State has sponsored this programme.

Moreover, English for Journalists, Part 1 certification is offered by UC Berkeley as a part of the U.S Department of State’s MOOC Camp. It has been created in partnership with the Voice of America, Regional English Language Office in Central and South-eastern Europe, and English language educators across Eastern and Central Europe. This programme also offers a certificate upon completion, containing the university logo and instructor’s signature.