Personal Development Courses present an invaluable opportunity for individuals to invest in their growth, both personally and professionally, without financial barriers.
These courses encompass a diverse range of topics, from enhancing communication and leadership skills to fostering emotional intelligence and mindfulness.
Accessible to anyone with an internet connection, these free courses enable individuals to develop critical life skills, gain self-awareness, and unlock their potential without the constraints of cost.
Whether aiming for self-improvement, career advancement, or overall well-being, these courses offer a wealth of knowledge and guidance for a transformative journey towards a better self.
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Best Free Personal Development Courses, Classes & Certification Online
However, despite its widespread prevalence, the pursuit of self-improvement and personal development is frequently pursued in a manner that is not guided by a predetermined curriculum.
Personal growth is not only a luxury in today’s fast-paced world; rather, it is essential for anybody who wants to flourish in their professional journey, better their interpersonal connections, or even find more fulfillment in their day-to-day existence.
Starting off on a Personal Development Course that is well-designed can be the key to unlocking a whole host of skills for you, from the ability to manage your time effectively to emotional intelligence to leadership abilities.
One of the benefits of taking a good course in this field is that it can equip you with the skills necessary to overcome personal obstacles and fulfill one’s full potential, so putting one on the path toward both personal and professional excellence.
The vast landscape of online courses that claim to give ground-breaking insights into personal development makes it difficult to make an informed choice about which program to enroll in.
Schoolnews is a leading resource in the field of educational program curation, and it comes into play here as an important part of the process.
We have devoted a number of hours to conducting in-depth research and assessments on the hundreds of available online personal development courses.
Several aspects, including instructional efficiency, real-world applicability, and learner feedback, have been subjected to intensive analysis.
The end result is a list of the best free personal development courses that are suited to a variety of different requirements and methods of learning. You should think of this curated collection as a blueprint for your growth journey as you explore it.
It was built by professionals who have done the heavy lifting to guarantee that you have access to the educational resources that will have the most influence on your life and make you more transformative.
- The Science of Well-Being by Yale University (Coursera)
- Learning How to Learn by the McMaster University and the University of California (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Achieving Personal and Professional Success by Wharton School (Coursera)
- Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization by the University of Washington (Coursera)
- Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by the University of Illinois (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
- Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
- Free Course Trial – Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success by Imperial College London (Coursera)
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by the McMaster University (Coursera)
- The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs by the University of Toronto (Coursera)
1. The Science of Well-Being by Yale University (Coursera)
Students are encouraged to take part in a variety of activities during the course that are aimed at improving their happiness as well as the habits that contribute to their level of productivity.
The class makes an effort to dispel common myths about happiness, sheds light on mental patterns that contribute to the way we think, and shares research findings that can assist participants in making positive life changes.
Highlights
- The University of Yale presents this particular class.
- The curriculum of the course consists of video lectures, reading material, and multiple-choice tests.
- The capstone project serves as the culminating experience for the class.
- After successfully completing the unit-ending quizzes and the overall assignment, you will be able to get the course certificate by paying a nominal charge.
- You have the option of uploading the course certificate to your LinkedIn profile and CV, as well as discussing its contents with your colleagues and potential employers.
Duration: 19 hours
Rating: 4.9 of 5
To Register, Click Here
2. Learning How to Learn by the McMaster University and the University of California (Coursera)
You are going to gain a better understanding of how to study more effectively by becoming familiar with various ways of thinking, which you will learn about during this class.
You are going to acquire an understanding of how the brain compartmentalizes information into parts. You will be able to boost your understanding and inventiveness, as well as your performance on tests, by gaining this knowledge.
The next section of the class discusses postponing tasks and their effects on memory, as well as the most effective strategies for accessing your brain’s most potent long-term memory systems.
In conclusion, it provides you with useful information and strategies that will improve your capacity for learning.
Highlights
- You will be able to transform both your thinking and your life with the assistance of the material covered in the course.
- A quiz will follow each of the modules in this course so that you may test your comprehension of the material.
- After going through the entire course and completing all of the associated quizzes, you will be able to pay a nominal price, receive the course certificate, and print it out.
- You will be able to highlight your achievement of the course certificate on both your resume and LinkedIn page.
Duration: 15 hours
Rating: 4.8 out of 5
To Register, Click Here
3. Free Course Trial – Achieving Personal and Professional Success by Wharton School (Coursera)
This specialization will teach you the tools and strategies you need to define and achieve success in both your personal and professional life.
In the first class, titled Success, you will figure out what it means to be successful for you and build a strategy on how to get there. Improving Communication Skills is the second course, and it will teach you how to attain your goals by teaching you how to communicate more effectively.
In the third class, “Leading the Life You Want,” you will learn the skills necessary to lead in a variety of contexts, including at work, at home, in the community, and in your own private life.
You will learn how to develop your influence and become more effective in reaching your corporate goals if you enroll in the fourth course, which is titled “Influence.”
Highlights
- The substance of the course is comprised of video lectures, hands-on activities, self-diagnostic surveys, multiple-choice tests, and several case studies.
- This class will teach you critical insights into successful personal habits that you may apply both at home and at work to achieve the greatest possible results.
- Certificates are awarded upon completion of both the courses and the specialty.
- Your potential employers can view the certificate as well as your LinkedIn page and printed résumé if you choose to share it with them.
Duration: 4 months
Rating: 4.7 of 5
To Register, Click Here
4. Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization by the University of Washington (Coursera)
You will have the potential to become an exceptional public speaker if you want to specialize in this area.
You will gain the guidance, expertise, and practice necessary to create and deliver outstanding presentations as a result of taking this course.
The first course, titled “Introduction to Public Speaking,” will provide you with a dependable framework for putting up and presenting powerful presentations.
You will learn how to vividly explain complex topics with the course Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides.
You will also learn how to construct captivating presentation slides and speak dynamically from notes.
Speaking with the intent to convince: Learning how to design persuasive speeches that address problems and potential answers and encourage audience members requires an understanding of how to motivate audiences with compelling arguments and language.
You will learn a process for planning and giving speeches that inspire and entertain others via the use of the book Speaking to Inspire: Ceremonial and Motivational Speeches.
Highlights
- The knowledge that is already developed in the fields of communication, rhetoric, linguistics, and argumentation are incorporated into the specialization.
- All levels of speakers can benefit from developing this area of expertise.
- This specialization teaches students how to plan and deliver presentations that are understandable and compelling to an audience.
- This certification comes with a copy that can be sent to others.
Duration: Variable
Rating: 4.7 of 5
To Register, Click Here
5. Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life and History by the University of Illinois (Coursera)
This class will provide an overview of the ideology surrounding racial and cultural diversity in both the history of the United States and its present day.
It investigates the topics of race and ethnicity across a variety of ethnocultural traditions in order to gain a better understanding of the meaning of race and ethnicity in contemporary American life.
You will gain an appreciation for the ways in which issues of race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity have impacted the institutions, laws, and social relationships in the United States.
Concepts of Race and Identity, Legacies of Race in the United States, Legacies of Race and Racism Today, and Race and Ethnicity in American Social Institutions are the subjects that are covered during the course.
Highlights
- This class looks at the historical and social interactions that have taken place between people of different races and ethnicities in the United States.
- This class is available to students at the University of Michigan.
- The curriculum of the course consists of video lectures, reading material, and multiple-choice tests.
- If you successfully complete the course’s quizzes and pay the associated cost, you will be awarded a certificate that can be shared with others.
- You can show the certificate to potential employers by uploading it to your online profile or printing it off and bringing it to an interview.
Duration: 8 hours
Rating: 4.6 of 5
To Register, Click Here
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6. Free Course Trial – Good with Words: Writing and Editing Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
This course examines the mechanics and strategy of effective communication, particularly the writing aspect of communication.
It teaches everything you need to know, from how to organize a complicated collection of material in a way that is reader-friendly to how to provide and receive high-quality feedback.
It educates you about the habits you need to acquire in order to finish both short-term and long-term tasks on time successfully, offers inventive methods to utilize syntax, reveals tactics for adding nuance to your sentences and slogans, shares suggestions for punctuating like experts, and teaches you about the importance of punctuation.
Highlights
- The four classes that make up this concentration are Structure and Organization, Drafting, and Revising, as well as Word Choice and Word Order.
- Certificates are included with each of the four courses and with the specialization as well.
- After successfully completing the quizzes that are provided at the conclusion of each module of the course, you will be able to pay a nominal charge in order to obtain the shareable certificate (or certificates).
- You can improve your chances of landing a job by adding the certificate (or certificates) to your LinkedIn profile or to your prepared resume.
Duration: Variable
Rating: 4.7 of 5
To Register, Click Here
7. Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most by the University of Michigan (Coursera)
This class delves into the scientific and philosophical aspects of figuring out your life’s mission as well as the practical aspects of doing so every day.
Finding and maintaining a purpose in life can be facilitated by learning from the experiences of other people, including historical figures and individuals.
You will gain an understanding from the material covered in the course that having a meaningful purpose in one’s life is an important component of overall human well-being.
The knowledge that you obtain from this site will assist you in formulating a purpose for your life and remaining connected to that reason on a daily basis.
Highlights
- This class will guide you through a variety of activities that will help you choose what aspects of your life are most important to you.
- You will become aware, via the use of the course’s video lectures, reading assignments, and exercises, that having a purpose that extends beyond oneself has a beneficial effect on one’s wellbeing.
- You will have unrestricted access, for an allotted amount of time, to the Purposeful app at no cost.
- You will have the option to pay a nominal charge at the conclusion of the course modules’ associated quizzes in order to obtain a course completion certificate.
- Your online presence and résumé can be used to spread the word about the credential.
Duration: 7 hours
Rating: 4.8 of 5
To Register, Click Here
8. Free Course Trial – Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success by Imperial College London (Coursera)
This class will provide you with the “toolbox” you need to be able to think creatively and express new ideas in an engaging way, even in a workplace that is fast-paced and characterized by an abundance of information.
You will become familiar with a curated collection of behaviors and methods designed to coax your inner creative potential out into the open.
Some of the tools function most effectively when used in a group setting, giving you the ability to draw on the inventiveness of a number of brilliant brains simultaneously.
The training will also assist you in selecting the appropriate tools or strategies to meet the requirements of the task at hand.
Highlights
- E-activities, exercises, practical lectures, and recommendations, as well as video, are included in the training course.
- Illustrations showing how the techniques should be applied.
- The techniques of alphabet brainstorming and grid brainstorming are taught as methods for approaching difficult problems throughout the course.
- You will become an expert in the morphological chart that is utilized to formulate a response to a problem.
- You will comprehend how a TRIZ contradiction matrix might be utilized to assist in the identification of advised imaginative principles.
- You will start putting SCAMPER into practice by applying it to a variety of different challenges.
- You have the option to pay the money in order to obtain a course certificate for this particular class.
Duration: 24 hours
Rating: 4.7 out of 5
To Register, Click Here
9. Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential by the McMaster University (Coursera)
In the context of the fast-paced learning environment of today, Mindshift strives to assist you in advancing your professional standing.
It will educate you on how to make the most of online learning and MOOCs, how to collaborate with mentors through virtual platforms, and how to steer clear of professional ruts in the process.
It provides actionable advice that is supported by scientific research on how to effectively learn new things and adapt to changing circumstances.
The class teaches you about your role in society and inspires you to pursue your goals by helping you overcome the limitations that come with living in the real world.
You will get mental techniques and insights that will assist you in learning considerably more than you ever have before and accomplishing a great deal more.
Change Is Possible, Getting Deeper Into Happy Learning, Learning and Careers, and Adopting a Learning Style are the four topics that are covered in this course.
Highlights
- The content of the course is comprised of video lectures, practice exercises, reading material, and multiple choice tests.
- After passing all of the tests associated with the course, you will have the option to purchase a certificate for a reduced price.
- Including the shareable certification on both your printed resume and your LinkedIn page is a great way to boost your chances of getting a job.
Duration: 10 hours
Rating: 4.8 of 5
To Register, Click Here
10. The Arts and Science of Relationships: Understanding Human Needs by the University of Toronto (Coursera)
You will become familiar with the underlying ideas behind the Strategies and Skills Learning and Development System (SSLD) as you progress through this course.
It demonstrates how relevant they are to everyday interactions and situations. After that, it moves on to discuss the more advanced ideas that are applicable to the professions of social work and health care.
The fundamental practice ideas and methodologies of SSLD are brought to light through discussions on relationship management case studies.
The training covers all of the fundamental competencies that are required for the relationship management application of the SSLD system. These core competencies include things like observation learning, simulation, real-life implementation, review, and monitoring.
In addition to this, you will gain an understanding of the SSLD framework for relationship management assessment, N3C, and problem translation.
Highlights
- The ideas of strategy and skill learning and development serve as the foundation for the entire curriculum.
- After each session, you will have some reading assignments and quizzes to do in order to further your education.
- You will be able to earn a course certificate by paying a nominal charge after completing the quizzes that are provided at the conclusion of each individual class.
- The course certificate can be shared through a participant’s LinkedIn page as well as on a printed CV.
Duration: 32 hours
Rating: 4.5 of 5
To Register, Click Here
Conclusion
In conclusion, Personal Development Courses stand as beacons of accessible growth and empowerment in the modern digital age.
By breaking down financial barriers and providing knowledge freely, these courses democratize personal development, allowing individuals from all walks of life to embark on a journey of self-discovery and improvement.
The ability to enhance interpersonal skills, build resilience, and cultivate a positive mindset is crucial in today’s competitive and dynamic world.
These courses not only equip individuals with the tools they need to succeed but also foster a culture of continuous learning and self-betterment.
Through the generosity of offering knowledge without a price tag, Personal Development Courses demonstrate the transformative potential of education and its capacity to shape a brighter and more fulfilled future for individuals worldwide.
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