How we’re helping learners explore and pursue certifications

We’re happy to announce that we’re making it easier for learners to explore and earn credentials from industry-recognized certification issuers, such as Microsoft AZ-900, CompTIA Network+, and PMI-ACP. This will be a long-term project, rolled out in phases. We’ll start by making it easier for subscription learners to identify different certifications Udemy courses can help them achieve, and the courses that can help them prepare. If you have a course in a Udemy subscription whose primary topic is a supported certification, it will automatically be included in these efforts – no action required.

Q1: Who is certification preparation for?

Certification preparation offers learners looking to advance their careers and showcase their skills an easier way to find courses that prepare them for third-party, in-demand certifications. These certifications can provide them with shareable badges from trusted third-party badge issuers. 

Q2: Will Udemy issue these certifications directly? 

No, Udemy is not an issuer of certifications. We are partnering with 1Edtech, the world’s leading member-based nonprofit community of educational providers and edtech suppliers, on the Open Badging standard. Udemy will surface relevant courses that prepare learners for certifications supported through 1EdTech’s standard.

Q3: How will certification preparation appear on Udemy?
There will be a phased rollout of certification preparation starting with subscription learners on Udemy Business and Personal Plan. Over the coming weeks, we will add a new way for subscription learners to explore certification preparation on Udemy through new modules on the homepage navigation bar and relevant topic pages. Additionally, learners will be able to browse new pages that display all possible third-party certification badges. They will also be able to find the most relevant courses to help them prepare for each certification.

In later phases, we’ll explore a badge import experience for Udemy Business learners, so third-party badge certifications can be tracked and recognized within their organization. This allows organizations to measure Udemy Business learning outcomes to identify skill gaps, upskill and retain talent, and help their businesses stay competitive. We’ll also explore ways to bring these certification discoverability benefits to learners on the marketplace.

Q4: Why are we investing in certification prep?

Certification learning and preparation have consistently been an area of interest and demand for both learners and organizations. Learners leverage them to signal skills while organizations use them to recognize and track progress on competencies. More broadly, the awareness and adoption of digital badges has grown tremendously in the past four years across the learning industry. 

Q5: What types of certifications will this cover? 

This new discovery experience will cover a range of popular certification topics, focused on but not limited to tech. Topics include: IT Certifications, Network & Security, Project Management, Software Engineering and Testing, Human Resources, and more.

Q6: How are courses featured on certification preparation pages? 

Courses are featured based on topic relevancy and alignment with open badging standards. 

No additional effort is required of instructors for courses to be featured on certification browse pages.

Q7: How will this impact my course? 

If your course supports a certification that holds a badge, it may benefit from more discoverability. Subscription learners will also be able to determine course relevance to their certification goals.

Q8: What actions (if any) should I take right now?
There’s nothing you need to do right now, but your feedback, ideas, and concerns are always welcome in the Instructor Community.