Free certificates
Free certificates for teachers
The change that matters in 2026 is that levels one and two of Google Certified Educator became free, having been paid exams before. The European platforms are open too, though whether they count towards Georgian teacher credit points is a separate question with a separate answer.
Last checked:
14 certificates · Education
TeachingEnglish: training courses
certificateBritish Council · ~10 h
Nine to twelve hour courses with an automatically issued certificate stating the hours. The material disappears after the course, so download it.
Enrolment on most of them closes on 23 September 2026.
Deadline: 23 September 2026moderate weightGoogle Certified Educator Level 1
exam is free tooGoogle for Education · ~12 h
The main change in 2026: the exam became free, having cost $10. There is no Georgian exam language.
Google's older pages still state $10; confirm the $0 on the payment screen.
strong brandValid: 3 yearsGoogle Certified Educator Level 2
exam is free tooGoogle for Education · ~15 h
The second level is free as well. Certified Trainer costs $15 and requires both levels first.
strong brandValid: 3 yearsGemini Certified Educator
exam is free tooGoogle for Education · ~8 h
A free certification in classroom use of AI tools, available in 13 languages.
strong brandValid: 3 yearsOPEN Program MOOC: English teaching courses
certificateUS Department of State · ~20 h
The strongest free credential for an English teacher: the certificate carries the US Department of State seal. Enrolment is open and no nomination is needed.
strong brandeTwinning and the National Quality Label
certificateeTwinning Plus / TPDC · ~40 h
Georgia is an eTwinning Plus country and the national coordinating body is the Teachers' Professional Development Centre. Validation takes about two weeks.
The quality label requires a real joint project, not a completed course.
moderate weightin Georgianin RussianThe Digital Teacher
certificateUNESCO MGIEP · ~25 h
A UNESCO certificate, free, and available in Russian too. The course is built on UNESCO's ICT CFT framework.
Direct FramerSpace links often 404; open the course after creating an account.
moderate weightin RussianMedia and Information Literacy for Adult Educators
certificateUNESCO UIL · ~10 h
An eight-module media literacy course with a free certificate. Self-enrolment is open and Georgia is on the country list.
moderate weightEuropean School Education Platform: courses
certificateEuropean Commission · ~18 h
Courses on AI competence, digital wellbeing and critical thinking. A free EU Login is needed, not a card.
Not every course issues a certificate; the course page states this directly.
moderate weightHELP: human rights courses
certificateCouncil of Europe · ~15 h
A free Statement of Accomplishment, and the platform has a Georgian interface. Mostly for lawyers, though the LEMON course is written for a general audience.
moderate weightin GeorgianMicrosoft Learn Educator Center: badges
digital badgeMicrosoft · ~10 h
Free learning paths and badges. Register with a personal Microsoft account rather than a school one.
moderate weightTeacher Essentials
certificateCanva · ~1 h
A one-hour course with a certificate and no teacher status verification. The fastest row in this category.
weak signalDigital literacy and AI courses
certificateCommon Sense Education · ~6 h
AI Basics for K-12 Teachers and digital wellbeing courses with a completion certificate.
The Recognition Program badge cycle is tied to the US school year.
weak signalKahoot! Certified: Bronze, Silver, Gold
certificateKahoot! · ~2 h
Each level takes about 30 minutes, ending in a badge and a PDF diploma by email. You must be signed in with a teacher account.
weak signal
Advertised as free, and is not
Alison
The course is free, the certificate is not: roughly €21-26, and €34-37 for a diploma. What you get for free is a Learner Record, which is a transcript rather than a certificate.
Coursera Financial Aid
No longer a guaranteed 100%. When approved it is a 50-100% discount that also depends on your location. You apply per course rather than per specialisation, and a decision takes up to 16 days.
Great Learning Academy
The page title says free certificate; their own FAQ says the certificate is issued after completing the course and paying the fee. The fee only appears at the end.
edX and FutureLearn
The material is free, the certificate is not. edX financial aid is an 80% discount, so a card is still needed. FutureLearn's free access is limited to the course duration plus 14 days.
ISTE certification
$825 for an individual. The organisation merged with ASCD and the old brand no longer exists.
Moodle and Canvas
Moodle Academy issues free badges, but certification costs €200: collecting all six badges does not make you certified. Canvas Certified Educator is $250 per course.
How to read this list
Every row states three things: what kind of document you walk away with, how much weight it carries with an employer, and when it was last checked on the provider's own page. The mark exam is free too is the rarest and means the most: it says that even the qualifying exam costs nothing.
Where a row has a note set off by a red line, there is a condition or a risk attached: a deadline, a country restriction, a student status requirement, or the fact that we could not confirm something on the provider's page. Those notes are not hidden, because they are what decides whether you lose an evening.
If you are looking for work in this field, see remote vacancies and compare what employers are actually asking for. That section is written in Georgian.
Frequently asked questions
Are there genuinely free certificates in Education?
Yes. This page collects only those Education certificates where the document itself is free and no card is asked for. British Council: TeachingEnglish: training courses is one of them. Every row states what kind of document you receive and when it was last checked.
Where should I start if Education is new to me?
Start with a row marked as a strong brand: that means the document is issued by the vendor itself or by a recognised institution, and an employer will know the name. Two of those are worth more than ten completion papers from a course marketplace.
What does free mean on this list?
That the document itself, the certificate or the badge, is issued at zero cost. That is not the same as a free course: the most common arrangement on this market is exactly the one where the studying is free and the certificate costs $20-70 at the end. Platforms that work that way are not listed as certificates here, they are in the warnings block.
Do I need a bank card?
One condition for being on this list is that no card is asked for, neither for payment nor for identity verification. The few exceptions are marked individually, for example time-limited offers where one exam is paid and the next one is free after it.
Are these certificates available from Georgia?
Yes. Georgia appears on no major vendor's restriction list: the recurring exclusions in the AWS and Microsoft terms are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia and Crimea. Where a country restriction does exist it is written on that specific card.
Which free certificate actually counts with an employer?
The one issued by the vendor itself or by a recognised institution: Google, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, HubSpot, Harvard's CS50. A completion paper from a course marketplace is a weak signal and we mark it as one. That is why every card states what weight the document carries.