Free certificates
Free certificates in health and humanitarian work
The platforms run by international organisations are free end to end and issue the certificate for free as well. The one thing to be clear about is what the paper says: it certifies attendance, not clinical authority. It works for a CV and for the NGO sector, and it does not replace a medical licence.
Last checked:
13 certificates · Health and humanitarian
Psychological First Aid (PFA) Online
certificateNCTSN · ~6 h
The best free credential in psychological first aid: the course, the certificate and the continuing education credits are all free, and it does not expire.
strong brandICH Good Clinical Practice (GCP)
certificateThe Global Health Network (Oxford) · ~8 h
One of the few free certificates with genuine professional value: accepted for clinical research roles and by ethics committees.
strong brandCDC TRAIN: 10,000+ courses
certificateCDC · ~5 h
Epidemiology, outbreak investigation, immunisation. Registration is open internationally.
Continuing education credits are tied to US licensure; the completion certificate is for everyone.
moderate weightCore Humanitarian Certification and 13 others
certificateDisasterReady · ~25 h
14 certificates with exams, entirely free. Personal Safety and Security is co-authored with Save the Children.
moderate weightFAO elearning Academy
certificateFAO (United Nations) · ~8 h
Agriculture, food safety, nutrition. Certificates and digital badges are free, in eight languages.
moderate weightin RussianKaya Connect: 500+ courses
certificateHumanitarian Leadership Academy · ~10 h
Free registration and free certificates. Courses work offline once downloaded.
moderate weightIFRC Learning Platform
certificateIFRC (Red Cross) · ~6 h
Hundreds of short courses: first aid, psychosocial support, disaster law. Open to the general public.
This is a knowledge certificate, not a first aid provider qualification.
moderate weightin RussianE-Campus: 13 migration topics
certificateIOM (International Organization for Migration) · ~3 h
Migration management, trafficking, migration law. Open to everyone, with an IOM certificate.
moderate weightVirtual Campus for Public Health
certificatePAHO · ~20 h
PAHO states explicitly that it never charges for enrolment, for the material or for the certificate.
moderate weightSphere in Practice and the Core Humanitarian Standard
certificateSphere · ~10 h
The de facto quality standard of the humanitarian sector. The certificate is issued once every module is complete.
moderate weightAgora: 1500+ courses
certificateUNICEF · ~8 h
Child protection, health, nutrition, PSEA. Open to the general public and not only to staff.
Some courses are staff-only; check the enrolment condition on the course page.
moderate weightOpenWHO: 500+ courses
certificateWHO (World Health Organization) · ~6 h
Confirmation of Participation and Record of Achievement, free, in 20+ languages. No card and no ID required.
Some channels are in Restricted status and require approval.
moderate weightin RussianTembo: 900+ learning units
digital badgeMSF (Médecins Sans Frontières) · ~10 h
Medical, logistics and security courses. Open to non-MSF users as well.
Some courses require an application or an enrolment code.
moderate weightin Russian
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.
UN CC:Learn
Since July 2026 the certificate is paid: $10-30 depending on the course. The courses stayed free, the PDF did not. Of 66 courses only a couple still issue a free certificate.
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.
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 Health and humanitarian?
Yes. This page collects only those Health and humanitarian certificates where the document itself is free and no card is asked for. NCTSN: Psychological First Aid (PFA) Online is one of them. Every row states what kind of document you receive and when it was last checked.
Where should I start if Health and humanitarian 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.