There are many online learning platforms that exist on the internet today.
They will teach you anything that you can learn in a normal classroom setting but use a flexible, online sphere in which to do it, in order to provide you with the ease and flexibility in which you want to learn.
Codecademy is one of these online learning platforms that specializes in learning to code, an incredibly valuable skill in today’s world
However, if you want to apply for jobs after learning with Codecademy, you may want to know whether does Codecademy give certificates after your course to tell your potential employer that you do indeed know to code?
This is an incredibly pertinent question and one that we will answer within this article.
What Is Codecademy?
As stated earlier, Codecademy is an online learning platform site that teaches a person coding. They offer courses that teach 12 different coding languages, including Python, JavaScript, Ruby, SQL, HTML, CSS, C++, and many more.
The company offers three types of payment levels depending on what you want to learn. The first is the basic payment level, which is free.
This allows you to sign up and take the free courses on offer, however, these are normally very basic courses and don’t really give you in-depth knowledge.
The second is pro lite, which is $11.99 a month and gives you access to all the courses on their site. This lets you learn all that they have to offer about coding, as well as showing you different skill paths.
Finally, there is a pro, which is $15.99 a month and gives you access to all the courses and helps with coding career paths that you can take.
The community of Codecademy is very large with 45 million active subscribers, and it has great help for beginners or those that just need to refresh their memory.
Codecademy also offers a 7-day free trial if you are interested in learning to code.
Does Codecademy Give Out Certifications?
Codecademy does offer certifications, but the real question is whether these certifications are accredited and acknowledged, and unfortunately, the answer to that question is no, no they are not.
When you complete a course, you will be given a certificate of completion, but there is a reason this is not acknowledged in the community or accredited bodies at large, and it is because they are not proof of skill.
While Codecademy is great for teaching people the basics of coding and the syntax of the language used, it really does not aid them in employing that language in a meaningful way or testing whether they truly are an expert in the language itself.
Most of the courses are videos you watch, doing tests and challenges to show you were learning and then doing a big challenge at the end of the lesson.
While this is great, there is little room for independent study, independent employment of learned skills, and accredited examiners or experts to agree that you truly mastered the skill.
This means that while getting the certificate is good, it does not show that you are knowledgeable or an expert in a particular coding language to an employer.
Does That Mean That Codecademy Certifications Are Worthless?
Not in least, Codecademy certifications can be very useful. For starters, doing the courses on Codecademy is a great place to begin your coding journey.
Coding can be a bit difficult to break into, and sometimes it feels like you can never start in the right place. Codecademy offers a very easy place to start and helps you understand where to go next.
A certificate helps to cement this in your own mind as well.
Codecademy (see also ‘Is Codecademy Good? Pros and Cons‘) can also be good for future employers, just not in the traditional way.
The company has an excellent reputation to both those in the industry and those outside of it, as such you shouldn’t put a Codecademy certificate as your sole qualification, but adding it as additional documents or qualifications in a CV is a great way to show an employer that you brush up on your skills or are at least trying to learn many different ones.
Lastly, if you are just learning to code for yourself, then it is a nice way to feel like you’ve achieved something of your goal, maybe it isn’t the end of your journey, but it does help you feel like you are progressing.
Does Codecademy Offer Free Certificates?
No, Codecademy offers no certificates for their free courses.
This isn’t just because they are trying to lure you into paying for a subscription, but mainly because they don’t want to hurt their own reputation, and they have no way to prove that you got any skill from the course.
The basic course offers little regulation and there are few complete courses on it. As such, there isn’t really much point in offering a certificate.
Also, if the person who got a certificate from the free course uses it as an additional document for a job and then messes up, then that might come back on Codecademy since they technically offered them a certification of some kind.
Other Online Learning Platforms For Learning Coding
Apart from Codeacademy, there are a few other online learning platforms that you can use to learn to code. The two most popular and well respected are Coursera and Pluralsight.
Coursera (see also ‘How to Audit a Coursera Course‘) uses university material to teach you the fundamentals of coding, Python, Java, and some game development.
Its cost starts from free (but if you want to advance you will have to pay) and covers a huge range of topics that can help you.
Pluralsight is incredibly well respected, offers high quality materials and teaches you Python, Ruby, Java, C++, software development, and cybersecurity. It starts at $29 a month, but it teaches you everything you need to know.
Conclusion
Codecademy does give certificates for their paid courses, but these are not accredited and so may not be of use to you for job applications or other aspects of your life where an accredited qualification is necessary.
