These are the 7 Reasons why you should issue learning certificates

7 Reasons Why Learning Certificates Are A Must-Have For Educational Companies

You probably know that by 2022, there are millions of courses offered online by different institutions and individuals in every industry. E-learning has become very popular and the go-to option for many students. Now even big institutions such as Harvard are offering extensive amounts of courses online.

That said, the internet is quite saturated with different courses. This, however, doesn't mean that starting your e-course or online institution will be a fail. No, but it'll mean that you take certain steps to stand out.

One of those steps is issuing online courses certificates at the end of each course. Certificates are known to benefit the institution (or course provider) when marketing their courses and growing their student count and teaching staff. Additionally, certificates are a great benefit to the students as well. There are several certificate generators online that can help you get started such as the free LinkedIn certificates generator.

Are you wondering if you should issue certificates for your online courses? Here are seven reasons why this is the best move.

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1. Free and authentic referral marketing

Online businesses operate similar to physical businesses where referrals are one of the best ways to market your services. Every student gets excited after a great achievement such as completing a course. There's a 99% chance that these students will speak of their accomplishments and gladly show off their certificates.

In this era of social media and millennials sharing every aspect of their lives, get ready to see your Linkedin certificates flaunted all over the internet.

This will spike curiosity among parents and those interested in taking a course.

Referral marketing is one of the most effective ways to attract prospects. This is because the 'praise' comes from a familiar face and sometimes a trusted individual. Their friends, families and social media followers will want to learn more about your courses.

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2. Demonstrate your credibility and legitimacy

As mentioned earlier, almost everyone is now launching a course for the purpose of community building online. Unfortunately, not all courses on the internet are of value. Hence, proving credibility becomes a necessity and a perk to your course.

Certificates authenticate your courses. They show professionalism and seriousness in what you do. This will help prospects filter you from your competitors. People trust certifications, therefore, they'll easily trust what you're offering. Issuing online courses certificates also show that you care about the outcome of each student.

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3. Let certificates boost your marketing

Not every career situation requires proof of knowledge or skill, but most do. When marketing your courses, you can use this fact (that you offer certification) as your point of marketing and instantly lure prospects to your website.

A student browsing for a good online course wants one that helps his or her future. Posing the need for certificates in the future as you advertise your course helps sell your institution.

Did you know that more than 79% of all students even expect you to issue certificates?

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4. Attract students by building their CV

Offering courses shouldn't be about making money or attracting traffic to your site. It should be about helping students better their skills and eventually building their careers.

When you issue certifications, you're helping your students secure a more certain future in their career. You give them a chance to stand out from the other e-learners and a way of proving their competency.

A certificate shows that they not only studied, but performed well enough to earn a certificate. Well, unless you offer certificates to anyone without grading their work - which you shouldn't.

So as you try to prove competency as an institution, you should help your students prove competency to their future employers or admission boards.

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5. Enables You to Better Evaluate Your Course

How do you know if what you're offering works? The answer is by issuing certifications. The process is simple; enroll, study, take exams, get graded and earn a certificate.

If many students are flopping your examinations, then there must be a problem with your courses, method of teaching or quality of examinations.

Having a structure helps you monitor at which point the students get challenged. With this information, you can enhance your courses to better suit students or trainees.

Not everyone will 'graduate', but if a higher number of students obtain a certificate, then it means your course structure is on the right path.

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6. Establish your Authority in the Industry by being everywhere!

Speaking of structure, no one loves structure like scholars do. No, their parents do. Big institutions do, and employers do as well. A certification course requires structure. Structure proves professionalism and can easily make you an online authority.

If you offer courses and certificates in a specific industry (or niche), then people will look up to you as an authority. Even with different industries, people will still trust what you do because you take your work seriously.

You'll definitely need to back this up with a few other activities such as blogging, but the certification courses will put you on the map. Being an authority means developing your brand name to the masses. This will also help you with community building online.

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7. Incentivize your students to engage with your course

Don’t we all know the struggle? You take your precious time to create an outstanding online course and the completion rate is below acceptable. This might seem like a vanity metric at first, but it is crucial to acquire more students and fully satisfy your customers.

A certificate at the end of a course is a motivation to complete the course. Therefore, learners take it as an incentive and work hard to attain it. Without something to look forward to, it's easy for anyone to quit.

This indirectly helps you market your course. As more students make it to the end, you have high numbers of graduates to show the success of your course when marketing it. People like seeing numbers, and saying "over 5000 students graduated at my institution" is the best way to market your course.

Measuring student success is measuring the success of the institution or course.

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Conclusion

Upgrade your strategy and start issuing online courses certificates today. If you’re not conversant with creating elegant certificates, VirtualBadge is a simple tool that can help you achieve that.

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