Training that gets you hired, starting with the free kind
Most people pay for training they could have had for nothing. Below is what is genuinely free in the UK, who it is for and what it leads to. Paid courses are further down, clearly marked, and we tell you exactly what we get out of it.
Free, and worth doing first
All of these are free to you. We are paid nothing by any of them and we get nothing if you sign up: they are here because they work.
National Careers Service
Government careers advice, a skills assessment and a free adviser you can speak to on the phone or by webchat. The skills health check is the best free tool for working out what you could move into.
Who it is for: Anyone in England, at any stage
Go to itSkills Bootcamps
Courses of up to 16 weeks in the trades employers are short of: HGV driving, construction, digital, engineering, care. Free to adults, and they include a guaranteed job interview at the end.
Who it is for: Adults aged 19 and over in England
Go to itOpenLearn, from The Open University
Hundreds of full university-written courses, free with no catch and no trial period. You get a statement of participation you can put on a CV.
Who it is for: Anyone, no qualifications needed
Go to itThe Skills Toolkit and free adult courses
The government course finder: free English, maths and digital courses, and funded qualifications for adults without a level 3.
Who it is for: Adults in England
Go to itFree CPD from your own sector body
Most trade bodies publish free training: driver CPC refreshers, care sector modules, food hygiene basics, site safety awareness. Ask your employer as well, because they can often claim the cost back.
Who it is for: Anyone in a trade with a professional body
Go to itThe tickets employers actually ask for
Before you buy any course, check whether the job needs a card rather than a certificate. In several trades a ticket is worth more than a qualification, and some are funded.
Driving
Driver CPC (35 hours every five years), the digital tachograph card, ADR for hazardous loads. A Class 1 licence itself is often covered by a Skills Bootcamp, which is free.
Construction
CSCS card, and the CITB health, safety and environment test that comes before it. SMSTS or SSSTS if you want to supervise. Some CITB grants cover the cost through an employer.
Warehouse
Counterbalance or reach forklift, accredited by RTITB or ITSSAR. Employers often pay for this outright, so ask before you buy it yourself.
Care
The Care Certificate, moving and handling, medication administration. Nearly always provided by the employer, and being willing to do it is what gets you the job.
Hospitality
Level 2 food hygiene, allergen awareness, and a personal licence if you will be serving alcohol. All cheap, all quick, all worth putting on the CV.
Security
The SIA licence, which you must have before you can work. Budget for the training and the licence fee together, and check the employer will not fund it first.
Our guides on writing a CV and the skills section explain where to put these so an employer sees them in the first ten seconds.
Paid courses
There are none listed yet, and we would rather say so than fill this page.
We will only put a paid course here once there is a real agreement behind it and we believe it is worth the money. When we do, every one will be labelled as a paid link before you click it, and this page will say what we are paid and by whom.
In the meantime, work through the free list above. For most jobs on this board it is genuinely all you need, and a Skills Bootcamp ends with a guaranteed interview, which no paid course does.
Before you pay for any course
- Check the free list first. Skills Bootcamps and OpenLearn cover more than most people expect.
- Ask the employer. In driving, warehousing and care, the employer usually pays for the ticket if you ask at interview.
- Check the job adverts, not the course website. Search this board for the role you want and read what employers actually ask for.
- Be wary of anything sold with a job guarantee, an upfront fee for work finding, or pressure to sign today. Tell us if you see it in an advert here.
Nobody pays us to say any of that
Advertising to employers is how this site makes its money, and candidates pay us nothing, ever. That is why the free options are at the top of this page and the paid ones are at the bottom: it is the order that helps you, not the order that pays us.
We put people first. What that costs us.