Certificate in Freelancing

Everything between having a skill and running a freelance business. You check whether freelancing adds up for you, choose a service and niche, set your prices, build a portfolio, find clients, run discovery calls and write proposals, protect yourself with terms and insurance, deliver and keep clients, then register, invoice, chase payment and get tax and VAT right. It ends with a real market test on prospects, a proposal you pitch and a 90-day plan built on what the test showed.

Yes. It's built for people working out how to start freelancing, as well as new freelancers who've been winning work by accident. You choose a service, build a starter portfolio and test your pricing on real prospects.

No, and we'd suggest you don't. The course starts by checking your employment contract and working out what freelancing needs to pay, then has you find early clients and test your prices alongside the job, so you move when the work justifies it.

No. Google Sheets or Excel, Google Docs or Word, Canva, LinkedIn and a website builder are all used on their free plans. Marketplaces such as Upwork and Fiverr are free to join and optional, and the course shows you where to check what each one takes from your earnings.

Freelancing if you're selling your own skill as a one-person service: clients, rates, proposals and self-employed tax. Small Business Management if you're building something with premises, stock or staff, or running a limited company. If you grow beyond a one-person service, Small Business Management is the natural next step.

Any service you can sell: design, writing, marketing, video, development, bookkeeping, consulting and more. The client-finding, pricing and admin skills are the same across all of them, and a fictional Nottingham brand designer shows each step in action. Still learning your skill? You can work through the course as one of its case freelancers.

Yes, properly. You learn how self-employed profits are taxed, what expenses you can claim, why payments on account catch first-year freelancers out and whether Making Tax Digital and VAT apply to you, then build a tax pot and a deadline calendar. Rates change, so you look up current figures on GOV.UK, and you'll know what to ask an accountant about your own return.

Yes. Pass the final assessment and you get an OBA certificate of completion that anyone can verify online. It isn't a professional qualification. Your pitched proposal and launch kit are the other half of the proof.

Download the free info pack first. It walks you through every module, what you'll build and what you need before you start, so you can enrol knowing exactly what you're getting. If you'd like to talk it through, get in touch and we'll help you choose.