edX offers free classes and affordable professional certificates from Harvard and other top universities around the world — here's how it works

The Professional Certificate programs are designed to help you build your professional skills so you can succeed in the most in-demand jobs and industries today. Learning doesn't stop once you leave school, and as different industries continue to evolve, it's important to stay on top of the shifting responsibilities and skillsets that are expected of employees.

These programs are a series of graduate-level courses that dive deep into specific career fields. The credits you earn from passing these courses go toward a MicroMasters Certificate, which can count toward an on-campus degree.

The certificate doesn't guarantee admission to a full Master's program; instead, if you apply and are accepted into the on-campus or online program that is associated with your MicroMasters program, the MicroMasters credential will count toward the degree, reducing your requirements and financial burden.

Pursuing this certificate is significantly less expensive than a full Master's program, so if you find that cost is a prohibitive factor in your goal of getting a Master's, you should check out the MicroMasters programs on edX.

Many courses are self-paced, which provides great flexibility for your busy life. At the same time, everything is structured enough so you won't feel lost or out of control with all this independence and flexibility.

The verified certificate, signed by the instructor and bearing the institution's logo, gives you the ability to highlight your new skills and knowledge on your resume or LinkedIn profile, plus gives you some extra incentive to finish the course. The certificate fee, which can cost $40 to $160 depending on the course, also helps support edX as a non-profit.

If you choose to audit the course for free, you still get complete access to all the course materials, activities, tests, and forums.

On the courses page, you can filter by subject, proficiency level (e.g. intermediate), whether it's self-paced, credit eligibility, and even language.

edX offers the most courses in computer science, business and management, engineering, social sciences, and humanities, so definitely consider the platform if you're interested in these subjects.

These are some top courses from the site:

• Introduction to Computer Science (Harvard)
• Analyzing and Visualizing Data with Excel (Microsoft)
• Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Using Python (MIT)
• The Science of Everyday Thinking (University of Queensland)
• Introduction to Java Programming (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
• Introduction to Linux (The Linux Foundation)
• Introduction to Project Management (University of Adelaide)
• The Science of Happiness (UC Berkeley)
• Becoming an Entrepreneur (MIT)

Other cool courses we found include:

• The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact On Pop Culture (Smithsonian)
• Storytelling in the Workplace (Rochester Institute of Technology)
• The Science of Parenting (UC San Diego)
• Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs (University of British Columbia)

Here are just a handful of names you'll recognize:

• MIT
• Harvard
• Caltech
• Cornell
• Wellesley
• Julliard
• Imperial College London
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• University of Oxford
• Tsinghua University
• University of Edinburgh

See a full list of schools and organizations here. You can click on each school to learn more about it and see which edX courses it offers.