6 MBA Finance Free Certification Courses

MBA Finance is one of the most sought after MBA courses. Being a student in MBA Finance beings in a lot of opportunities and job roles. You can be a Equity Research Analyst, Financial Consultant, Financial Modeling Expert, CFA, CMT and hundreds of other jobs. Further, all these jobs are well paying.

However, you would not be able to land a satisfactory job unless you are highly skilled. This is because, just college education might not be sufficient to acquire and master these coveted skills.

Free MBA Online has brought you a list of 6 free online courses for MBA Finance students that will help you excel in finance skills that are highly sought after and can land your dream job.

1. Finance Essentials by Imperial College of London

The Imperial College of London is a highly reputed institution in the field of finance, management and economics. The college is highly competitive and has an acceptance rate of just 14.3%. Further, the per year fees is about ₹60 lakhs or $72,000.

This makes it difficult for most of us who cannot afford a fees as high as that. But, you can get its education for absolutely free.

About The Finance Essentials Course

The Finance Essentials Course is available for free at edX, which is a online learning platform by the prestigious Harvard and MIT universities of USA.

It can be completed within 6 weeks with an average learning rate of 2-4 hours per week or if you are like me, more like in 1 day.

The course will enrich your skills in

• Capital Budgeting,
• Intertemporal Portfolio,
• Management, Finance,
• MBA,
• Access Network,
• Rate of Return,
• Equities
• Capital Asset Pricing Models.

Robert Kosowski, associate professor of finance in Imperial College Business School is the course instructor.

At the end of the course, you can also choose to pay a fees (₹6,548) to get a certificate.

2. Behavioral Finance by Duke University

The course is for MBA students who wish to strengthen and specialize their skills in behavioral finance. It is a branch of corporate finance which explores the impact of psychology in financial decisions taken by professionals as well as ordinary individuals

The course is offered by Duke University and is available for free. You can pay ₹2,378 to get a certificate. However, if you are already enrolled in MBA Finance, you won’t need a certificate.

Still, if you choose to get certified, its always better.

About The Behavioral Finance Course

The course is divided into three weekly modules where each module could take roughly 1-2 hours. Or if you are like me, less than a day.

The topics covered in this course are:

• Introduction to Behavioral Economics
• The Utility of Money
• Omission Bias Case Study
• Expected Utility vs Prospect Theory
• Correlation and Causation
• Probability
• Heuristics
• Mental Accounting
• Loss Aversion
• Financial Decision Making
• Saving Benefits

3. Financial Accounting by MIT

The Financial Accounting course by MIT teaches you how to analyze financial statements as a professional. Statements like Balance Sheet, Audit Reports, Annual Statements, Cash Flow Statement, Profit and Loss Statements, etc.

The course is available for free by EDX, a Harvard and MIT joint venture. You can get a certificate for ₹37,301 which I think might not be necessary if you already have an MBA degree. The knowledge in this course far outranks the worth of the certificate.

About the Financial Accounting Course by MIT

You would need 12 weeks to complete the course with an average 10-14 hours per week. The syllabus covers three modules which are shown below along with their topics.

1. Assets
   • Accrual Accounting
   • Revenue Recognition; Receivables
   • Inventory; Property, Plant, and Equipment
   • Intangible Assets; Income vs. Cash Flows
   • Acquisitions; Finance Investments
2. Financial Statement Analysis
   • Introductory FSA
3. Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity
   • Income Taxes
   • Long-Term Debt; Leases
   • Stockholders’ Equity and Earnings per Share
   • Accounting for Banks
   • Accounting for Valuation
   • Tesla Case Study

4. Accounting Essentials by Imperial College London

The Accounting Essentials course covers only the basics of accounting, that too in brief. It is means as a refresher course or an introductory course. Since Accounting is a core part of all MBA and related management courses. As a management student and working professional myself, I would only recommend this course for people who need a basic introduction.

About the Course in Accounting Essentials

This course is different from the pervious one and teaches you accounting in a more generalized way. This course is much shorter than the previous course and just brushes around the topics of:

• Accounting Statements and Principles
• The Income Statement
• The Balance Sheet
• The Cash Flow Statement
• Short-term Decision Making
• Long-term Decision Making

5. Corporate Finance by IIM Bangalore

The IIM Bangalore if one of the 3 most prestigious IIMs in India and is very difficult to get an admission in to the institution. However, you can learn from top IIM faculties with this course in Corporate Finance.

About The Course

The course is offered by EDX and is spread over 5 weeks and takes 3-5 hours per week. Or if you are like me, 2-4 days max.

There is an option to get a certificate by paying ₹12,434. I would encourage you buy the course if you can afford it because it comes from a highly reputed institution in India. However, if you cannot afford, make sure you make detailed notes that will help you in the future.

The course teaches you the following subjects in adequate depth necessary for your career.

• Financial Planning
• Investments and Securities
• Capital Purchases
• Cash Flows
• Valuation

Syllabus of the Course:

• Week 1: Introduction to Corporate Finance and Time Value of Money
  • Major Financial Decisions
  • Issues Related to Separation of Ownership and Management,
  • Role of Capital Markets
  • Time Value of Money.

• Week 2: Valuation of Basic Securities
  • Bonds,
  • Stocks
  • Cost of Capital.

• Week 3: Capital Budgeting Tools
  • Capital Budgeting,
  • Payback Period,
  • Net Present Value (NPV)
  • Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

• Week 4: Cash flows for Capital Budgeting
  • Estimation of cash flows of projects,
  • Cost of capital for a project
  • Value addition by projects.

• Week 5: Capital budgeting
  • Case Study to illustrate the evaluation of a project using the capital budgeting tools discussed in earlier weeks.

6. Healthcare Finance by Doane University

This is a super specialized course designed around the financial aspects of healthcare management by Doane University. The course is available in EDX.

The course covers aspects of healthcare finance, risk management, legal and regulatory issued around managing financial aspects of healthcare. It teaches you the ways to optimize costs in healthcare which then helps make it accessible for a greater population.

About The Course in Healthcare Finance by Doane

Topics covered by the course are:

• Relevance of Economics in Healthcare
• Economic Models in Healthcare
• Diverse Aspects of Healthcare Financing
• Assess and Solve Economic Problems in Healthcare
• Economic Advantages and Policy options in Healthcare Management