Continuing Education (CE) certificate templates and badges
3 free designs. A set is one design as a badge, a landscape or a portrait certificate, or all three.
Free for up to 20 recipients a year
Boxwood Rule set
Badge · Landscape · Portrait
A continuing education certificate template helps colleges, professional associations, hospitals and training companies give learners a clear record each time they finish a course, webinar or conference session for credit. Nurses, engineers, accountants, social workers, pharmacists and teachers keep these records because their licensing board or association asks for a set amount of continuing education before each renewal.
A good CE certificate names the provider and the activity, gives the date it was completed and states the credit exactly: contact hours, CEUs (one CEU is ten contact hours), or both. It also says what the learner did to earn the credit, carries a signature and a credential ID, and, where a board has approved the course, its approval number.
The designs come as certificates, on A4 and US Letter, and as badges that a professional can add to an online profile.
Wording
What to write on a continuing education (ce) certificate
Use these lines as they are, or as a start for your own. Every template comes with wording you can change in the studio.
Wording for a certificate of continuing education completion
- “has successfully completed this continuing education activity and is awarded 8.0 contact hours (0.8 CEUs).”
- “For attending all sessions of the course and passing the final knowledge assessment.”
- “This certificate confirms the completion of 1.5 contact hours of continuing education on the date shown.”
Wording for a CEU certificate from a webinar or conference
- “For attending the live webinar in full and completing the post-session evaluation.”
- “Awarded 0.6 CEUs for participation in six hours of educational sessions at the annual conference.”
- “For completing the on-demand module and its quiz with a score of 80% or higher.”
Short lines for the badge or the email
- “Credit earned, licence on track.”
- “Eight more contact hours toward your renewal.”
Why send it with Hyperstack
More than a PDF
Customize the template free. When it is ready, send it to everyone at once.
One design, every name
Upload a spreadsheet and Hyperstack makes a ce certificate for each person on it, in one go.
Sent by email
Each recipient gets their own email and link. You see who opened it, downloaded it and shared it.
Anyone can verify it
The QR code opens a page that proves the certificate is real. Recipients add it to LinkedIn in one click.
FAQ
Questions, answered
A contact hour is one hour of instruction or organised learning time. A CEU, a continuing education unit, is a larger unit equal to ten contact hours, so a 3-hour workshop is 0.3 CEUs. Some boards count in hours and some in CEUs, which is why many certificates show both.
Not always. Many boards accept credit only from providers or courses they have approved, or from those approved by a body they recognise. Before the course, check the rules of the board your learners report to, and print an approval statement or number only when you really hold one.
At least until the end of the renewal period they count toward, and usually longer, because boards audit a sample of licensees and ask for proof after renewal. Each board sets its own period, so check it. A digital certificate with a credential ID is easy to find and verify when an audit comes.
After the learner has met every requirement of the activity: full attendance and, when the course has them, the assessment and the course evaluation. Issuing it straight after those steps keeps records accurate and saves learners from asking for proof later.
Some providers award credit only for full attendance; others give credit for the time actually attended, in quarter or half hours. Choose one rule, state it before the course, and make the hours on each certificate match the attendance record.
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