How to List Certifications on a Resume (With Examples)
Where certifications go on a CV, how to write each entry with the awarding body and date, what the UK awarding bodies say about expiry (AWS, CompTIA, PeopleCert, Google, CSCS, NMC), and one complete worked certifications section.
You have a folder of certificates: two from an employer's training platform, one from a weekend course, a CSCS card, a half-finished PRINCE2. Some of those belong on the CV, most do not, and the ones that do need writing in a way a stranger can check. (UK employers usually say CV where this page says resume.)
The part that trips people up is that four different things get called "certifications" in this country, and they are not written the same way.
Four things, one heading
| What it is | Examples | How to write it |
|---|---|---|
| Regulated qualification — sits at a level on the national framework | CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma, AAT Level 3, NVQ, T Level | Name, level, awarding body, year. Give the level: it is the part that means something. |
| Professional membership — a standing, usually with letters | Assoc CIPD, Chartered MCIPD, ACCA, MRICS | After your name at the top, and again under membership. It is not a certification and does not belong in that list. |
| Licence or registration — permission to do the work | NMC PIN, CSCS card, SIA licence, HGV entitlement | In the profile as well as the list. Include the expiry, because employers plan around it. |
| Vendor certification — awarded by a company, usually time-limited | AWS, CompTIA, PRINCE2, Google Ads | Exact product name, vendor, date awarded, renewal date. |
On levels: GOV.UK sets out what each level means — level 2 is GCSE grade 4 and above, level 3 is A level, advanced apprenticeship or T Level, level 5 is an HND or foundation degree, level 6 a bachelor's degree with honours, level 7 a master's. If a reader outside your field will not recognise the qualification, the level tells them how much work it was. GOV.UK also points to the Register of Regulated Qualifications, where a qualification can be looked up by name and awarding organisation, which is worth doing before you write something slightly wrong on a CV.
On membership: the CIPD sets out four grades with their own designations — Foundation CIPD, Assoc CIPD, Chartered MCIPD and Chartered FCIPD — and reaching a grade is a separate step from passing the qualification that opens the route to it. HR adverts ask for the membership grade. Write the grade, not only the diploma.
Where the section goes
Give certifications their own short section, after work experience, next to education, in reverse date order. I would not spread them across the skills section and the summary and the education block: a reader looking for one credential should have exactly one place to look.
The one thing that also goes higher up is a credential the job legally or practically requires. If the advert says "current CSCS card" or "NMC registration", that belongs in the first three lines of your professional summary as well, because until a reader sees it the rest of the CV is provisional. Everything else can wait for its section.
Write the certification name exactly as the awarding body writes it. That is not pedantry about parsing software — the ATS guide covers what recruitment software does and does not do — it is that "Project Manager Professional" instead of "Project Management Professional (PMP)" tells a reader in that field that you are quoting something you have not got.
What the awarding bodies actually say about expiry
Undated entries are the most common fault in this section, and they are read as lapsed. These are the renewal rules the bodies publish themselves.
| Body | What it states |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services | Renewing by retaking the exam adds three years from the date you complete it; the maintenance route through AWS Skill Builder adds one year. Certification "must be active to renew". |
| CompTIA | "The CompTIA certification renewal cycle is three years from the date of certification", renewable with continuing education units rather than a re-sit. |
| PeopleCert (PRINCE2, ITIL, MSP) | "Your certifications need to be renewed every three years from their original certification date", by logging 20 CPD points a year for three years, passing another exam in the same suite, or retaking the same exam. |
| Google Ads | Valid one year, and you need 80% to pass. Google allows you to "mention your certification on your resume, business cards, LinkedIn profile", but only "if you, personally, have passed the certification assessments". |
| CSCS | To apply you must have passed "the appropriate level of the CITB Health, safety and environment test within the last two years or an approved alternative", plus the qualification for the card; the application fee is £36. CSCS states it "do not provide tests, qualifications or courses". |
| Nursing and Midwifery Council | Registration is renewed through revalidation every three years, requiring 450 practice hours over that period (900 for someone registered as both nurse and midwife). |
Two things follow. Put the renewal date next to anything on that list, because the reader knows it has one. And check the date before you send: a CV listing a certification that expired eight months ago is a worse signal than one that never listed it.
A complete certifications section
Invented candidate. Ruth Adeyemi is a service desk analyst in Leeds applying for a cloud support engineer role whose advert asks for "AWS certification or equivalent" and "ITIL awareness". Her certificate folder holds nine things. Six of them are on the CV, in three tiers, and the tiers do the work:
Certifications AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate | Amazon Web Services Awarded March 2025, valid to March 2028 CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) | CompTIA Awarded September 2024, renewal due September 2027 ITIL 4 Foundation | PeopleCert Awarded June 2024, renewal due June 2027 PRINCE2 Foundation (7th edition) | PeopleCert Exam booked for November 2026 Professional development AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials (AWS Skill Builder, 2024) Google Cloud Digital Leader (Google Cloud, 2025)
- The order is relevance, not date. The advert asked for AWS, so AWS is first even though Security+ is the harder exam. The ITIL line is there because the advert used the word.
- Every line carries a body and a date. A reader can check any of them in under a minute, which is the entire point of the section.
- The unfinished one is labelled as unfinished, with a booked date. That is honest and still useful; "PRINCE2 (in progress)" with no date is neither.
- Short courses sit under a different heading. They are real and they are recent, and putting them in the same list as an assessed exam would cheapen the exam.
- Three things stayed in the folder: a 2017 Microsoft certification on a product that no longer exists, an employer's internal "customer excellence" certificate that means nothing outside that company, and a two-hour webinar attendance certificate.
For a trade or clinical CV the top block is a licence rather than a certification, and it moves up the page:
Cards, licences and certifications CSCS Gold Supervisor card | CSCS | Valid to April 2029 SMSTS (Site Management Safety Training Scheme) | CITB | Awarded May 2025 CITB Health, safety and environment test (MAP) | CITB | Passed February 2025 First Aid at Work (3-day) | Awarded January 2026, renewal due January 2029
The same rules apply: issuing body, date, expiry. The difference is that a site manager reading this is checking whether you can start on Monday.
One rule for what to leave off
If nobody assessed you, and anyone who paid could have the same certificate, it is not a certification. It is a receipt for attending.
That single test removes most of the clutter: attendance certificates, webinar confirmations, platform badges awarded for finishing a video, and internal company training that carries no external standing. None of them are worthless — they are just not evidence of anything a stranger can weigh, and the section's job is evidence a stranger can weigh.
Three more that go, for different reasons. A certification in a product that no longer exists, unless the successor product is what you are applying to work on. A certification wholly unrelated to the role, which spends a line and raises a question about focus. And anything that has quietly expired, unless you write that it has and that renewal is booked.
What survives goes in the section above, and gets named again in a bullet where you used it. A certification listed on its own is a claim; the same certification visible in a piece of work is evidence — the same logic the skills guide applies to skills, and the guide to writing a CV shows where the section sits on a finished page.
Sources
- GOV.UK: What qualification levels mean — list of qualification levels
- CIPD: Membership levels
- Amazon Web Services: AWS Certification recertification
- CompTIA: CE renewal cycle
- PeopleCert: Keep your certification current
- Google Ads Help: About Google Ads certification
- CSCS: Applying for cards
- Nursing and Midwifery Council: Revalidation — practice hours
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do certifications go on a CV?
In their own section, after work experience and next to education, in reverse date order. The exception is a certification the job cannot be done without — a valid CSCS card, an NMC registration, a driving entitlement — which also belongs in the top three lines of your profile, because it decides whether the rest of the CV gets read.
How do I write a certification entry?
Full name as the awarding body writes it, then the awarding body, then the month and year awarded, then the renewal or expiry date if that body sets one. For example: "CompTIA Security+ | CompTIA | Awarded September 2024, renewal due September 2027". The awarding body matters more than people think — it is what a recruiter would check.
Should I list expired certifications?
Not silently. Most vendor certifications run on a fixed cycle — CompTIA says three years from the date of certification, PeopleCert says three years from the original certification date, and AWS adds three years when you renew by exam — so an undated entry reads as one that has lapsed. If it expired recently and you are renewing, write "expired June 2026, renewal booked". If it lapsed years ago, take it off.
Should I put Coursera or Udemy courses on my CV?
Not among your certifications. Put them under a short "Professional development" heading with the platform and year, and only where they support the role you are applying for. Mixing a weekend course in with an assessed certification makes a reader doubt both.
Can I list a certification I have not finished?
Yes, if you are enrolled and the exam is booked, and you say so: "PRINCE2 Foundation (PeopleCert) — exam booked for November 2026". Anything you intend to start does not go on the CV at all. An interviewer who asks about it and hears that you have not begun has learned something about you that is hard to unlearn.
What is the difference between a qualification, a certification and a registration?
A qualification is awarded at a level on the UK framework — a level 3 is A level standard, a level 7 is master's standard — and you can look it up on the Register of Regulated Qualifications. A vendor certification is awarded by a company and usually expires. A registration or licence is permission to practise: an NMC PIN for a nurse, a CSCS card on site. They are written differently on a CV because they mean different things.
How many certifications should I list?
As many as are current and relevant, which for most people is between two and six. Past that the list stops reading as expertise and starts reading as collecting, and the one the employer asked for gets lost among the others.
Do I need to include the credential ID?
No. It takes up a line and almost nobody types it in. Keep the verification link or ID for the LinkedIn profile, where it is a field, and use the space on the CV for the awarding body and date instead.
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