Related Help Center article: Add Certifications
Custom certifications are not the same as ‘unverified’ certifications. Profile certifications marked as “Pending verification by Upwork” are those that we do support, but haven’t been able to officially confirm with the provider the freelancer has. Upwork available certifications that have not been verified do not show to clients, but do appear to the freelancer with the “Pending verification by Upwork” message
As part of our commitment to provide our clients with a perfect match for their jobs, we reinstated and redesigned the option for freelancers to add self-reported Custom Certifications (former Suggested Certification) to their profiles without review.
Freelancers can add Custom Certifications. Added certifications are published like other self-reported data on freelancer profiles instantly, without any review. The fields on the modal window "Add a custom certification" were changed. A dedicated generic logo is used for custom certifications.
Non-custom certifications flow remained without changes (The certifications that require manual validation from Special Projects team via OBO. They have their own flow of adding to profile; they have Verified by Upwork label; they have different logos).
Upwork Skill certifications remained without changes (They have their own flow of adding to profile; they have Verified by Upwork label; they have different logo and are disabled to be added via the Custom certifications flow).
- The Details:
- Limits: only 2 custom certifications are allowed at a time. Freelancers can remove them and add another certification(s). In internal (edit mode) view custom certifications have a caption “Custom certification” as shown here. The caption is not shown in public (non-edit mode), see here .
- Logo: all custom certifications have one generic logo here . in the blue box
- Profile Completeness: custom certifications should be included into profile completeness calculation like other certifications
- Visibility: shown only on User site (like other skill certifications)
Why are you making this change?
To offer more flexibility in how freelancers can showcase themselves.
Why are you running both programs (certifications unverified and certifications that we need to verify)?
We hope to provide more verified certificates in the future. The unverified certificates are here to offer more flexibility in how freelancers can showcase themselves in the meanwhile.
How do I add Custom certifications?
They are published immediately.
Can I add as many Custom certifications as I want?
Only 2 Custom certifications at a time.
What happened with the Suggested Certifications we submitted?
We keep track of them and will be updating certifications In the dropdown list.
How do Upwork Skill certifications differ from just Skill certifications?
They have different processes of how freelancers can add them. Their logos are different (screenshot).