How to Present Education, Certifications, and Training on Your Resume

Your education, certifications, and training credentials may not take up the same amount of space as other areas of your resume, but how you present them can definitely influence how a hiring manager views those qualifications. Refrain from listing everything you’ve ever studied. The goal is to highlight education, certifications, and training that support your desired career direction. Most importantly, the items listed in your Education Section should align with the qualifications a hiring manager is seeking in a candidate.

Here’s how to structure the Education Section to ensure it is accessible and adds value to your resume.

 1. What to Include

Education

At minimum, list the degree, institution, and graduation year (senior professionals can often omit the year). Keep it concise and direct. If you completed a competitive program, honors track, or research fellowship, add those, too; they signal selectivity and credibility.

Recent graduates sometimes wonder about whether to display their GPA. The general rule: include GPA only if it’s strong, recent, and relevant to the role. For most professionals, GPA becomes unnecessary once you have a few years of work experience. Just as with the Summary Section, this is about presenting only what strengthens your candidacy, not everything you could possibly list.

If you are still in the process of completing a degree, show it with a preamble:

‍Currently Pursuing a Master of Business Administration, Expected 2027

Fast Resume Advice: To save space on the page, Education, Certifications, and Training can be listed together under a single section heading.

For example:

‍EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, 2021 - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Azure DevOps Engineer Expert (AZ‑400), 2023 - MICROSOFT

Certifications

Certifications demonstrate current expertise and practical credibility. A good list of certifications highlights only what is relevant to a target role. Ideally, each entry should include the full name of the certification, the issuing body, and the year awarded.

For example:

Project Management Professional (PMP), 2023 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE (PMI)

This shows the credential is both recognized and current. Avoid keeping expired credentials on your resume -- an outdated certification often signals neglected skills. Think of it the same way you should treat outdated jobs in your Experience Section: if it no longer strongly supports your career story, omit it.

Training

Training programs can help demonstrate continuous learning, but they should be presented with restraint. Instead of listing every single workshop, showcase related programs together under a common theme. For example:

Agile Methodologies Training: Scrum Mastery, Kanban Workflow, SAFeFoundations

The source of the training matters. Well-known institutions, industry associations, or vendors with recognized programs carry more weight than internal company sessions. Only include training that supports your professional direction -- unnecessary padding can dilute your message. Much like the Achievements section, the focus should be on impact and credibility, not sheer volume.

2. What to Leave Out

Resumes often get weighed down with excessive education detail. Leave off long lists of unrelated coursework, especially if you are mid-career. Hiring managers won’t be interested in every elective you completed as an undergraduate, and those types of entries take up critical space on the page that could be utilized for more marketable details.

Also omit internal trainings that carry little recognition outside your company. These may be useful to you but don’t add credibility for an external reader. Finally, avoid outdated credentials. Listing them only raises questions about why you have not kept them current. The same principle applies across the resume: just as non-related Experience details should be cut, so should filler in you Education, Certifications, and Training Section.

Fast Resume Advice: Always think of your resume as a marketing document. It should only include details that will strengthen your candidacy for the specific roles you are applying to.

3. How Employers Read This Section

Employers typically scan this section quickly, and they’re looking for three things:

• Do you meet the baseline education requirement for the role?
• Do you hold certifications that prove credibility in specialized areas?
• Are you keeping your skills current with relevant training?

If your section answers these questions clearly, it has done its job. Itshould function just like the Experience or Achievements sections: delivering proof points that a recruiter can confirm at a glance.

4. Page One or Page Two?

Many candidates ask whether education belongs on the first or secondpage. The answer depends on your career stage.

• Recent graduates or early-career candidates should position education near the top of page one, since it may be their most compelling qualification.
• Mid-career or senior  professionals should move education to the bottom of page one or onto page two, after the Experience Section, because career-related achievements carry more weight.
• Professionals with newly earned advanced degrees may choose a hybrid approach: reference the new degree in the Summary Section, but keep the full Education Section later in the resume.

The guiding principle is to always locate the section where it strengthens your candidacy the most. If an job posting has a requirements list that shows education, certifications, or training as one of the top three requirements, put it on page one. Otherwise, placing the Education Section on page two is the standard practice.

5. Final Takeaway

Education, certifications, and training are important, and they should be displayed to reinforce your professional brand. Lead with the qualifications that add weight to your story, cut what doesn’t matter, and format everything consistently. Done right, this section becomes a concise proof of credibility that complements the rest of your resume and ties it together as a unified whole.