World Bank Online Courses: 5 Free E-Learning Opportunities to Build Skills in Data, Policy, Agriculture and Development

Overview

The World Bank Institute for Economic Development offers a set of free online courses covering data visualization, behavioural science, agriculture, metadata and women's economic rights. Five courses are described here. Some are technical and some focus on policy, and all are delivered as e-learning.

Fundamentals of Data Visualization takes 8 hours, is taught in English, and shows learners how to pick suitable chart types, read the parts of a chart, and build maps and infographics in Excel. Introduction to Behavioral Science in Public Policy takes 6 hours and includes 8 videos and several discussion forums. It looks at how people make decisions and how biases shape outcomes in areas such as education, healthcare, tax compliance and climate change. The World Bank treats it as a prerequisite for its wider behavioural courses catalogue.

Using Evidence to Improve Jobs and Income in Agriculture lasts 3 hours, has 5 video lessons and gives a free certificate on completion. It belongs to the AgriConnect learning ecosystem and draws on the LEADS framework (Learn, Adapt, Scale). Documenting Development Data Using Metadata Standards runs 15 hours, is self-paced, and teaches the use of a Metadata Editor to create standards-based metadata. It ends with a certificate. Women, Business & the Law is a self-paced course combining videos, expert insights and interactive assessments on legal barriers to women's economic participation.

Who can apply

The courses suit students, researchers, development professionals, government officials, economists and data professionals. The metadata course is aimed at data producers and curators in government agencies, international organisations and academic data centres. The Women, Business & the Law course names officials from finance, economy and gender ministries, central bank staff, social protection officials, civil society organisations, academics, legal professionals and economists.

What you get

Learners gain practical skills in presenting data, applying behavioural insights, designing agricultural interventions from evidence, documenting datasets and turning research into policy recommendations. Certificates are offered for the agriculture and metadata courses.

Key dates

The data visualization course lists a delivery date of March 31, 2026. No application deadline is stated.