AI Programming professionals in prompt engineering: better to get high $ post-grad certification or series of self-led courses/certificates?

I'm trying to narrow down options for a career change from communications/content creation/media relations. With the emergence of AI, as well as playing with it for a hobby, I think my writing skills might transition well to the AI/Machine Learning field.

In researching the proper education/training I may need, it seems my options are to pursue a certification from a university, or sign up for numerous low cost self led courses from IBM/Google, etc.

To those in the field, is a university certification more prestigious? Or are lower cost certifications just as marketable? Is the only difference that university programs can connect you to employers?

I'm curious about people's thoughts. Thanks in advance.