Ask HN: Is certificate of completion better or a portfolio of projects?

I wanted to learn programming since ~15, though got to begin with self-education in programming (Python, C/C++) and CS only a couple years ago. I've designed several projects in my main areas of interest to practice programming skills and am slowly moving towards them. I am using mostly free resources and haven't exhausted them yet.

But now my country, which reliably resides in the top 10 countries list by suicide rate, and is the only EU country by suicide rates in the top 10, as well as having reliably maintained this one of the highest suicide rate for decades, doesn't allow secondary or tertiary free education or even free self-education. The unemployment service through which I am receiving small temporary unemployment benefits after having a job for several years with no vacations and holidays asks for certificates of completion for programming courses I am/was taking/auditing.

It seems somewhat above their level of comprehension to mention that, for example, both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn't even finish their bachelor's degrees in CS and now are making way more than hundreds of developers with certificates of completion of any CS courses.

I have nothing against obtaining a certificate of completion, but wouldn't a portfolio of well designed and programmed projects provide approximately the same amount of information about programming skills?

Would you assign more value to a certificate of CS course completion or an implemented project demonstrating skills?