Open University Courses - REC Members save 10%!

The REC have negotiated with the Open University to offer its members a 10% saving on course fees.

The Open University Centre for Continuing Professional Development (CPLD) has launched a range of flexible online courses especially for people who wish to extend or update their skills but who are unable to commit to long-term study.  OU CPD courses can give new skills, knowledge and ideas which can be applied in the work place.  Most take around 30 hours to complete and can be studied at a time and pace to suit each individual.  

• Skills development to suit your personal development and work-based needs

• Clearly presented and sequenced materials, activities and support – you can even print key materials to enable you to work off-line.

• The support of an expert, acting as your own personal coach who will respond to you directly with 24 hours.

• A series of activities and case studies enabling you to reflect upon and assess your current practice and plan for development.

• A final end of course assessed work-based activity which is sent to the Learning Advisor, who provides you with personal feedback.

• An Open University certificate confirming successful completion.  This can be used to document CPD to your employer or REC or simply be added to your personal portfolio of learning.

The courses currently offered are: 

Manage competing business demands and grow your business
Managing a Professional Practice
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University is designed to support those who own and run small- to medium-sized professional service businesses, such as recruitment consultants, accountants, architects, solicitors or surveyors. It will help to address some of the difficulties typically encountered with managing both staff and customers whilst juggling the demands of maintaining professionalism in practice.
Click here for more details and to register.  

Assess and improve the performance of your team
Managing Performance through People 
A short web-based CPD course from The Open University which helps you step back from your own work situation and achieve even better results from your staff or team.  It gives you the four keys to successful team performance: setting clear objectives; monitoring performance; reviewing performance, and improving performance.
Click here for more details and to register.  

Develop better leadership skills
Effective Leadership Skills­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­
­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­A short web-based CPD course from The Open University which helps you make a critical, but constructive, assessment of the different ideas about leadership and management. It enables you to take a well-founded and well-rounded approach to developing your own practices and skills in leadership. 
Click here more details and to register.

Enhance your leadership performance
Advancing Your Personal Leadership
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University, developed in conjunction with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), will benefit you if you are already in a leadership role and want a supported opportunity to reflect upon and improve your effectiveness across professional and organisational boundaries. This course will lead to, and be underpinned by, your own personal development plan which will help you improve your personal effectiveness. 
Click here for more details and to register. 

Improve competitive advantage for your organisation
Marketing in Practice 
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University is aimed at professionals with limited marketing knowledge. First and foremost, successful marketing is about understanding and responding to customer needs. You can then use marketing ideas and techniques to improve the competitive position of your business.Using a set of simple, practical activities, the course introduces you to the range of marketing concepts and tools which you can apply to your own business advantage. 
Click here for more details and to register. 

Overcome difficult strategic dilemmas
Applying Strategic Thinking 
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University helps you play a more effective role in strategic thinking within your organisation. You work at your own pace with a variety of activities that examine strategic thinking, strategic analysis, strategic options and strategic decision making.  
Click here for more details and to register. 

Achieve greater operational control
Managing Organisational Performance
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University helps you understand, monitor measure and manage the operational performance in the part of the organisation you control. By understanding different approaches to managing organisational performance, you will identify how your own practice fits with these and how it can be developed for organisational benefit.
Click here for more details and to register.  

Take charge of change management initiatives
Leading Organisational Change
A short web-based CPD course from The Open University that benefits senior managers and professionals involved in major organisational change. At all levels in any organisation, leading change has become an important part of a manager’s role. This course provides tools, frameworks and ideas to help you effectively control change initiatives. 
Click here for more details and to register.   

Be a more effective mentor
Mentoring at Work
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University is for those who use mentoring to help their staff learn and develop at work.It provides tools, structure, ideas, resources, activities and support to build on and use your own competence to facilitate learning in others.   
Click here for more details and to register. 

Become a better coach
How to Use Coaching at Work
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University enables participants to develop more effective coaching skills in their own work setting.It will provide a practical toolkit to managers who want to improve their own coaching skills or encourage coaching skills in the wider workforce. 
Click here for more details and to register.  

Take control of important projects
Becoming an Effective Project Manager
If you’re new to project management, this short web-based CPD course, developed by The Open University in partnership with CrossKnowledge, will help you lead and/or contribute to projects more effectively.Projects are how organizations - in private and public sectors - make things happen. They deliver the changes that improve services to customers and increase operational effectiveness. Staff of all types participate in projects. The course blends OU expertise from years of teaching the subject and CrossKnowledge e-learning modules in project management. It covers project roles and responsibilities, how to launch, control and close projects, project teams and project risks. 
Click here for more details and to register.

Lower the stress levels in your team
Understanding Stress at Work
This short web-based CPD course from The Open University is aimed at professionals who are concerned about their own, or their organisation’s, productivity. To improve your, or your team’s, performance at work, the course helps you identify and address the causes and effects of workplace stress so that you can then reduce the negative impacts of high individual levels of stress. 
Click here for more details and to register.