- Intro ǀ Cyflwyniad
- Find out more (Open University & Wales TUC) ǀ Dysgu mwy (Y Brifysgol Agored a TUC Cymru)
- Union Learning Reps ǀ Cynrychiolwyr Dysgu Undeb
- Next Steps ǀ Camau Nesaf
- Stay in touch ǀ Aros mewn cysylltiad
- Links and courses ǀ Dolenni a chyrsiau
Introduction
Welcome to the Wales TUC OpenLearn with your Union hub.
The hub has been designed to help you navigate the Open University’s OpenLearn website and library of free courses. Learning online with OpenLearn allows you to learn at your own pace, track your progress, earn badges and save statements of participation.
OU’s flexible free courses cover a huge range of topics, we’ve picked some that might help you upskill, gain a love for learning, and offer pathways to further learning. You can build up credits and achieve a qualification with the Open University.
Links include advice around funding, learning with the Open University and useful everyday skills.
Find out more
The Wales TUC is excited to work in partnership with the Open University. This hub will help Union Learning Reps, members and learners’ access free courses to gain skills needed to compete for the jobs of the future. Many of our future economic and environmental challenges, such as digitalisation, automation, and decarbonisation can be addressed through learning and skills.
Cyflwyniad
Croeso i OpenLearn TUC Cymru gyda hwb eich Undeb.
Dyluniwyd yr hwb i'ch helpu chi ddeall gwefan OpenLearn y Brifysgol Agored, a llyfrgell o gyrsiau am ddim. Mae dysgu ar-lein gydag OpenLearn yn eich caniatáu chi i ddysgu wrth eich pwysau eich hun, cofnodi eich cynnydd, ennill bathodynnau ac arbed datganiadau cyfranogiad.
Mae cyrsiau hyblyg y Brifysgol Agored yn ymdrin ag ystod eang o bynciau, ac rydym wedi pigo rhai fydd yn eich helpu chi i uwchsgilio, magu diddordeb mewn dysgu, a chynnig llwybrau at ddysgu pellach. Gallwch ennill credydau a chyflawni cymhwyster gyda'r Brifysgol Agored.
Mae dolenni'n cynnwys cyngor ynghylch ariannu, dysgu gyda'r Brifysgol Agored a sgiliau dydd i ddydd defnyddiol.
Darganfyddwch fwy
Mae TUC Cymru yn edrych ymlaen at weithio mewn partneriaeth gyda'r Brifysgol Agored. Bydd yr hwb hwn yn helpu Cynrychiolwyr Dysgu'r Undeb, aelodau a dysgwyr i gael mynediad at gyrsiau am ddim ac ennill y sgiliau sydd eu hangen i gystadlu am swyddi yn y dyfodol. Gellir ymdrin â nifer o'n heriau economaidd ac amgylcheddol yn y dyfodol, megis digidoleiddio, awtomatiaeth a datgarboneiddio drwy ddysgu a sgiliau.
Workplace learning
Working life and learning
What is your experience of work and what have you learned from this experience? This free course, Working life and learning, will enable you to reflect upon what you have learned from work and will support you in improving how you learn at work. It will encourage you to think critically about work-based learning and review your own professional knowledge and skills.
Learn more ❯Working life and learning
Leadership and followership
This free course, Leadership and followership, will help you to explore what makes a good leader, recognise common leadership challenges, and identify the skills you need to develop if you want to enhance your own leadership experience.
Learn more ❯Leadership and followership
Managing projects through people
The importance of managing people for the success of a project cannot be underestimated. This free course, Managing projects through people, identifies the groups and individuals whose appropriate involvement in a project is important for its success, and considers the ways in which their contribution might be maximised.
Learn more ❯Managing projects through people
Essay and report writing skills
Writing reports and assignments can be a daunting prospect. Learn how to interpret questions and how to plan, structure and write your assignment or report. This free course, Essay and report writing skills, is designed to help you develop the skills you need to write effectively for academic purposes.
Learn more ❯Essay and report writing skills
Introducing the voluntary sector
This free course, Introducing the voluntary sector, will guide you through some of the distinctive features and values of the voluntary sector, how organisations are funded and involve volunteers and other ‘stakeholders’ in their work. It will also provide you with knowledge and skills you can apply to your own work or volunteering as well as your everyday life.
Learn more ❯Introducing the voluntary sector
Making creativity and innovation happen
Creativity and innovation address ways of doing things better and differently. This free course, Making creativity and innovation happen, focuses both on individual creativity – where it comes from and how it can be developed – as well as creativity and the related concept of innovation at an organisational level. It considers how organisations can more effectively tackle the challenges posed by creativity and innovation in order to be more successful.The trailer below explores one aspect that will be covered in the course: the paradox of choice.
Learn more ❯Making creativity and innovation happen
Planning a project
Gantt charts, critical path analysis, SMART objectives and estimation skills are just some of the topics covered in this free course, Planning a project, to help you understand how to plan for a project. You will gain an appreciation of the range of planning techniques available and the situations in which it is appropriate to use them.
Learn more ❯Planning a project
Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring
In this free course, Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring, you will consider theoretical and practical issues in planning and managing learning and talent development programmes in your organisation. You will also explore ideas about coaching and mentoring; both are prominent learning and development tools in contemporary organisations. You will also learn about how different learning theories and philosophies become concrete in the practical decisions you make about learning and talent development. The course is designed to encourage critical and personal reflection on these practices which will enhance your learning.
Learn more ❯Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring
Talk the talk
This free course introduces the mechanics of effective, persuasive oral presentations, by giving you the opportunity to analyse examples and then create your own. Using resources such as TED Talk videos, you will see how experts deliver professional talks and famous speeches, observe what works, and identify how language connects ideas and keeps a listener engaged.
Learn more ❯Talk the talk
Step up to leadership
This free course is one in a series focusing on leadership, decision-making and communication in the context of policing with the community. This particular course focuses on the challenge of leadership and leading change in an ever-changing policing context. It provides insights to help individuals become more effective leaders of teams and organisations, and to engage more effectively with key community stakeholders.
Learn more ❯Step up to leadership
Digital thinking tools for better decision making
Ever since the very beginning of humanity, tools have played a pivotal role in who we are and what we do. Tools for recording, processing and communicating information have a time-honoured history – from the clay tokens used in Mesopotamia to mechanical calculating machines. The invention of the digital computer has boosted the scale, speed and reach with which thinking tools extend our natural capabilities. This free course, Digital thinking tools for better decision making, starts by placing thinking tools in their historical context and concludes with an examination of their future. During the course, you’re introduced to a wide variety of digital thinking tools. You will apply these tools in many practical activities and case studies, solving problems that involve finding and evaluating information, performing calculations and drawing reasoned conclusions.
Learn more ❯Digital thinking tools for better decision makingSpecial interest
Croeso: Beginners' Welsh
This free course, Croeso: Beginners' Welsh, is taken from Croeso, a beginners' language module that concentrates on Welsh as a tool for communication, but it also provides some insights into Welsh societies and cultures through printed and audio materials. It will be of interest to all those who want to improve their language skills in order to communicate more easily and effectively in Welsh. The course focuses on basic greetings and introductions, numbers and days of the week. By the end of the course you will have gained confidence in communicating in Welsh, and you will be able to understand language used by speakers from different areas of Wales. You will develop the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in Welsh.
Learn more ❯Croeso: Beginners' Welsh
Soft skills training
Learn to recognise the importance of soft skills and how you can improve skills in yourself and your organisation, with free courses from OpenLearn, endorsed by Google.
Read now ❯Soft skills training
Financial accounting and reporting
This free course, Financial accounting and reporting, discusses how accountants act as processors and purveyors of information for decision making and the needs of those who use accounting information. It also looks at the role performed by accountants and notes the need to be aware of relevant regulatory and conceptual frameworks.
Learn more ❯Financial accounting and reporting
Internships and other work experiences
In this free course, Internships and other work experiences, you’ll begin by learning more about what an internship is and how it might differ from other forms of work experience. You’ll find out what you can gain personally and professionally, and consider the practicalities of obtaining work experience, from how to choose what’s right for you, to making strong applications. You’ll explore the virtual internship and why more employers are starting to use them, and finish by looking at how to maximise your experience and make it work for you as your career progresses, considering your next steps and setting yourself SMART goals.
Learn more ❯Internships and other work experiences
Understanding and managing risk
This free course, Understanding and managing risk, provides an introduction to financial risk management. The processes of risk identification, risk measurement and risk management are explored. The course then goes on to examine reputational risk and operational risk. It concludes with an examination of the subject of behavioural finance and what this can contribute to our understanding of risk taking and risk management.
Learn more ❯Understanding and managing risk
MSE’s Academy of Money
The Open University has joined forces with MoneySavingExpert (MSE) to produce this new free course to give you the skills and knowledge to master your finances. Packed with videos, audios, quizzes and activities the course covers all the key aspects of personal finance in six sessions of study that each take around two hours to complete.
Learn more ❯MSE’s Academy of MoneyWellbeing
Work and mental health
Although being at work during periods of mental illness can be difficult for those with mental health problems, most people with these difficulties could take paid employment if it were not for numerous barriers in the workplace and the wider community (Centre for Mental Health, 2013). In this free course, Work and mental health, you will look at some of the ways in which employment affects mental health and what can be done to support people in finding and keeping work.
Learn more ❯Work and mental health
Exploring the relationship between anxiety and depression
This free advanced level course, Exploring the relationship between anxiety and depression, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety and depression, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions, exploring how these conditions relate to each other. You will also explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.
Learn more ❯Exploring the relationship between anxiety and depression
Exploring anxiety
This free advanced level course, Exploring anxiety, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on anxiety, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also learn how to evaluate news items, and to go behind the headlines and begin to explore some of the more contemporary and controversial findings within the field.
Learn more ❯Exploring anxiety
Exploring depression
This free advanced level course, Exploring depression, serves as an introduction to masters level study in neurosciences and mental health. Focusing on depression, you will consider key issues concerning diagnosis, causes and interventions. You will also begin to explore theoretical models, biological and psychological explanations, and look at a range of pharmacological and psychological therapies for depression.
Learn more ❯Exploring depression
Exploring issues in women's health
This free course, Exploring issues in women's health, will introduce social model approaches to health and wellbeing, which take as their starting point not the scientific context of the body, but the social context in which women live. The focus is on women and the impact of social and cultural factors on women's health. The course touches on various issues concerning women's health, such as abortion, periods, the menopause, mental health and fertility.
Learn more ❯Exploring issues in women's healthEqualities
Exploring equality and equity in education
This free course, Exploring equality and equity in education, considers the complexity of social justice as applied to education and reflects on the different purposes of, and value ascribed to, education in different countries and cultures. It discusses different conceptions of 'justice' and the distinction between equity and equality.
Learn more ❯Exploring equality and equity in education
Understanding autism
Learn about autism, one of the most challenging long-term conditions of the century. This free course, Understanding autism, introduces the autism spectrum, how it is experienced by individuals and families, and why it has become a global concern. The course explains how understanding of the autism spectrum and approaches to diagnosis and care have evolved. Key scientific approaches to studying autism are explained and illustrated, alongside substantial use of different personal perspectives. The course culminates with key topical issues such as autism in adulthood, and missed diagnosis in women. The course is suitable for all who need a clear, authoritative overview, and does not require prior knowledge of science or social science. It uses text, images and audio-visual media.
Learn more ❯Understanding autism
Modern slavery
This free course, Modern slavery, is designed to develop an understanding of the international system of human rights protection in relation to modern slavery, but also encourage an appreciation of the influence of International Human Rights Law on the development of the domestic system of human rights protection.
Learn more ❯Modern slavery
Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging
This free course, Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging, takes the real-life cases of a number of different people to explore what it is like to have the label ‘learning disability’. The course also considers how it feels to support someone with a learning disability, as a family member, a friend, an advocate or a paid worker. Through these human stories the course considers the complex moral, ethical and practical debates learning disability gives rise to.
Learn more ❯Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belongingStudy tools, tips and learning with the OU
Succeed with learning
Succeed with learning is a free, introductory course for people who want to feel more confident about their learning skills. Informal in approach, the course builds on each person's own qualities, knowledge and skills to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of learning and of their own potential. It introduces some core ideas about learning and academic study, and some planning tools to enable participants to take their next step with confidence.
Learn more ❯Succeed with learning
Skills for study
Thinking about studying for the first time or after a long time away? Refresh your skills and prepare for success with these free courses.
Read now ❯Skills for study
Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online
This free course, Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online, will help you to understand online security and start to protect your digital life, whether at home or work. You will learn how to recognise the threats that could harm you online and the steps you can take to reduce the chances that they will happen to you.
Learn more ❯Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online
Assistive technologies and online learning
In this free course, Assistive technologies and online learning, you will explore some of the technology that disabled students use when accessing computers. We will take a look at the tools and techniques that make it possible for disabled students to engage with online learning.
Learn more ❯Assistive technologies and online learning
Using a computer for study
The internet is a fantastic source of information for any student, but how do you evaluate the information each site provides? This free course, Using a computer for study, will help you assess the benefits of information technology, providing guidance on the protocols for using email, online conferencing and real time chat as methods of communication.
Learn more ❯Using a computer for study
Being an OU student
In the course, you’ll get a flavour of what OU study is actually like, learn about how you’ll be supported, the technologies you’ll use and start to develop the skills you’ll need to succeed.
Learn more ❯Being an OU student
Everyday skills in maths and English
Do you want to improve your reading, writing or maths skills? Whether you want to improve your job prospects or simply help your children with their homework, we offer free bite-sized courses in maths and English.
Read now ❯Everyday skills in maths and English
Free badged courses from the Social Partnerships Network
Welcome to the Social Partnerships Network (SPN) portal. The SPN consists of a number of partners, including The Open University, who champions workplace and lifelong learning. Below you will find a series of free online courses aimed at those who wish to improve their skills, knowledge and career prospects in a number of specific areas.
Watch now ❯Free badged courses from the Social Partnerships Network
Making your learning count
This innovative and flexible OU level 1 module allows you to count previous or current study from the OU's free learning website, , or other specified open educational resources (OER) towards qualifications. Through a series of topics and assessment tasks, you will explore what you have learned on these OER whilst developing the skills you need to be a successful student. The blend of subjects that you choose to cover is up to you, making this learning experience an entirely personal one. Your tutor will help you plan your study and identify what you are hoping to achieve through this module and your future study plans.
Learn more ❯Making your learning count
Click on the banner above to request a free prospectus from The Open University. Cliciwch ar y faner uchod i ofyn am brosbectws o'r Brifysgol Agored.
Click on the banner above to find out more about OU fees and funding. Cliciwch ar y faner uchod i ddysgu mwy am ffioedd a chyllid y Brifysgol Agored.
Click on the banner above to find out what Careers and Employability Services can do to help you. Cliciwch ar y faner uchod i weld sut gall ein Gwasanaethau Gyrfaoedd a Chyflogadwyedd eich helpu chi.
Click on the banner above to find out more about our flexible Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Cliciwch ar y faner uchod i ddysgu mwy am ein Tystysgrif Addysg i Raddedigion (TAR).
- Leadership and management
- Volunteering free courses
- OpenLearn Cymru
- Nature and environment
- Money and business
- Health and wellbeing
- Access courses
Level: 1 Introductory The future of Wales is as exciting as its past. Take our challenge, listen to stories from the locals and get to grips with Welsh culture and language.
Level: 1 Introductory
Hafan: What do you know about Welsh language and culture?
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