Across our site you will find hundreds of free courses, as well as topical articles, videos, quizzes and podcasts covering a diverse range of subjects, which makes it the perfect resource to support any Learning at Work Week plans. And, and as you know, as well as receiving this special link, you can also access our exclusive Learning at Work Week 2025 content, which we will be uploading in the run-up to the week itself, and which will appear here in the coming weeks.
Exclusive LAWW downloads
This is where you'll find all your exclusive Learning at Work Week content from OpenLearn and The Open University. Check out our new series of articles, designed to support your learning AND performance at work. Over the three articles, discover how to say no, deliver constructive criticism, raise issues and give feedback on shared documents and projects... vital skills in any work environment.
- How to say no at work without guilt or conflict
- Shared documents and constructive collaboration
- Bringing up problems at work (without making things worse)
You can also still access the information sheets we uploaded last year, and watch this space for any further exclusive additions as Learning at Work Week approaches.
Wellbeing for work
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- Develop skills, knowledge and improve your employee experience.
Hybrid working toolkit
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- Support for organisations making the shift to sustainable hybrid working.
Daily fun learning challenges
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- Learning at work CAN be fun with our daily challenge ideas.
The animation below explains more about us; there's a new video detailing how we work with employers here at The OU; and some insight into unlocking employee potential... hopefully you've already downloaded our Powering up Productivity report on your way here, but if not, here's a quick link to bypass the download form (another benefit of finding your way to this page!)
You might also want to discover the benefits of enrolling on our free courses; and how our badged courses now offer 24 hours of continuing professional development (CPD) - extra value to your business and your employees.
To help you quickly get to grips with what we’ve got to offer, we’ve collated some free learning we think any business would find useful in 6 key subject areas below, all themes covered in our Powering up Productivity report.
This is just a fraction of what OpenLearn has to offer: our Skills for Work collection has around 150 items to explore, and you’ll also find more courses and content designed to support people outside of work covering health and wellbeing, finance and other topics.
All our courses provide a statement of participation when completed, and a growing number include a digital badge and are CPDSO approved - giving those 24 hours of CPD as already mentioned.
Get started with the collections below and see what OpenLearn has to offer!
Learn about soft skills, leadership, and management.
Click here to learn about soft skills, leadership, and management
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Collective leadership
This free course, Collective leadership, will give you an insight into the importance of how to be a more effective leader, and how to better engage and work with ‘followers’ in an organisational setting.
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Approaching leadership with care
Unlock the secrets to becoming an effective and empathetic leader with our free course, Approaching leadership with care. Delve into the core concepts of leadership by exploring the significance of empathy, compassion, and understanding when leading others and yourself. This course is designed to help you define your leadership style, cultivate ...
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Leadership: external context and culture
Through studying this free course, Leadership: external context and culture, you will develop your understanding of the impact of external context and culture on the practice of leadership. The course begins by exploring the nature ‘societal culture’, identifying how culture, at a number of levels, impacts on leadership. We then explore how the ...
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Leadership challenges in turbulent times
Welcome to Leadership challenges in turbulent times, a free course offered by the Open University. We are excited to join you on your journey to explore leadership in the turbulent times that we live in.
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Introducing Black leadership
In this free course, you will develop skills to empower yourself as a leader. Guided by the Five Ps model of leadership (person, process, position, product and purpose), you will learn about the challenges and possibilities of Black leadership. Developing skills in communication, critical analysis and teamwork will promote competence in a wide ...
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Advancing Black leadership
In this free course, learners will develop and explore skills to empower themselves as leaders.
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Effective communication in the workplace
This free course, Effective communication in the workplace, explores the importance of communication as a skill in the workplace. It aims to increase your understanding of communication skills and to help you to consider how your communication could be perceived by others. You'll cover areas such as verbal and non-verbal communication, written ...
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Personal branding for career success
This free course, Personal branding for career success, considers what a personal brand is and whether you currently have one. You’ll look in detail at theories and examples of personal branding, and relevant marketing processes and practices. You’ll identify the values, skills, knowledge and expertise that you want to promote to employers, and ...
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Succeed in the workplace
Do you want to change jobs, are you just starting in the job market or may be returning after a break? If so, then this free course, Succeed in the workplace, is for you. It will help you explore career opportunities. You will also gain the skills to write strong CVs and application forms, and to handle different types of interviews. By the end ...
Technology has become a huge part of many jobs - spruce up your digital skills here.
Explore our technology and digital skills courses - click here for content
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Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world
This free course, Digital skills: succeeding in a digital world, will develop your confidence and skills for life online, whether study, work or everyday life. It explores a range of digital skills and practices, including digital identity, digital well-being, staying safe and legal, finding and using information and online tools, and dealing ...
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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.
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The Internet of Things
Two short taster lectures from the University of South Wales on 'The Internet of Things'.
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Gamified Intelligent Cyber Aptitude and Skills Training (GICAST)
This free course, Gamified Intelligent Cyber Aptitude and Skills Training (GICAST), 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.
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Learning from major cyber security incidents
As a society, we are now almost always connected to the internet and rely on it for many different day-to-day activities. However, this dependency on the internet can make us vulnerable to attacks.
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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 ...
Enrol on our selection of free courses to help you manage, analyse and interpret data.
Data - click here to gain the skills for success
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Data analysis: visualisations in Excel
Evidence comes in the form of qualitative or quantitative data about the world around you. It is not always obvious, however, how to structure, aggregate, analyse or interpret the data to help you make decisions. In this free course, you will look at how to use data to make decisions in a systematic way using Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Excel ...
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Data analysis: hypothesis testing
Making decisions about the world based on data requires a process that bridges the gap between unstructured data and the decision. Statistical hypothesis testing helps decision-making by formulating beliefs about the world, including people, organisations or other objects, and formally testing these beliefs. In this free course, you will ...
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Data analysis and interpretation
This article focuses on the process of analysing research data from a perspective that promotes Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). It offers some pointers to researchers in any field.
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Interpreting data: Boxplots and tables
This free course, Interpreting data: Boxplots and tables, is concerned with two main topics. In Section 1, you will learn about another kind of graphical display, the boxplot. A boxplot is a fairly simple graphic, which displays certain summary statistics of a set of data. Boxplots are particularly useful for assessing quickly the location, ...
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Using data to aid organisational change
This free course explores how to use data to inform a change you would like to make within your business or organisational context. It looks at the type of evidence you can gather to inform your proposed change, and how to evaluate data with a view to using it as part of this transformation. Specifically, you will learn about internal and ...
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Data and processes in computing
This free course, Data and processes in computing, will help you to understand the forms of data that are handled by software and look at the various processes that can be applied to the data. These ideas are demonstrated through the use of a supermarket till and illustrate how simple data sets can be manipulated.
You can't pour from an empty cup, so remember to look after your wellbeing, there's lots to discover.
Click here for resources on mental health and wellbeing for the workplace
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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 ...
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Developing career resilience
Do you sometimes wish you were more resilient when faced with changes at work? Do you have career plans but feel unsure about progressing with them? If you do, then this free course, Developing career resilience, will help you to build your resilience and approach career-related change with greater confidence and motivation.
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Exercise and mental health
Each year thousands of pounds are spent on medications to treat conditions such as anxiety and depression. These medications often have negative side effects. Exercise is an alternative treatment that is low cost and has few side effects. In this free course, Exercise and mental health, we will look at the links between exercise and improved ...
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A hug for the brain: what does it mean to have a happy, healthy brain?
Dr Sinead Eccles explores the function of a healthy brain in regulating our health.
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Challenging ideas in mental health
Take a new and different look at mental health. This free course, Challenging ideas in mental health, invites you to think differently about life's dilemmas by taking account of the views of all concerned, especially people experiencing mental distress. It explores ideas and practice in mental health, and will appeal to a wide range of people.
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How to manage the digital-related stress of technology
How can we avoid the stress and anxiety associated with the digital age? Dr Gini Harrison and Dr Mathijs Lucassen give us five tips...
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Why friendships are vital to your wellbeing
It's well-documented that loneliness can cause depression and have negative effects on health and lifespans, equal to that of smoking. Explore why friends are good for your wellbeing, then invite them round for a catch up - it's important!
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Outdoor Therapy: The Benefits of Walking and Talking
An area that has been of particular interest is providing traditional talking therapy outdoors. This article explores the pros of connecting with the natural world...
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Green care: contact with nature can improve mental health
Can being outside gardening improve our wellbeing? Discover three factors that account for the positive effects of 'green care'.
Discover how inclusion and diversity is so important in the workplace.
Click here for a range of content covering inclusion and diversity
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Working in diverse teams
This free badged course, Working in diverse teams, will help you consider your experience of working in teams and the different roles you play in them. It will increase your confidence in marketing this key skill to employers as well improve your ability to perform well in teams you are currently part of.
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Diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Do you feel concerned about a lack of diversity in your workplace? Is this something you want to address? Perhaps you’d like to feel more informed on a personal level before taking it further organisationally? This free course introduces you to the benefits and complexities of developing and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce. It ...
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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 ...
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Understanding ADHD
This free course, Understanding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), explores the experience of ADHD from the perspective of those who are diagnosed with the condition, and those who care for them. It covers the contribution of scientific research to understanding ADHD, with a focus on assessing the effectiveness and mechanism of ...
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Neurodiversity: What is it and what does it look like across races?
How does a person’s ethnicity and the perspectives of different cultures affect the identification of neurological difference? Mel Green explores in this article on neurodiversity.
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Is there such thing as ‘male’ and ‘female’ autism?
There can be differences in how autistic males and females present; this has led to suggestions that there is ‘male autism’ and ‘female autism’. Dr Emilia Misheva argues that those differences are better understood in the context of the externalised and internalised expressions of autism.

More of us have adapted to hybrid working in one form or another in recent years
Explore our collection of hybrid working courses
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Hybrid working: change management
Change is one of the constants in life, especially for organisations who need to adapt and evolve to ensure they meet the needs of their end users, stakeholders and staff to ensure they thrive and succeed. The COVID-19 pandemic forced accelerated change throughout the world, which could not be planned for, and rapid change programmes where ...
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Hybrid working: planning for the future
In 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic organisations had to plan and adapt within a week to move almost their entire workforce to remote working, and those who had to remain in ‘onsite’ environments had to quickly implement safety measures. This was an unprecedented global response that many organisations would not have foreseen and had to adjust ...
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Hybrid working: digital communication and collaboration
Communication and digital collaboration skills are now essential for new ways of working and thriving in a digital world. As more organisations move to permanent hybrid working, being able to connect with others, manage your digital persona and use the digital tools and understand expectations is becoming more important.
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Hybrid working: organisational development
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many organisations to go into warp speed and pivot their workforce to remote working almost overnight in 2020. The return to pre-pandemic office routines has been slow, and many organisations are now keen to work in a more agile and flexible way. Hybrid working does, however, introduce a new set of challenges, and ...
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Hybrid working: skills for leadership
This course will give you an opportunity to reflect on who you are as a hybrid leader and how you want to develop. It will help you understand how to empathise with your workforce and how to adapt your communication skills when working in the office and when working remotely. It will prompt you to start thinking about how you can encourage your ...
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Hybrid working: wellbeing and inclusion
How is your workforce doing? What impact did the post-COVID-19 ‘pivot to online’ and the processes and practices that have followed have on staff wellbeing? This course will explore what workplace wellbeing means in a hybrid working world – whose responsibility it is, the challenges involved in creating and maintaining it, and the benefits it ...
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Hybrid working: skills for digital transformation
The future of the workplace is continuing to evolve, and digital transformation is accelerating, requiring new digital capabilities, behaviours and understanding. There has been a widening of the digital divide and data shows that in the UK the skills gap is growing with a shortage of people with digital skills. Nearly all jobs have some ...
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Hybrid working: starting in the workplace
Starting in a new workplace – whether it’s your first 'proper' job after finishing your education, or the next step in developing your career – can be exciting and scary. If it’s a hybrid organisation, and your first day is in a remote location rather than a physical workplace, that can be even more disorientating. This course aims to help you ...
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Introduction to business agility
This short course is designed for anyone leading change in their organisation at any level. It provides an introduction to core principles of business agility, with practical exercises, and is a base that can be built on with reference to the associated textbook and global public community of practice.
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