Produced by The Open University, a world leader in open and distance learning, all OpenLearn courses are free to study. We offer nearly 1000 free courses across 8 different subject areas. Our courses are available to start right away.
A growing selection of our courses offer a free Open University digital badge. Badges demonstrate your interest in a subject, a commitment to your career or provide evidence of continuing professional development.
Got a few spare minutes? Brush up on your knowledge with our range of free bite-size courses and activities.
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Money & Business
Managing my money
This free course, Managing my money, allows you to gain the skills to manage your personal finances: managing budgets, debts, investments, property purchase, pensions and insurance.
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Money & Business
Sustainable innovations in enterprises
This free online course, Sustainable innovations in enterprises, introduces you to the importance of sustainable innovations, the role it plays in commercial and social enterprises and the importance to society. It explores cases of sustainable innovations in specialist areas – arts and humanities; science, technology and engineering; health & social care. The course also evaluates three methods for measuring the societal impacts of sustainable innovations. Learners are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences of cases where sustainable innovations drive success or failures in enterprises and how the positive impacts on society can be evaluated and sustained.
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Money & Business
Understanding your sector
This free course, Understanding your sector, will help you to understand the difference between sectors, industries and professions. It will also help you to gain the inside knowledge to impress in applications and at interviews and to put together an action plan that is tailored to you.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness
This free course, Communication and working relationships in sport and fitness, explores the personal skills that underpin so much work in sport and gyms. We often hear employers refer to the importance of these interpersonal relationships or ‘soft skills’ in sport and fitness, and in this unique course you’ll build valuable insights into understanding workplace communication, motivation and self-awareness and how this can increase your effectiveness and enhance how you work with others. All this is made possible by some unique film footage of coaches, trainers and instructors at work combined with engaging learning activities that accompany these case studies to benefit both your career and those you work with.
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Money & Business
Exploring career mentoring and coaching
This free course, Exploring career mentoring and coaching, will explain what mentors and career coaches do and how a colleague or expert who can ask the right questions, challenge assumptions, and help an individual to find the best solutions for themselves, can make a significant difference in a wide range of situations and contexts.
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Science, Maths & Technology
Mastering systems thinking in practice
This free course, Mastering systems thinking in practice, provides a primer for someone wanting to take the postgraduate qualifications in Systems Thinking in Practice. It will help you develop new ways of thinking about and approaching situations that cross multiple discipline and skill boundaries. You will learn to think more holistically about complex and messy situations, understanding the roles other people play, taking account of the interconnectedness of all the components making up the problem situation and working more collaboratively
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Money & Business
Managing my money for young adults
This free course, Managing my money for young adults, will help you start to think about managing your finances. You will learn how to budget effectively, and will be encouraged to start thinking about your financial future.
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Money & Business
Collaborative problem solving for community safety
This free course, Collaborative problem solving for community safety, offers a range of techniques for community police officers, other community-based public service professionals and members of community groups working to solve problems collaboratively and creatively. It examines some of the ways which OU specialists in creative problem solving recommend to tackle difficult problems, and how to implement them in a community setting.
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Money & Business
An introduction to public leadership
In this free course, An introduction to public leadership, you will learn more about leadership in the context of public service provision, by public sector organisations, community and voluntary groups, and political bodies.
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Languages
Communication, management and your own context
In management the ability to communicate clearly and confidently is of key importance. This free course, Communication, management and your own context, looks at the role of language in management communication, and helps you identify areas of English language you may need to develop for work or when studying for a management qualification such as an MBA. It includes reading, writing, listening and speaking activities based on material related to the field of management, and encourages you to relate these to your own work context.
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Money & Business
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.
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Money & Business
Supply chain sustainability
To survive in today’s competitive environment, organisations need not only have an efficient and effective supply chain for the context in which they operate, they also have to consider issues of sustainability in their supply chain strategies. These issues are a consideration beyond those of environmental sustainability and also encompass social sustainability (ethics and wellbeing), financial sustainability, and network sustainability. This free course, Supply chain sustainability, introduces four sustainability perspectives and discusses how these perspectives can ------ the sustainability of any supply chain.