Below is a list of resources which we hope will be of interest to asylum seekers and refugees who wish to discover free online courses from The Open University and other providers. These include free courses for learning English to information about working as a translator.
We also provide links to some of the key refugee support organisations and useful resources they provide. Many sources of support can change so please note this is not a comprehensive list.
Free English Language courses
A range of free courses to help you develop basic English skills to progress to English in the workplace. Choose the free course that best suits your interests and needs.
Free Everyday English courses
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Everyday English 1
This free course, Everyday English 1, will develop and improve your essential speaking and listening, reading and writing skills for work, study and everyday life.
Free course
48 hours
Level: 1 Introductory
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Everyday English 2
This free course, Everyday English 2, will inspire you to improve your current English skills and help you to communicate more effectively in everyday work and life.
Free course
48 hours
Level: 1 Introductory
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Everyday English for Health and Social Care and Education Support 1
This free course, Everyday English for Health and Social Care and Education Support 1, will develop and improve your essential speaking and listening, reading and writing skills for work, study and everyday life.
Free course
48 hours
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Everyday English for Health and Social Care and Education Support 2
This free course will develop and improve your speaking and listening, reading and writing skills for your work in the health, social care and education sector.
Free course
48 hours
Free English skills courses
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English grammar in context
What are the differences between spoken and written English? Is use of grammar more or less complex than it appears? This free course, English grammar in context, looks at the way grammar can be used as a tool for adapting our communications (both written and spoken). This OpenLearn course will help you to see how language is intertwined with both describing a view of the world and interacting with others in that world.
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Translation as a career
This free course explores translation as a career. During the course you will meet professional translators discussing their work and reflect on what they say. You will assess your own language level and find out how translators maintain their language skills. You will also engage in a short translation activity.
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Languages at work
All of us in our working lives increasingly need to work with people from other cultures or those whose native language is foreign, or we may have to go to another country and work as a foreigner ourselves. This free course, Languages at work, is about how to understand differences in culture and how to make the most of existing language skills. It is aimed at all adult learners, whether in FE or in the workplace. The sections are independent, and can be studied in any order and any combination. They are linked to NVQ assessments at Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2.
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English in the world today
How did English become the global force it is today? This free course, English in the world today, explores the status of the language and its worldwide diversity. It looks at how social and political factors influence people's attitudes towards it, and at the relationship between one's linguistic heritage and sense of identity.
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English: skills for learning
Develop the English reading and writing skills needed for university success.
More English courses
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Business English: Presenting the decision
Please note: this course will close on 16th June 2022. You can continue to study this course up until this date. Do you want to relocate to the UK? This free course, Business English: Presenting the decision, will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of moving your company and relocating its employees. You will also learn how other companies have approached this task.
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Business English: Making decisions
Do you want to relocate to the UK? This free course, Business English: Making decisions, will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of the decision-making processes involved and the consultation that is necessary to ensure employees are kept informed.
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Business English: Researching a new location
Please note: this course will close on 16th June 2022. You can continue to study this course up until this date. Do you want to relocate to the UK? This free course, Business English: Researching a new location, will help you with the language difficulties that can arise while providing assistance with the practicalities of taking the decision to relocate. You will also examine the factors that influence that decision, including its impact on all those connected with the company from employees to suppliers and customers.
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A brief history of communication: hieroglyphics to emojis
This free course, A brief history of communication: hieroglyphics to emojis, is an introduction to the history of writing, and the key role it plays in human communication. It tracks this history from the invention of writing around 5500 years ago to the mass popularity of emojis today.
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Paraphrasing text
Please note: this course will close on 16th June 2022. You can continue to study this course up until this date. In this free course, Paraphrasing text, you will focus on the process of turning what you are reading into 'your own words', which is an essential skill at university.
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Summarising text
Please note: this course will close on 16th June 2022. You can continue to study this course up until this date. In this free course, Summarising text, you will learn how to summarise. Summarising is useful both when completing assignments and while studying.
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How to be a critical reader
In this free course you will focus on how to be a critical reader. Reading critically is an essential skill at university. It means being aware of your own purposes and opinions as you read and being able to recognise the writer's purposes and opinions in their writing.
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Exploring the English language
How has the English language changed over the course of the last 500 years? What are the social and political contexts that have affected how these changes have come about? This free course, Exploring the English language, will consider the development of the English language from the 15th to the 19th century.
Other skills and subjects
A selection of free courses and resources on other topics you can learn through the medium of English.
Free mathematics and numeracy courses
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Everyday maths 1
This free course, Everyday maths 1, is designed to bring your learning to life, inspiring you to improve your current maths skills or helping you to remember any areas that you may have forgotten. Working through the examples and interactive activities in this course will help you to, among other things, run a household or make progress in your career.
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Everyday maths 1 (Wales)
This free course will develop and improve your essential maths skills for work, study and everyday life. The course has four sessions, which cover the following topics: numbers, measurement, shapes and space, and handling data. There will be plenty of examples to help you progress, together with opportunities to practise your understanding. A Welsh-language version of this course is also hosted on OpenLearn Cymru. Everyday maths 1 was written by Bedford College Group in partnership with Middlesbrough College, West Herts College and The Open University, in collaboration with Coleg Cambria, Addysg Oedolion Cymru | Adult Learning Wales, Coleg Gwent and the NPTC Group of Colleges.
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Everyday maths 2
This free course, Everyday maths 2, will build on your existing maths skills and help you to feel more confident tackling the maths you come across in everyday situations.
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Everyday maths 2 (Wales)
This free course, Everyday maths 2 (Wales), will build on your existing maths skills and help you to feel more confident tackling the maths you come across in everyday situations.
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Everyday maths for Health and Social Care and Education Support 2
This free course, Everyday maths for Health, Social Care and Education Support 2, will build on your current maths skills for work, study and everyday life.
See more
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Succeed with maths: part 2
This free course, Succeed with maths: part 2, is a sequel to Part 1, in which you will continue to develop your mathematical knowledge and skills using everyday examples. The course takes a look at measurement of length, mass and volume, negative numbers and how to use these, scientific notation (based upon powers of 10), shapes and how to calculate their properties before finally turning to how to construct and read from tables, charts and graphs. It provides a solid foundation for you to continue with studies in any subject which requires some degree of mathematical knowledge.
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Starting with maths: Patterns and formulas
Patterns occur everywhere in art, nature, science and especially mathematics. Being able to recognise, describe and use these patterns is an important skill that helps you to tackle a wide variety of different problems. This free course, Starting with maths: Patterns and formulas, explores some of these patterns, from ancient number patterns to the latest mathematical research.
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Returning to STEM
This free badged course, Returning to STEM, offers useful skills and solutions to help you get back into a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM).
Free resources for life and work skills
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An introduction to computers and computer systems
This free course, An introduction to computers and computer systems, challenges how we view computers through the examples of processors in kitchen scales and digital cameras, as well as examining the work of art that, at heart, is a computer. You will also explore how computers are connected together to achieve even more than when working alone.
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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 with information overload. The importance of developing a critical approach to life online is emphasised throughout, whether consuming or creating information. You'll be encouraged to reflect on your own situation and to apply what you learn to real-life scenarios, using a digital skills plan to keep a record of progress.
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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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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.
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Succeed with learning
This course is 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.
Free mental health and wellbeing resources
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Wellbeing and mental health collection
The mental health and wellbeing collection (Wales) provides a hub of free, bilingual resources that aim to promote positive wellbeing and support good mental health.
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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 at some of the ways in which employment affects mental health and what can be done to support people in finding and keeping work.
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Making sense of mental health problems
Over the past century there has been a radical shift in responses to people who experience mental health problems. In this free course, Making sense of mental health problems, you will learn about how key perspectives in the field have made sense of mental health problems. By directly relating key perspectives to a case study, you will reflect on how the medical perspective, psychological perspective and social need perspective come to make sense of mental ill-health.
Support and resources from other organisations
Statutory agency
UK Visas and Immigration (GOV.UK) – Seek protection or asylum
General resources for educational support and finance
- Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics) provides urgently-needed help to academics in immediate danger, those forced into exile, and many who choose to work on in their home countries despite serious risks. Cara also supports higher education institutions whose work is at risk or compromised.
- Kiron offers free online learning opportunities to refugees and underserved communities.
- Learning Equality supports the creation, adaptation and distribution of open educational resources - browse resources on the Kolibri platform.
- UCAS Student Finance guidance for refugees and asylum seekers. If you're a refugee or asylum seeker applying to higher education, there may be support available to help you with finance and your studies.
- Distance learning resources collated by Migrant Help.
- STAR (Student Action for Refugees) is the national network of students building a more understanding and just society where refugees are welcomed and can thrive in the UK.
- Refugee Education UK (formerly RSN) equips young refugees to build positive futures by thriving in education.
- Language support for adult refugees - A Council of Europe Toolkit.
Legal advice and support
- GOV.UK - Find a legal aid adviser (England and Wales). Search for a legal adviser or family mediator with a legal aid contract in England and Wales.
- GOV.UK - Find an immigration adviser. You can get immigration advice from an immigration adviser if you need help with getting permission to stay in the UK.
- Help with a legal problem (Scotland)
- Finding a solicitor (Northern Ireland)
- ASAP (Asylum Support Appeals Project). ASAP’s aim is to reduce destitution experienced by asylum seekers by helping them to obtain housing and welfare support.
- Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
- Asylum Aid
- The Law Society
- Law Society of Scotland
- The Law Society of Northern Ireland
General advice and support
Trafficking and services to children and young people
Domestic violence
More from The Open University
Advocacy and research
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The Refugees’ Educational Resources (RefER) project report (November 2018)
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Year of Mygration (2018)
More resources
Click on the banner to view other Refugee Week materials
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