There is an ongoing revolution in the running of state schools and this is making the position of the school business manager both significant and necessary. Government thinking, together with profound changes in society generally, will affect every institution both in terms of pedagogy and the physical environment, particularly technology and levels of security employed. This free course, School business manager: Developing the role, will look at how you, an existing or aspiring business manager, can work effectively to support school activities and stakeholders, and in particular how you can support and manage aspects of the change agenda in your school to improve teaching and learning outcomes.

This free course, Early years team work and leadership, explores aspects of teamwork and leadership for early years practitioners.

When you research your forebears, what are you actually looking for - and how can you make sense of what you find? Evelyn Kerslake suggests that understanding how your family lived will bring the past to life.

How should you address the President of a French Company? Should you reward workers in Turkey by giving them envelopes full of money? Why are so many good international managers coming out of Eastern Europe? Few enterprises nowadays remain untouched by global influences. Few managers can expect to go through their professional lives without the need to interact with people from other cultures; as a result it has become essential to understand the culture and social and economic institutions of other countries in order to maintain and run a successful business. This series looks at three different perspectives on managing across different national contexts as we hear from experienced international managers and from academics around the world about managing globally.
This material forms part of the Open University course B848 Leadership and management in intercultural contexts

This free course, Estimating the cost of equity, looks at how to estimate the cost of equity using the dividend valuation model (DVM) and the capital asset pricing model (CAPM), and how to evaluate the use of the DVM and the CAPM from a financial and strategic perspective. It then explores the implications regarding selection of the inputs to the DVM and CAPM and assesses the implications of using the beta measure in the CAPM.

Please note: this course will be closing on 11 May 2022. After this date, you will no longer be able to study the course but if you've already gained your cerficate this will continue to display in your learner profile.

Thinking about strategy generates many controversial questions. This free course, What is strategy?, focuses on practitioner views of strategy. You will learn about application of its major theoretical advances in professional life. The course provides definitions of the concept of strategy and strategy-related vocabulary and examines Mintzberg's five Ps framework.

A small grocery store run by one person and perhaps their family must pose quite different challenges from a multinational corporation with operations in many different countries. This free course introduces different types of business, depending on industry sector, size and type of ownership and discusses some of the ways in which businesses differ from each other.

Please note: this course will be closing on 11 May 2022. After this date, you will no longer be able to study the course but if you've already gained your cerficate this will continue to display in your learner profile.

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.

Please note: this course will be closing on 11 May 2022. After this date, you will no longer be able to study the course but if you've already gained your cerficate this will continue to display in your learner profile.

Day-to-day monitoring of a project is essential to ensure that work is progressing according to the plan, and it will often be necessary to review and revise the plan as circumstances change. This free course, Implementing the project, will introduce some of the key techniques that help managers to monitor and control projects, and consider what approaches work best in particular circumstances.