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Top-up Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)
Top up your existing qualification to an honours degree. You can top up your OU Foundation Degree in Engineering or an equivalent qualification from somewhere else. Tailor your studies to suit your background and previous study. Develop your knowledge and skills and open up further career or educational opportunities. Study choices include communications, design, electronics, environmental management, mathematics, micro and nano technology, renewable energy, and structural integrity. You'll also complete an engineering project.
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Society, Politics & Law
Diploma of Higher Education in Economics
This diploma will introduce you to core macro and microeconomic concepts and theories and you'll learn how economics helps your understanding of real-world issues such as government policy, international trade, business decisions, work and innovation. As you discover how economics and economies have evolved over time, you'll gain a critical perspective on the economic choices affecting our daily lives and learn methods and techniques applied by economists in their daily jobs. You'll also gain valuable analytical skills, including applied data analysis, which are valuable to many employers.
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Society, Politics & Law
Certificate of Higher Education in Economics and Personal Finance
By studying this certificate, you'll appreciate how economic theory helps understand real world important issues in areas such as government policy, international trade, business decisions, work and innovation. You'll discover how economics and the economies have evolved over time. This will give you a building block towards acquiring a critical perspective on economics and economic choices for our daily lives. As you're learning about income, expenditure, savings and investments, you'll gain practical tools and ideas on how to manage your own money effectively.
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Languages
Exploring English grammar
This module looks at how we choose to represent ourselves and our world through choices of wording and grammar and will appeal to people who enjoy an analytical approach. You will explore applications of language analysis in different work contexts and address questions such as: What makes particular texts effective? How is English used differently in different contexts? You'll also learn how to use computer software to deepen your understanding of the grammatical differences between texts. This module is not specifically aimed at speakers of English as a second language, but will enhance all students' linguistic awareness.
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Health, Sports & Psychology
Young children's play and creativity
This module focuses on understanding play and creativity in early childhood from different and diverse personal and professional perspectives. It considers how other children and adults impact on the play decisions and creative choices children make. You will learn about how children express their ideas and interests through play and consider how children participate and are included in play and creative experiences. You will explore how children express their preferences through their play choices and the significance of creative spaces in following their interests.
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Society, Politics & Law
Running the economy
This module responds to the need to understand the problems of running national and global economies in the wake of a major economic crisis. You'll start with macroeconomics, looking at how economies work from global and integrated perspectives, before moving on to microeconomics, drilling down into the behaviour of people, firms and governments. This combined analysis allows you to start exploring how policy affects, and is affected by, the economy and its constituent members. Using a simulator, you'll apply what you have learned, taking on the role of an economic analyst to make or advise on policy choices.
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Money & Business
Human resource management in context
In this module you will examine how HR policies and practices operate within multiple tiers and manifestations of economic, political and social context - at macro (societal and international) and micro (organisational) levels. In addition to developing analytical and practical skills in this specific domain, the module breaks new ground by incorporating resourcing and talent management as extended examples of HR practice and to illustrate how an intelligent understanding and reading of context by skilled HR professionals can help contribute to more informed choices.
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Society, Politics & Law
Economics in context
Why are markets so powerful in most economies today? What is the role of the government in different economies, and how does this role shape opportunities of different people and firms? What explains global inequalities? Why is economic growth such a key economic goal in most countries today? Are there other goals economies could pursue? You'll unravel these and similar questions using insights from recent history, key economic thinkers, and drawing on economic perspectives and examples. This module is a building block towards a critical perspective on economics and economic choices for our daily lives.
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Money & Business
Workplace learning with coaching and mentoring
This module offers both a strategic and an operational focus. Students will consider the factors which inform choices about learning and talent development strategies in different contexts. They will also explore the range of workplace interventions which can put these strategies into effect and the models and theories which underpin these. Throughout this module there will be an emphasis on workplace and practice based learning and, relatedly, on professionalism and continuous professional development. Students will look closely at coaching and mentoring in the workplace and will have an opportunity to develop and practise their own coaching and mentoring skills.
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Money & Business
Employment relations and employee engagement
This module explores the choices organisations make about employment relations strategies and the associated impacts on employee engagement. It provides an understanding of different employment relations perspectives, theories and debates as well as the national and international contexts of employment relations. Throughout the module the roles of employee participation and voice as crucial processes underlying employee engagement are critically examined. Other areas covered include managing diversity, communication, change management, and the management of conflict associated with grievance, discipline and dismissal.
Effective strategic management in business and the public sector
This module will provide you with the necessary tools to become an effective strategic decision-maker. You'll learn about the analysis of the organisational environment, decision-making processes and implementation of preferred choices. The study materials include a blend of profit, not-for-profit and public sector cases and examples relevant to, and set in international contexts. This will allow you to assess the nuances of strategic management across different organisational and geographical settings. Last but not least, the module will support the development of soft skills, which you'll require both to progress in the qualification and succeed in the workplace.
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Money & Business
Making strategy with systems thinking in practice
This module will enable you to take strategic action in complex interconnected situations, where contrasting understandings, motivations and interests can often lead to conflict. By integrating tools from five traditions of systems thinking into your practice, you will develop capability towards making choices with ethical awareness and political sensitivity. You will nurture capacity to strategically utilise both improved understanding of inter-relationships, and enhanced engagement with multiple perspectives. The module is designed to enrich your understanding of systems thinking whilst making practical progress on situations from your existing professional work and/or situations of more general interest to you.