What’s in the course?

Caring Counts is structured into eight sessions. As you progress through the course and learn more about how reflection works, you will be invited to try out reflective tasks that ask you to think about your own experiences. Each session will take between one and two hours to complete, depending on the amount of time you spend on the activities. If you are working with a mentor or a group, the discussion may take much longer.

The activities within each session are designed to help you reflect on the following themes:

• defining myself and how I feel about my present situation
• learning by looking at my life over time
• identifying my skills and personal qualities
• thinking about my learning path
• exploring employment options
• deciding my goals and planning my future
• creating my action plan
• what I have learned.

There might be areas of the course that are particularly relevant or helpful for you. For example, if you’re at a stage where you feel you need to find employment you might want to spend longer on Sessions 5 and 6. If so, you can allocate more time to those sessions to tailor the course to suit your needs. If there are areas you feel are less relevant, you can spend less time on them or skip them completely. However, you may find them useful when completing the final quiz if you want to gain your badge.

If English is not your first language there are resources at the end of the course to help you, including an online dictionary [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] , a glossary of technical terms or specialist words and phrases, and links to free resources from The Open University such as Am I ready to Study in English?. Further resources are given in the list of useful websites.

This is your reflection journey, so you can set your own pace.