News

The Open University in Northern Ireland has worked in close partnership with the Department for the Economy to produce an initial suite of free online courses for furloughed workers and others who have lost their job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Launched by the Economy Minister Diane Dodds MLA, the courses cover digital skills, employability and essential skills. The options include digital literacy, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, leadership, communication, mathematics and English.

As people across Northern Ireland come to grips with staying at home and social distancing, many are turning to learning new things online to occupy some of their time.

OpenLearn, The Open University’s home of free learning, is experiencing record numbers of visitors to the site.  Usually recording an average of 40,000 visits per day, during the first week of schools and businesses being closed over 160,000 people each day were taking advantage of the free content and courses on offer.  In Northern Ireland alone the site saw four times more traffic than normal.

Supporting those that support others

The Open University (the OU) has been working on strengthening the employability of local students in Northern Ireland with the help of major local employers.

The Open University’s Business Development Unit were proud to sponsor the Institute of Directors (IoD), Women in Leadership 2020 conference in Belfast on the 6 March, alongside headline sponsor Herbert Smith Freehills, an international professional services business, and a number of other associate sponsors including Barclays, KPMG and Translink.

The Open University has continued its work with the hugely successful Northern Ireland Science Festival.  The festival is a great opportunity to showcase the world-class research taking place within the University by hosting five events spanning the breadth of STEM. The festival now hosts 200 events across 90 venues in Northern Ireland. These events present some of the best scientists from NI and beyond to discuss their work, cutting-edge research and what the future might hold. It is now one of the biggest science festivals in Europe.

The Open University (the OU) showcased the institution’s research and knowledge exchange activity as an opportunity for partnerships across Northern Ireland at an event in the Belfast office recently.

As part of the Connected NI programme, the OU has received funding from the Department for Economy to encourage, ease and increase potential knowledge exchange links between academia and industry – particularly with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  

According to The Open University, nine in 10 (95%) adults in Northern Ireland have an ambition in life, the most common include earning more money (51%), having a better future for their family (43%), boosting confidence (36%) and inspiring their children (32%).

The Open University’s Business Development Unit (BDU) was a key sponsor of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) 2019 Annual Conference, along with Vanrath Strategic Recruitment and nijobfinder. The BDU sponsored the skilled workstream session “Developing future skills – reskilling people to be ready for the future”. 

On Tuesday 8 October, The Open University welcomed students to an event at Ormeau Baths, Belfast looking at the highs and lows of starting your own business.