Why promotion is just a click away
Afree online course could help your career. MOOcs — Massive Open Online courses — offered by organisations such as the Open University (OU) can help you get into a career or land that promotion.
Delphine Lyons, 26, credits one for helping her get ahead professionally. she was a paid media co- ordinator with online voucher company Vouchercodes when she started a management course MOOc with futureLearn, the OU platform.
‘Vouchercodes offered the course free to all staff and gave us two hours a week to work on it. i did an additional three to four hours a week at home,’ says Delphine.
‘There were articles to read, videos to watch and case studies about management problems, and you could write comments about how managers dealt with them. it was all done in your own time.’
Vouchercodes staff who took the course met each other every two weeks to discuss it and were able to follow fellow students online to increase interaction.
Delphine, who was promoted to paid media manager early in 2014, adds: ‘i know the MOOc was one of the reasons i got promoted. Taking a course shows you are keen to progress and willing to work to gain management skills.’
Thaisa Money, human resources director (eU) at Vouchercodes, says: ‘This course meant that as our team took part in their own time, they had the flexibility to dip in and out of it according to their work and personal schedule.’
The good news is you don’t have to wait for your employer to offer one as anyone can take them. But a certain level of application is needed to complete one — they have a high dropout rate.
The biggest UK provider is futureLearn, which offers short courses, including business and professional ones, from many UK and international universities. courses are free, but you pay £29 for a certificate of participation. Visit futurelearn.com.