Q&A: What can The Open University do for you?

What would surprise us about today’s Open University?

We are proud­ly cel­e­brat­ing our 50th anniver­sary this year, hav­ing grown into an extra­or­di­nary insti­tu­tion over that time. We have more than 174,000 stu­dents study­ing world­wide. Our stu­dent pop­u­la­tion is incred­i­bly diverse with a 40:60 male to female ratio, rang­ing from the youngest grad­u­ate, at 13 years old, to our old­est who com­plet­ed his degree aged 93. Around 75 per cent of cur­rent stu­dents are work­ing while study­ing. Our mis­sion and approach to social mobil­i­ty are more rel­e­vant to soci­ety than ever before. As tes­ta­ment to this, around 55 per cent of our stu­dents in Eng­land are from dis­ad­van­taged back­grounds. The Open Uni­ver­si­ty is unique­ly placed to help indi­vid­u­als, com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ments to tack­le the skills gap and main­tain vital eco­nom­ic out­put, for exam­ple through our appren­tice­ship pro­gramme. We are also lead­ing the way inter­na­tion­al­ly. Our part­ner­ship with the Arab Open Uni­ver­si­ty helps to enhance access to high­er edu­ca­tion across the Mid­dle East. Through this part­ner­ship, there are cur­rent­ly 25,000 stu­dents signed up to Open Uni­ver­si­ty val­i­dat­ed pro­grammes and, high­ly sig­nif­i­cant­ly, 50 per cent of these are women.

How have you made it easier to study?

Our Open Access pol­i­cy means that stu­dents don’t need pre­vi­ous qual­i­fi­ca­tions to study with us. At least a third of our stu­dents don’t have the entry qual­i­fi­ca­tions that oth­er uni­ver­si­ties would require. This opens the door for a lot of peo­ple who may have felt they nev­er had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther their edu­ca­tion and achieve their poten­tial due to what­ev­er rea­son or cir­cum­stances that halt­ed them pre­vi­ous­ly. Our stu­dents study on their mobile devices and lap­tops when­ev­er and wher­ev­er it suits them. Due to our inno­v­a­tive approach of blend­ed learn­ing and 24/7 access to the nec­es­sary resources, we’re an extreme­ly pop­u­lar choice for peo­ple who are look­ing to study while work­ing.

What do you think makes you a leading choice for students with disabilities?

The Open Uni­ver­si­ty pro­motes equal edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties and social jus­tice by pro­vid­ing high-qual­i­ty uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tion to all. We sup­port 23,000 dis­abled under­grad­u­ate stu­dents — over half of all part-time under­grad­u­ate dis­abled stu­dents in the UK. Our course mate­r­i­al is deliv­ered in a vari­ety of for­mats to make resources and assess­ments acces­si­ble, and we recent­ly held a home degree cer­e­mo­ny for one of our dis­abled stu­dents in Scot­land.

What can businesses get out of The Open University?

We offer a range of learn­ing resources and pro­grammes, from free Open­Learn cours­es to a whole range of train­ing for employ­ee devel­op­ment, as well as our high­er and degree appren­tice­ships that focus on areas such as lead­er­ship and man­age­ment, and dig­i­tal skills, among oth­ers. Along­side stan­dard cours­es for employ­ee devel­op­ment, we can also curate bespoke solu­tions when need­ed.

We sup­port 1,300 organ­i­sa­tions through­out the UK with their learn­ing and devel­op­ment strate­gies and require­ments. From micro-busi­ness­es to large nation­al employ­ers such as IBM, BT and Unilever, we offer a sin­gle solu­tion nation­wide that most uni­ver­si­ties are unable to pro­vide because of their lim­it­ed geo­graph­ic reach and class­room-based learn­ing approach. Our focus is to under­stand an organisation’s par­tic­u­lar require­ment set. There is a wide­ly pub­li­cised skills short­age with­in organ­i­sa­tions around the UK and we are able to help employ­ers over­come their skill gaps.

How can businesses “dip their toe in”?

A quick chat with one of our busi­ness experts will help to iden­ti­fy the best option. We have a range of free cours­es to test the appetite for employ­ee learn­ing on a par­tic­u­lar sub­ject and have lots of short­er train­ing options to help organ­i­sa­tions meet cur­rent train­ing demands. We are con­stant­ly inno­vat­ing and are par­tic­u­lar­ly proud of our new two-hour course on gen­der equal­i­ty for com­pa­nies that want to increase aware­ness and inclu­siv­i­ty across their work­force.

And for companies that want to go deeper?

We can help to pro­vide short and long-term work-based solu­tions for organ­i­sa­tions that are look­ing to enhance their learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­grammes. Our pro­grammes can upskill employ­ees to become the lead­ers of tomor­row or close the gaps in areas such as IT where inno­va­tion is increas­ing at a faster rate than many organ­i­sa­tions can keep up with. As a dis­tance learn­ing provider, we offer flex­i­ble solu­tions that allow employ­ees to devel­op while at work, min­imis­ing the time spent away from their day-to-day role and respon­si­bil­i­ties. We can also sup­port employ­ers who have an appren­tice­ship levy pot to use or want to invest in high­er and degree appren­tice­ships for their employ­ees but are unsure of fund­ing or where to begin. We cur­rent­ly hold a 95 per cent appren­tice reten­tion rate and more than 1,000 appren­tice­ships with 300 employ­ers across our man­age­ment, MBA, dig­i­tal, nurs­ing and health­care appren­tice­ship pro­grammes. We are proud to have achieved a 98 per cent employ­er sat­is­fac­tion rat­ing, in the Depart­ment for Education’s FE Choic­es Employ­er Sat­is­fac­tion 2018 Sur­vey, for deliv­er­ing high­er and degree appren­tice­ships. Our mis­sion for life­long learn­ing and tai­lored cours­es for busi­ness spe­cif­ic needs has also led to 60 per cent of the FTSE 100 com­pa­nies work­ing with us to devel­op and upskill their work­force.

We start­ed in 1969 as a dis­rup­tive uni­ver­si­ty, and we will con­tin­ue to dis­rupt and inno­vate over the next 50 years and beyond

How can The Open University help organisations to meet their diversity targets?

The open and flex­i­ble nature of our edu­ca­tion means that we can upskill and reskill employ­ees who may not oth­er­wise have such oppor­tu­ni­ties, due to life cir­cum­stances such as geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion, edu­ca­tion­al lev­el or soci­etal con­straints. We can work with organ­i­sa­tions to help attract and retain a tal­ent­ed work­force. For exam­ple, we can help to attract appli­cants for appren­tice­ships into jobs where they would tra­di­tion­al­ly be under-rep­re­sent­ed at grad­u­ate lev­el by help­ing organ­i­sa­tions to engage with schools
and col­leges.

What is the future for The Open University?

It’s an excit­ing time for us as we enter our 50th year. The Open Uni­ver­si­ty will con­tin­ue to be true to our mis­sion to being open to all places, meth­ods and ideas. We will increas­ing­ly work to meet the require­ments of employ­ers, espe­cial­ly in these uncer­tain polit­i­cal times. The uni­ver­si­ty will con­tin­ue to sup­port the pub­lic sec­tor, notably the NHS, and through our unique Cen­tre for Polic­ing Research. We start­ed in 1969 as a dis­rup­tive uni­ver­si­ty, and I believe we shall con­tin­ue to dis­rupt and inno­vate over the next 50 years and beyond.

To find out more please con­tact business@open.ac.uk to speak to one of our busi­ness experts about your organisation’s needs or vis­it www.open.ac.uk/business