• University of Leeds
  • Click Start Logo
  • Institute of Coding logo

Essential Skills for Your Career Development

Take charge of your career development and identify the skills you need to plan and achieve your career goals.

84,941 enrolled on this course

  • Duration

    2 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Digital upgrade

    Free

Learn the professional career development tools to get your career on track

Most people want to achieve career success, but how can you make it a reality?

On this course, you’ll get the tools to take your career to the next level.

Using planning tools, you’ll establish goals for your career and how to achieve them.

You’ll learn how to navigate the process of applying for jobs and interviews, and consider the importance of transferable skills and creating the right professional networks.

You’ll also hear from like-minded individuals who propelled their careers forward using similar career development plans.

Featured in the UK government’s The Skills Toolkit collection.

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Skip to 0 minutes and 7 seconds Tuyen Do: Where do you see yourself in five years’ time? It’s a classic career question that sends many people into a panic. You don’t have to know the answer to this question in order to have a successful career. What you do need to do is be able to identify your skills and strengths. And to build on those to develop a career that’s right for you. This course will help you do just that. Essential Skills for your Career Development is one of three courses exploring thriving in the digital workplace. This course focuses on how to identify and develop your knowledge and transferable skills, navigate job adverts and applications, and build and effectively utilise your professional networks.

Skip to 0 minutes and 53 seconds You’ll hear from professionals from a range of industries who will share how they created and implemented their own professional development plans in order to move their career forward. We’ll get you started with everything you need to take the next steps and take charge of your career opportunities by developing your understanding of how to plan for and achieve success.

What topics will you cover?

  • Careers in the modern professional landscape
  • How to use vision boards to identify your own career roadmap
  • Exploring goal setting and understanding value propositions
  • Goal setting
  • Building a professional network
  • Building relationships
  • Dealing with change and always being ready to learn

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Identify different approaches to growing your career
  • Explore a roadmap, vision board for your career path
  • Explain your career vision clearly
  • Identify key individuals, organisations and platforms for your network
  • Develop communications to engage key leads
  • Evaluate the impact of your strategy and iterate accordingly

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for people who have digital skills but would like to build confidence in using digital technology in the workplace.

This may include those studying for A-levels, those who have a degree, or those who want to improve their career prospects.

The course will also be useful for anyone in employment who wants to boost their digital skills or anyone returning to the workplace who’d like to gain confidence in how working practices have evolved.

You might also be interested in the other courses in the Digital Skills for the Workplace collection from the University of Leeds and the Institute of Coding.

Who will you learn with?

Hi! I'm a Lead Educator for a few of the Future Learn courses. I'm a communications specialist and filmmaker. I'm also a certified integrative health coach and yoga teacher.

Who developed the course?

University of Leeds

As one of the UK’s largest research-based universities, the University of Leeds is a member of the prestigious Russell Group and a centre of excellence for teaching.

Click Start

This course is part of Click Start, a nationwide training programme developed by the Institute of Coding (IoC) , a national collaboration of universities, employers and charities and funded by Nominet – the public benefit company and guardians of the .UK namespace.

Institute of Coding

The Institute of Coding (IoC) is a national collaboration of employers, universities, and charities, on a mission to provide people from all walks of life with access to digital learning and career opportunities.

Endorsers and supporters

funded by

Nominet Logo

supported by

Nesta logo

supported by

UKBlackTech logo

supported by

tech mums logo

What's included?

University of Leeds are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:

  • Unlimited access to this course
  • Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes
  • Tests to validate your learning
  • A PDF Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you’re eligible
  • Learning on FutureLearn

    Your learning, your rules

    • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
    • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
    • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

    Join a global classroom

    • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
    • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
    • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

    Map your progress

    • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
    • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
    • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

    Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

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