• 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.

87,625 enrolled on this course

Essential Skills for Your Career Development

87,625 enrolled on this course

  • 2 weeks

  • 2 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Introductory level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    2 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Unlimited subscription

    $244.99 for a whole yearLearn more

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.

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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.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Defining your career

    • Welcome

      In this activity, you are introduced to the course and will explore what it looks like to have a career in the 21st-century workplace.

    • The right path to your ideal job

      In this activity, you'll learn how to identify the right path for your ideal career and explore various approaches for career development. You will also hear from two people about their different, but successful, career paths.

    • Choosing the right path

      In this activity, you'll explore how to create a vision board and how to use that to identify the vision and goals you have for your career.

    • Goal setting

      In this activity, you'll bring together your learning in order to explain your career vision. You will explore how your career goals match your personal skills and learn how to communicate your value to other people.

    • Summary

      You’ve reached the end of the first week of Essential Skills for your Career Development. In this activity, we’ll sum up what you’ve learned, and look forward to Week 2.

  • Week 2

    Growing your career

    • Welcome

      In this activity, you will explore the importance of having a professional network.

    • Building a network

      In this activity, you find out how to identify key individuals, organisations and platforms for your network. You will learn about the network effect and you will hear from three professionals about developing your network.

    • Building relationships

      In this activity, you will develop your communications skills in order to engage key leads. You will receive guidance on communicating across platforms such as LinkedIn, as well as for cover letters and networking events.

    • Adapting as you go

      Now it’s time to bring together what you've learned so that you can evaluate your career strategy. You will explore how to use feedback constructively and look at the advantages of continuous learning for career growth.

    • Summary

      In this final activity, you reflect on the two weeks of the course. You’ll have the opportunity to read a summary of the key topics in the course and find out about the next steps you may like to take.

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

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Ways to learn

Choose the best way to learn for you!

Best Value - learn more, save more!

Subscribe & save

$244.99 for a whole year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$54/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Start learning today

Free

Try this course - with limits

  • Limited to 2 weeks

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 2 November 2026 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 2 November 2026 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

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