UCAS teams up with FutureLearn to launch its first free online courses

There are two free courses – Smart Choices: Broadening your horizons and Smart Advice: Broadening your students’ horizons. Each takes two weeks to complete, and are intended to help learners understand the full breadth of courses available to them, and to make sure advisers and parents have the most comprehensive and up-to-date information.

Commenting on the launch of the MOOCs, Louise Evans, Head of Adviser Experience at UCAS said: “UCAS is at the heart of connecting people to higher education.  We placed 532,000 students in higher education last year, and we are uniquely placed to be able to offer advice and guidance through the complex landscape that young people face when they are choosing their next steps.

“The breadth of higher education courses available has expanded beyond belief in recent years. These MOOCs are about raising young people’s aspirations, inspiring them to look further than a narrow range of traditional subjects, and making sure their advisers have the best insight.

“To help us support learners throughout their journey, UCAS is enthusiastically embracing new learning styles and technology, and we intend that these will be the first of many opportunities we can offer for young people and their advisers to make the most of their choices at 15 – 19.”

Smart Choices: Broadening your horizons, the course for learners, includes an overview of UK higher education, discovering new degree course options, using a psychometric tool to understand your subject, course, qualification and career preferences, academic vs. vocational approaches, part-time and distance-learning.

Smart Advice: Broadening your students’ horizons, the course for advisers, covers an overview of UK higher education, Progression pathways: the varied progression routes to higher education, personalisation – how to address the needs of each student, helping student decision-making, keeping parents informed, key career and labour market information, and non-university post-18 study and training options.

Simon Nelson, CEO of FutureLearn said: “We’re delighted to be working with UCAS for the first time to provide free, online courses for young people about to enter higher education, and a twin course for student advisers.

“UCAS is a trusted partner for any student looking to take on further study or training, and FutureLearn is proud to be part of opening and focussing young minds on the learning options available.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Smart Advice: Broadening your students’ horizons is now open for enrolments at/courses/smart-advice/1(link is external)

Smart Choices: Broadening your horizons will open for enrolments in the spring at www.futurelearn.com