Learn From Home

Online Degrees and Distance Learning

If looking around the site has given you a few ideas, but you realise you don’t have all the skills you need, this is the place to find about about companies offering home based training, either online or by more traditional means.

Study at Home

If you’ve been thinking about studying but can’t get to an evening class, distance learning is now a real option, using books, online training, videos, CD-Roms or a combination of them all.
Creating Careers

vision2learn, from Creating Careers is an exciting new way to learn and gain accredited qualifications online.

You can get in to your study area through any Internet-connected PC – at home, work or wherever you have access to a computer. Your study area contains all of your online course materials, assessments and user guidelines, as well as messages from your tutor and an online café where you can chat to other learners.

vision2learn courses are presented in an interactive and user-friendly format, with clear learning outcomes and online support material. But if you do feel you need a bit if extra help, online support from a college tutor is just a click away.

Your vision2learn course will be supported by a college near you and they will allocate your tutor.

vision2learn courses are nationally recognised qualifications that are eligible for funding. This means that provided you are over the age of 16 and living in England, there are no fees – you study for free.

Courses are currently available in Personal Development, Business Development, IT and Sport & Leisure

My recommendation is to take their free online course about starting a business entitled “Entrepreneurship”, which leads to the accredited qualification NCFE Advanced Certificate in Preparation for Business and demonstrates your professional skill to your bank manager, business associates and customers.

This course is made up of four units, as follows:

* Unit one – You

Find out if you’re emotionally, mentally and financially ready for business start-up. Identify your personal needs and expectations, review your skills needs and evaluate your finances.

* Unit two – Your business idea

Learn how to prepare an excellent business plan, find out how to set achievable goals and select an appropriate legal status for your business.

* Unit three – Your marketplace

You’ll develop practical market research skills and learn how to make the right marketing decisions for your product or service.

* Unit four – Your business operations

Develop your business plan into practical action plans, build a pre start-up timetable and find out how to achieve operational success by matching financial, human and material resources against your business goals.

Click here for more details and to register

Check out the following free online training courses from freeskills.com . Just click on the topic of interest.
Distance Learning Courses

Open Study College (formally HomeLearning4U) have study packages to suit everyone, whether you are a complete beginner or you already have experience in a chosen subject. They offer a huge choice of courses from hairdressing and beauty therapy right through to law and computer studies, with full online tutor support and course text books that are simple to follow and written by experts in their field.

Study packages are supplied to you complete including study books, CD’s where applicable, assessment slips and envelopes (for the return of any assessment work) ring binder, folder, paper, pen and pencil within a study record bag and on completing most of the courses you gain an employer recognised qualification. All courses are backed by The Open Study College guarantee – if for any reason you fail to complete the course successfully you can re-take the course FREE of charge!
Open University

Probably the most well known place for distance learning, The Open University admitted its first students in 1971. It is the UK’s largest university, with over 200,000 students and customers in 1997/98. The OU represents 21% of all part-time higher education students in the UK.

The University is ranked amongst the top UK universities for the quality of its teaching. Of the 14 subjects assessed up to the end of 1998, the majority have been judged “Excellent”.

Courses are available throughout Europe and, by means of partnership agreements with other institutions, in many other parts of the world. Over 24,000 learners are studying OU courses outside the UK.

Undergraduate level courses do not require any entry qualifications. Over one-third of people starting these courses have qualifications below conventional university entry requirements. Despite this, around 70% of OU students successfully complete their courses each year.

Nearly all OU students are part-time and about 70% of undergraduate students remain in full-time employment throughout their studies.

More than 40,000 students study interactively on-line with the OU, at home and in the workplace.

At the OU, you get as much support as you personally need. From the start, they put you in touch with your nearest OU centre (13 local offices around the UK) and you’ll be allocated a personal tutor — you can talk over the phone, face to face, via E-mail or computer conference— who is a specialist in the subject you’re taking. As the course progresses, you can also meet and exchange ideas with other students. From then on, regular guidance and assessment by your tutor will keep your studies on track, and help you progress with confidence.

168 single nine-month courses, 30 two-year diplomas and over 20 degrees at undergraduate level — everything from short courses to nine-month single topic courses to postgraduate and research degrees.

You can study within a specified range of courses if you want a qualification in a named subject area – including IT and Computing, Psychology, Humanities, Business Studies, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences. Alternatively, you can choose the best mix of courses to suit your career plans or personal interests, and obtain a BA or BSc that is not in a particular subject.

An increasing number of professional bodies also count OU qualifications towards achievement of their own professional awards — including the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE), the British Psychological Society, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the English Nursing Board.

Web Design Courses – One-Tech Ltd is a London based Web Site Design Consultant that offers Website Design Courses and also other IT courses like MCSE Training Course, CCNA Course, etc.

The Training Camp is the world leader in accelerated information technology training and certification testing services for information technology (IT) professionals, corporations and government organizations.
Distance Learning Directories

The following sites provide details of online degree and other distance learning courses available

About.com – Distance Learning
Comprehensive directory of distance learning links and information

http://www.learndirect.co.uk

Comprehensive listing of UK study courses. Use the search facility to search for distance learning and computer based training and subject required.

International Centre for Distance Learning

ICDL distance education databases contain information on over 31,000 distance learning programmes and courses mostly in the Commonwealth countries, over 1,000 institutions teaching at a distance worldwide, and over 12,000 abstracts of books, journal articles, research reports, conference papers, dissertations and other types of literature relating to all aspects of the theory and practice of distance education. NOTE – ICDL ceased most of its activities in April 2003 as its external funding came to an end. Its database of distance-learning courses and institutions remains online but ‘frozen in time’ as it will no longer be updated
Online Degrees

Online Degrees offers articles on studying online together with links to courses, books etc.