Partnerships

Organisations partner with The Open University in order benefit from our experience of teaching adults for more than 40 years, and our work with more than 2,800 organisations to date.

We partner with numerous organisations to provide services that enhance the workplace and solve business problems. Here are just some of the ways in which we work in partnership:

• UNISON, one of the UK’s largest trade unions, has partnered with us since 1997 in order to increase participation in education among public sector workers. With UNISON, we provide a wide range of learning solutions across the four nations of the UK.
• The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has chosen us to work with them to encourage greater participation in learning and development. Our RCN-related courses offer flexible, work-based learning solutions that fit around busy work commitments.
• The Football League Trust is a registered charity that governs the charitable trusts associated with the professional clubs of The Football League, which have a combined annual turnover of more than £44 million. We work with the Trust to provide courses in the business of the football industry.
• Rolls Royce has partnered with us for more than a decade. To date, we’ve trained 500 Rolls-Royce managers and leaders, mainly through our Business School MBA and courses such as the Professional Certificate in Management.
• Innovate Finance recently partnered with us in order to launch the world’s first introductory course to financial technology. The 50-hour online course provides an introduction to FinTech, and The Open University developed and delivers the curriculum.

We also have ongoing partnerships with the armed forces, other academic institutions and the BBC, which is our longest-running (and perhaps best-known) partnership.

Our partnership with The Open University is very exciting and one which we feel will bring great benefits to both organisations in the long term.

John Nixon
Chairman, The Football League Trust

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