Employability at the OU

At The Open University enhancing student employability and career progression is recognised as a key component for Student Success, the University’s key strategic priority.  One of the aims that sits under this strategic priority is to support students to achieve positive career and personal development outcomes.  We’ve developed our Employability Strategy to achieve this aim, to ensure as an institution we have a greater sense of shared understanding, ownership and responsibility.

Our Student Employability Strategy comprises three objectives:

• Enhanced Student Support and Engagement
• Embedding Employability in Curriculum Design
• Deepening our Employer Engagement 

Our students are unique, with many already employed while studying. Reasons for signing up with the OU range from building confidence or gaining qualifications after missing out on early education, to entering a profession, career progression or changing industry.

We aim to help students realise their potential and achieve their personal, career and academic goals. To support us with this goal, we have enlisted the help of OU colleagues who play a vital role in engaging students and embedding employability within the curriculum. We're also partnering with employers on shaping the OU curriculum, to develop candidates with the desirable skills, behaviours, experiences and attributes that organisations are looking for.