The Open University’s new postgraduate qualification for development managers, starting this autumn, will connect students across the globe.

The OU is launching its new Postgraduate Certificate in Global Development Management on the award-winning learning platform Futurelearn, making it easily accessible to students anywhere in the world.

Building on the OU’s longstanding reputation in Development Management teaching, the new Certificate is practice-driven, focusing on the skills needed by development practitioners to design interventions which bring about lasting social change.

Networking a key factor 

Study is entirely online, with the full range of support the OU gives all its students – their own tutor and tutor group, access to the OU’s online academic library and to all the university’s student guidance and advice services.

And the Certificate has the full might of The Open University’s international reputation and expertise in online and distance learning behind it, as its chair, Martha Knight, explains.

“This is not a conventional course of academic lectures and articles which have been put online, it is expertly produced for this online platform, with high quality films and real-life case studies, and, most importantly, lots of interactivity. 

“We have created spaces for students to talk to one another, to discuss and respond to what they have read on the course, and to learn from one another.  

“Networking with fellow development practitioners across the globe is a key factor on this course.

“The history of development is that it has been very much seen through a ‘white gaze’. Our approach is designed to avert that white gaze and allow other voices to come forward."

Distance is no barrier 

Fellow students are likely to be working in the development industry, or they may have been given a development role within a business or government agency. 

Development management skills are relevant to a host of employment situations, says Martha Knight. 

“Development is much wider than we might understand it; it could be a single individual seeking to make a difference, someone who wants to plant a wood in their community, for example.

“Global development management is about social justice and social change, and good change. If you care about these, this is the qualification for you.”

The Certificate is also likely to appeal to those who want to study with a British university but have been prevented by distance, or the restrictions imposed by the current pandemic.

Enrolment for the Postgraduate Certificate in Global Development Management closes on 17 September 2020, and study begins on 5 October 2020. 

To find out more go Futurelearn. You can also try it out with this free taster course.