Personal and professional development
The University is committed to supporting and developing its staff
Listed below are some of the University departments which offer training and development opportunities to University staff. Staff are encouraged to make the most of these opportunities to enhance their personal and career development.
People and Organisational Development (POD) provides a range of development opportunities for staff, including a programme of seminars and courses in areas as diverse as time management, assertiveness, tutorial teaching and writing research papers. POD offers a part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. It houses a small library of resources which can be borrowed by University staff. These include books and journals, and a selection of videos. Information about external courses is also held at the Institute.
Find out more: POD website
Work Learn Develop is a new programme of fully funded professional training and development opportunities for University staff. The Work Learn Develop training courses cover a wide range of skill areas that are core to University administration as well as covering more niche skills areas. All of the courses are accredited and offer professional, job-related qualifications.
Whilst these courses are funded via the apprenticeship levy, they are available to staff of all ages and grades. The training does require a significant time commitment over a minimum of a year and as such both staff and their managers need to consider this and commit to completion.
Interested? Then find out more and find an information session on our website at: www.staffdev.ox.ac.uk/wld
Employees wishing to seek new challenges or development opportunities should consult the University job vacancies on the University website which lists posts and secondment opportunities that are available.
Oxford University Language Centre provides courses and resources for staff who need foreign languages for their research or personal development.
Find out more: Language Centre website
Courses and Certification
More than 200 teacher-led courses in IT skills are provided, at very low cost, by IT Learning Programme (ITLP) at Oxford University IT Services. If you can't attend an ITLP course in person, you can download the course materials at any time, free of charge, from the ITLP Portfolio at: http://portfolio.it.ox.ac.uk/. Free access is also available to all University members to a huge library of high quality video courses available on demand via Molly.
Computer Breakdown Service
A very economically priced breakdown service for PC and Apple Macintosh personal computers, printers, etc., is available for University owned and privately owned equipment. An engineer will visit you anywhere in mainland UK and repair or even replace your hardware.
Software
Low cost, site licensed software from the online shop plus downloads of some free software such as Sophos antivirus and Open Office.
HFS
Secure on and off site back up of your data for senior members, postgraduates and staff.
VPN
OUCS Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection provides your computer with "virtual" connection to the campus network - it then behaves exactly as it would if you were actually on-campus, e.g. to access restricted web pages from home.
Find out more: IT Services website
The University Careers Service provides careers information for the University's academic-related contract research staff. The service is free and consists of a variety of elements, including careers discussions, access to information held at the careers service, computerised careers guidance and psychometric testing and career development workshops. Contract research staff who are interested in using these facilities and information need to register with the service and are eligible to use the service up to one year after their contract with the University has expired.
Find out more: Careers Service website
The Department for Continuing Education offer more than 1000 classes and programmes each year across a broad spectrum of subjects. All but a very few of these are designed for adults who prefer to study part-time. Programmes include Oxford awards and degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level, online short courses, weekly classes, day and weekend events, summer schools and professional development courses.
Find out more: Continuing Education website
OUC offers a range of benefits to academic staff/researchers and departments wishing to engage in consultancy work and to market their consultancy expertise and services. These include: managing all contractual matters, providing insurance cover, securing competitive rates, addressing University administrative requirements, handling invoicing and payment, and helping to identify and develop consultancy opportunities.
Find out more: OUC website
