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August 20, 2025 10 mins

This week, we’re joined by deputy academic director Claire Ketnor from the University of Essex Online to explore their short professional courses - flexible, part time learning designed to fit around your life. Whether you want to upskill, try out a new subject or just learn something new, these courses make it possible.

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-ketnor-8b8100132/ 

 

Learn more about the course: https://online.essex.ac.uk/professional-courses/?utm_source=prospects&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=professional-courses

 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to Future You.

(00:02):
The podcast brought to youby graduate careers experts prospects.
I'm your host, Emily Slade,and in this episode I chat to
Claire Kettnerfrom the University of Essex online
about the short onlineprofessional courses available.
Okay. My name's Claire Kettner.
I'm the deputy academic directorfor Kaplan Open Learning,
and that's for the University of Essex.

(00:22):
Online courses.
so I've been with, the University of Essexonline and for about three months now.
And, we deliver the University of Essexonline courses there's a variety
of online, undergrad and postgraduateand professional courses that we deliver.
and at the heart of everything we dois around that the heart of what we do

(00:44):
is, driven by, making educationmore, accessible to people.
Perfect. So we are here today to talk about the online proffesional courses, so are you able to begin by describing what they are in essence.
Yes. So
the online professional courses, standalone qualifications.

(01:05):
And they're particularly goodfor professional development,
although people dotake them for a variety of reasons.
And so they are online courses.
They're part timewhich is really good for fitting in.
The study around other commitments.
and they take place over 13 weeks.
And as a result, on passing, that calls,

(01:26):
a student would get 20 academic creditsat postgraduate level.
So to be awarded a recognized qualification
by the University of Essex,
and all of our coursesare designed for online delivery.
So that's it in a, in a nutshell.
Yeah brilliant. So do you offer a variety of subjects?
Yeah, absolutely.

(01:47):
So we've got, courses such as business,computing,
criminology,education, health law, psychology.
And so some particular examples, business,things like financial decision
making, diversity management,data management,
management of projects, statistics,business, project management techniques.

(02:10):
There's all sorts of bitsand pieces there.
Computing, things like big data,
machine learning, numerical analysis,
programing and understandingUTS, artificial intelligence.
This again,lots of different courses there.
Criminology.
So things like criminal victimization,practical psychology for police.

(02:32):
And you can kind of see some obvious linkswith, with jobs here some education
courses, things like delivering effectiveteaching and learning health courses.
We've got quite a few there.
So things like healthcare leadership,
then things like disease control,
infectionprevention and quality improvement, manage

(02:55):
various manage ones thereand mental health over the life course.
Meeting the needs of vulnerable patients.
Lots of really interesting topics.
So we've got some low ones there as well.
So things like international businesslaw, psychology.
So things like, human developmentover the lifespan,
people management,psychological assessment work.

(03:19):
So lots of, of, of coursesthat are really kind of good for that
professional development.
Yeah definitly. Who would suit a course like this?
Okay.
So there are lots of
different reasons why students are takingthe professional courses with us.
so one, reason is to upskill.
So, as I said, they're very useful for theprofessional development side of things.

(03:42):
So building those new skills and knowledgeanother reason is to gain
entry on to a postgraduate coursewith those.
That's another reason why.
so one might take one of the,the courses with us.
and then also just
a general interest in the subjectand the one that keeps catching my eyes
applied to forensic psychology,it's nowhere near my area of expertise,

(04:03):
but it's something that that I keepkind of noticing and thinking about.
Sounds really interested.
So, in terms of entry qualificationsthere's
no kind of qualification requirementsor experience necessary.
And apart from having Englishto a certain, standard.
so it's possible.
So even though these are kindof postgraduate level, courses,

(04:24):
it's is possible to do them without underundergraduate, experience before.
And support can be accessed through
our study skills team who can scorewith academic writing and reference.
And so it isn't just for peoplewho've done an undergraduate degree before
and people
can come straight in at this level,which is, which is really nice, actually.
Yeah that’s amazing. So they are open to everyone? And I suppose they’re approriate for anyone worried about the high cost of fees, the cost of living - that sort of thing?

(05:00):
Yeah, absolutely.
So these courses are very much standalone.
You can sign up to just one of them.
So, it's kind of not there'sa few different advantages to that.
So around kind of just doing the onecourse and taking that qualification away.
And as I said, some do,some students do like to kind of test
the waters before they go onto a full postgraduate course,

(05:21):
or they're doing it to get onto the,the postgraduate course.
so, we find that, some carry on
and do say PG cert or PGdip or full masters course
and if that modules that they didoriginally so their original kind
of professional course that they didand is actually part of that,

(05:43):
that programthen their credits would go towards that.
And we do have some students that decideto do one module
as a professional, course and then decideto do a completely different area.
the credit in that casecan't count towards a new kind of area.
But generally there's mostly no
further requirements to carry onwith those full qualifications.

(06:05):
There's a few exemptions to that, forexample, in nursing to study MSC nursing.
so would need to be licensedfor clinical practice.
but generally once you've done in past,one of these professional, courses,
that kind of gives you,
the ability to go on and do further studywith those, postgraduate level.
Brilliant. Let’s talk about the structure of the programme. What does it look like?

(06:30):
Okay.
So as I said those, there's 13 weeks of,
of the course,and that includes a one week induction.
So that's to help, studentsprepare for that online study.
And so it's all done completely online.
And as I've mentioned already,it is part time.
So most of it is around, can be donearound kind of other commitments.

(06:54):
so in terms of,
of kind of how it works, there's onlinetutorials and support from tutors.
And we've got a really innovative,
learning platformwith those innovative, resources.
And that's all always availablethe assessments through assignments only.
And so things like discussion forums,written assessments and journal entries

(07:16):
a roll, possiblekind of assessment and tasks.
So I said very much a standalone course
where you've got 13 weeksof, of doing the work.
And then the,the assessment there as well.
Brilliant. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Yeah.
I just wanted to mention that the,the support that's available,
I've only been, with Kaplan OpenLearning for about three months now.

(07:40):
And one thing that's really impressed
me is around the supportthat's actually available for students,
adults, both from student advisorsand also from the tutors themselves.
So that's somethingthat's really impressive.
and that,that we're quite proud of actually.
So yeah that's something to to note.
Definitely. Now.
Is that in terms of resources, to help with lectures, or personal support?

(08:05):
I think it's a combinationof the two actually
So the actual kind of materials onlineso that the, the materials
online have very much,developed entirely for online provision.
So it's the built with that in mind.
And then also the, the supportthat goes with it from the tutor.
So it's a combination of the two, I'd say,

(08:25):
Perfect. If people wanted to reach out to you with questions? Where can they go?
Good question.
So there's a lot of informationon our website, So in terms of kind
of where to go, I suppose just kind ofgoogling and University of Essex online.
But the, the actual link is online.
Dot Essex dot act UK.

(08:47):
And on that kind of front page,
there is a section on the onlineprofessional courses
and the option to click on on that,and it will take you to
another kind of page that allows you tothen browse courses by subject.
So it's a really useful websiteto to give you information.
This student testimonials on there.
And then from thatthere is a button towards

(09:09):
the bottom of the pageand in order to contact somebody there.
So there's then a page,
that's got all the contact detailswith the admissions team.
So both I've got a phone number,they've got an email address,
and then they've got aWhatsApp number as well.
And then there's also, details
of how to contactand the student support team.

(09:30):
So there's a telephone numberand an email address there as well.
and then there's a formfor some general inquiries as well.
So there's a few different waysfor, for someone to, to reach out to us.
That’s all fantastic - thanks so much for your time today.
Thank you.
Thanks again to Claire for their time.
For more information on the courses,you can check out the show notes below.

(09:50):
If you enjoyed the episode, do feel freeto leave us a review on Apple or Spotify.
Thank you, as always, for listeningand good luck on your journey to future.
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