Whether you’re starting your academic journey or continuing your professional development as an alumnus, these five free online courses can help you build valuable skills and explore new ideas.
Your Chevening year may have come to an end, but your professional development doesn’t have to. Whether you’re stepping into a new role, leading change in your organisation, or exploring your next big idea, there are always opportunities to build new skills and perspectives.
To help you keep learning, we’ve rounded up five free online courses designed to support the next chapter of your Chevening journey, from navigating change and getting to grips with AI to strengthening your leadership and tackling complex problems.
Choose the course that matches where you are now or challenge yourself to complete all five.
The ability to lead effectively is especially important when circumstances are uncertain. Leadership challenges in turbulent times from The Open University’s OpenLearn explores some of the challenges leaders face in complex and changing environments.
During the course, you’ll consider different approaches to leadership and how they can be applied when organisations and societies are facing disruption. It’s a useful opportunity to reflect on your own leadership style while considering how you can support others through change.
Best for: Chevening alumni looking to strengthen their leadership skills and navigate uncertainty with confidence.
Artificial intelligence is changing how organisations work and how professionals approach everything from research to communication and decision-making.
The course covers AI fundamentals, generative AI and responsible use, while also encouraging you to think critically about the opportunities and challenges AI presents.
Best for: Professionals who want to build their understanding of AI and consider how it could be used in their own work.
Turning a good idea into something with a lasting impact requires planning, organisation and the ability to manage competing priorities.
This course introduces the fundamentals of project management, from understanding what makes a project to planning, decision-making and assessing feasibility. You’ll also explore the role of the project manager, the importance of risk, and different approaches to developing and delivering projects, including agile methods.
Best for: Chevening alumni who are developing a new initiative, managing a project or looking to turn ideas into tangible impact.
Being able to collaborate, build relationships, manage conflict, and bring different stakeholders together can be just as important as technical expertise.
An introduction to public leadership explores the skills and behaviours that can help leaders create public value. It considers topics including collaboration, political astuteness and handling conflict, making it relevant to alumni working across government, business, civil society, and international organisations.
Best for: Alumni who want to develop their ability to influence, collaborate and create positive change beyond their immediate organisation.
Many of the challenges facing organisations and communities today don’t have straightforward solutions. Mastering systems thinking in practice introduces ways of looking at complex problems from multiple perspectives and understanding how different parts of a system interact.
The course encourages you to move beyond tackling individual problems in isolation and instead consider the wider context, relationships, and consequences that can shape an outcome.
Best for: Alumni working on complex organisational, social or policy challenges — or anyone who wants to develop a more strategic way of thinking.
Professional development doesn’t stop when your Chevening year does. Whether you choose to deepen your leadership skills, explore emerging technologies or develop a new way of approaching complex challenges, free online learning can be a simple way to keep moving forward.
Which course will you take for your next chapter?
Find more professional development resources here!
A Chevening Scholarship at Oxford is helping Flavia Martinez Tarazona deepen her understanding of public policy, build an international network and apply new ideas to tackling gender-based violence and expanding opportunities for young people in Peru.
Chevening alumni in the Philippines are working with communities, civil society and public institutions to transform drug education and promote more informed, compassionate and rights-based approaches to substance use.
Through Chevening’s global network and Lloyd’s Register’s industry expertise, Edson Casimiro is building the knowledge and connections needed to shape a safer, more inclusive future through technology.