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What will I learn?
Our business and management courses provide cost-effective training that fits around your working day. We have a range of short courses that you can buy online to plug specific skills gaps, as well as more structured programmes leading to qualifications, available to learn online or through one of our centres. Depending on your goals and circumstances funding may be available.
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Business Essentials (89 courses)
Change Management (11 courses)
What is it?
Managing change successfully is a tough challenge for any business. Done badly, it can lead to employee disatisfaction. But when it's handled well, change can result in increased positivity and business growth.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Creative Thinking and Innovation (2 courses)
What is it?
The most successful businesses are willing to exploit new ideas, take advantage of new technologies and lead the market rather than follow it. This series of courses will help you to safeguard your prosperity by developing a culture of creativity in the workplace.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Finance and Budgeting (15 courses)
What is it?
Handling the financial aspects of a business can be a daunting task. Whether you're managing a budget or forecasting cash-flow, finance skills are an absolute must.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Marketing (4 courses)
What is it?
Effective Communication is absolutely crucial in any business. Whether it's dealing with customers, clients or colleagues, it can have a major impact on your business success.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Negotiation (4 courses)
What is it?
Whether it's securing favourable terms for the purchase of raw materials or acquiring the financial support you need to run your business, negotiation is a vital part of modern commerce. This series of courses explores the modern approach to successful negotiation, from the relevance of culture and gender to strategies to break deadlock.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Productivity (12 courses)
What is it?
There are various techniques available to help you increase productivity in business - and many have been proved successful by some of the world's largest organisations.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Quality (5 courses)
What is it?
Managing business quality is about ensuring high levels of service, products, processes and much more. Successful quality management will set you apart from the competition.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Sales (6 courses)
What is it?
The sales team is often one of an organisation’s biggest overheads, so this series of courses has been developed to help you improve your return on that investment. They will equip sales staff with the skills they need to build profitable relationships with customers and make the most of every sales opportunity.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Understanding Organisations (7 courses)
What is it?
Having a fundamental understating of the way that organisations work is essential to everyone.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Using Information (16 courses)
What is it?
Advances in IT mean that organisations can access, record and store more data than ever before. This series of courses will give you new skills to turn that raw data into a highly valuable business resource.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Using Resources (7 courses)
What is it?
A surefire way to increase profits is to improve the efficiency of your business processes. From minimising waste to using equipment effectively, this series of courses will deliver new techniques to help you maximise both human and material resources.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Communication Skills (38 courses)
Briefings (5 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses explores practical techniques to help you plan, write and deliver comprehensive, focused briefs to suppliers, managers or team members.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Communication Skills (23 courses)
What is it?
Learn to communicate with others more effectively in a variety or ways - from questioning skills to reading people's body language.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Meetings (5 courses)
What is it?
Learn how to run successful and focused business meetings, and find out how to make your contributions more effective.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Presentations (5 courses)
What is it?
If you have great presentation skills, then you can deliver ideas professionally and present complex information in a way that’s clear to everyone in your audience.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Complying with the law (37 courses)
Complying with the Law (16 courses)
What is it?
With the number of workplace disputes ending up in court increasing by more than 25% since 2006 it's vital that you take a strategic approach to compliance if you want to minimise the cost and disruption to your business of avoidable tribunals. This series of courses explores your responsibilities as an employer under the major pieces of current employment legislation.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Food Hygiene (1 course)
What is it?
Each year, around 5.5 million people in the UK are struck down by food poisoning .This course will help you to ensure that the food you serve is safe to eat and so protect both the wellbeing of your customers and the reputation of your business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Health and Safety (20 courses)
What is it?
Around 30 million working days are lost to British businesses each year through preventable accidents and ill-health . This series of courses will help you to ensure that you meet your legal responsibility for the health and safety of everyone affected by your business and enable you to reduce the costs and disruption to your business of preventable illnesses, accidents and incidents.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Computers and Software (13 courses)
IT in the Workplace (13 courses)
What is it?
Effective use of IT can mean the difference between business success and business failure. In today's market, a good knowledge of IT is essential for any business manager.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Customer Service (42 courses)
Customer Service (19 courses)
What is it?
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. So paying attention to the way you look after them makes good sense! These courses will show you how.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Customer Service NVQ (23 courses)
What is it?
The success of any business begins and ends with the customer. This series of courses will help you to improve your key customer service skills and show your current employer - and any future employer - that you have reached a recognised, national standard in dealing with customers.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Job and Sector Specific Training (19 courses)
Business and Administration NVQ (3 courses)
What is it?
If you’ve got formal business training and qualifications, you’re an asset to any modern business. An NVQ in Business and Management is your chance to learn new skills and gain valuable qualifications at the same time.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Fork Lift Truck Operation (1 course)
What is it?
The UK's 350,000 fork lift trucks account for more serious accidents at work than cars and HGVs combined, hospitalising over 400 employees each year .This course explores good operator standards and safety practices to help you minimise the risk of workplace accidents.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Health and Social Care NVQ (15 courses)
What is it?
If you already work within the care sector, or are hoping to get a job in that field, these courses will help you to build the core skills necessary to provide exceptional care.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Leadership and Management (95 courses)
Briefings (5 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses explores practical techniques to help you plan, write and deliver comprehensive, focused briefs to suppliers, managers or team members.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Decision Making (5 courses)
What is it?
As a manager, those above and below you rely on your ability to make well-informed decisions. These courses will give you new skills to help you make better decisions and to solve problems skillfully, quickly and effectively.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Leadership (5 courses)
What is it?
To thrive, a business needs organised and effective managers who inspire those they lead to deliver outstanding performance. This series of courses explores the concept of leadership to help you identify, understand and develop more effective leadership skills.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Management NVQ (15 courses)
What is it?
If you’ve got formal management training and qualifications, you’re an asset to any modern business. An NVQ in Management is your chance to learn new skills and gain valuable qualifications at the same time.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Managing Performance (17 courses)
What is it?
It's vital that you take a proactive approach to managing team performance if you are to maximise output quality. This series of courses will give you new techniques to monitor the efficiency of your workforce and practical advice to help you identify and address skills gaps before performance suffers.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Managing Projects (6 courses)
What is it?
There's no mystery involved in successful project management - it's all about effective organisation. Improve your skills in this area and your projects will come in on time and within budget.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Motivation (5 courses)
What is it?
Motivated staff enjoy their work, produce quality results and can become your biggest business asset. This series of courses explore modern motivational theory and practice to help you improve performance, increase productivity and attract and retain loyal staff.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Organising and Delegating (5 courses)
What is it?
As a manager, your role is to focus on strategic business goals. This series of courses will help you to do that, by giving you new techniques to organise your time and resources more efficiently and deploy your team more effectively.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Persuading and Influencing (2 courses)
What is it?
From persuading potential customers that your products are better than your competitors to negotiating with suppliers to charge less for their goods, you need excellent influencing skills if your business is to thrive. This series of courses will develop your skills of persuasion to help you achieve business goals.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Planning (6 courses)
What is it?
Effective planning will enable you to concentrate resources on increasing productivity, improving profits and reducing costs. This series of courses delivers practical techniques to help you plan ahead skillfully and use time and resources more efficiently.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Team Leading (24 courses)
Level 2 NVQ in Team Leading: Provide leadership for your team
Course Code: 104122SM003
About the course
If you manage or supervise a team as part of your role, an NVQ in Team Leading is a highly flexible, nationally recognised qualification that helps you to become more effective in your job and to demonstrate your skills and experience to current or future employers.
The NVQ qualification is awarded once you have shown that you can competently perform a range of tasks connected with your job. You choose which skills you need to develop to help you in your own particular role and then build a tailor-made learning programme that meets your individual needs. This course delivers all the knowledge and understanding you need to prepare for assessment in this Mandatory Unit of the Team Leading NVQ Level 2.
Leading a team is rewarding but it can also be daunting if you’re new to the role. This course will help prepare you as you lead a team for the first time. It introduces how teams work, the challenges they can face, common roles within a team, and how they fit within an organisation.
You’ll go on to examine the skills and qualities a good team leader needs, including the importance of motivation and objective setting. You’ll also look at a range of leadership styles and understand how they can help you build trust and respect within your team.
As a team leader, communication is an essential part of your role. The course covers different methods of communicating and how to overcome common barriers to communication. You’ll also cover the pros and cons of using team briefings to deliver your message.
The course features case studies that you can tailor to your type of work, interactive quizzes, a useful glossary, and a test at the end of each module so you can check your understanding.
Why learn with us?
On completion of this course, you will be able to demonstrate that you can:
• Understand what teams are and how they work
• Understand and employ different leadership styles
• Use the most appropriate form of communication for different situations
• Set clear, SMART objectives
• Deliver effective team briefings
• Motivate your team
How long does it take?
Mid-length Course - This course takes between 10 to 40 hours to complete but we'll agree with you at the start a pace to suit you.
What's involved?
Online - You learn this course online. All you need is access to the internet.
To help you choose the right course you can call 0800 101 901, or click below for your next step.
Personal Development in the Workplace (52 courses)
Employability (8 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses is ideal if you are currently looking for work or think it's time for a career change. From writing a CV that stands out from the crowd to making a great first impression at interviews, you'll learn practical new skills to help you find and secure your dream job.Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Handling Stress (9 courses)
What is it?
Stress management is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today - British workers take almost 14 million stress-related sick days each year. To help you improve attendance, job satisfaction and productivity, these courses explore the causes of stress and the techniques you can use to manage its symptoms.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Problem Solving (5 courses)
What is it?
If you can solve problems, then you are an asset to any modern business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Self Development (9 courses)
What is it?
For a business to thrive in today’s competitive environment, it’s vital that every employee is competent, efficient and productive. These courses will help you to identify skills gaps in yourself and your team and formulate a focused development plan to address them.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Time Management (5 courses)
What is it?
Wasted time costs British businesses £80 billion per year .These courses will help you to improve the way you manage your time and organise your workload so that you achieve more during your working day.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Working in Teams (16 courses)
What is it?
A well-balanced, focussed team is a potent business tool. Building that team could be easier than you think - it's simply a question of following some simple stages to develop your team in the right way.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Recruitment, Training and Appraisal (20 courses)
Coaching and Training (9 courses)
What is it?
Coaching is recognised as one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to improve workplace performance. These courses will give you the skills and techniques you need to pass on your experience and expertise to your team.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Recruitment (11 courses)
What is it?
Recruiting the right staff with the skills, knowledge and experience you need is essential if your business is to prosper. This series of courses will guide you through the entire recruitment process, from writing a job specification to induction training for new recruits.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Starting and Developing a Small Business (9 courses)
Starting your own business (3 courses)
What is it?
More than half a million people in the UK start their own business each year .These courses will help you give your new enterprise the best chance of success by exploring the challenges you will face in the early days of running your own business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
The Apprentice (4 courses)
What is it?
Based on the popular TV show, these courses will help you learn better management skills in the areas of leadership, sales, and negotiation.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
e-commerce (2 courses)
What is it?
77% of all UK Internet users will buy something online in 2008 .These courses will help you to harness the power of e-commerce to access the mass market, find new customers and create 24-hour access to your products and services.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.