The free online course “Business Fundamentals: Effective Communication” will enable you to gain a practical grounding in communication to boost your personal effectiveness, save you time and reduce your stress levels.

About the course

Faced with a daily deluge of information, we have never had greater need of clear communication skills. This free course offers you a practical grounding in using a range of communication media, which will boost your personal effectiveness, save you time and reduce your stress levels.

This course is intended for anyone seeking to develop their fundamental business skills, whether to increase their employability or secure a promotion. The course does not require any previous study of communication.

What you will learn

  • Improve your written and verbal communication skills

You will discover the principles of writing influential documents for work such as reports and proposals. As you learn simple frameworks for emails and meetings you’ll immediately put them into practice and increase your productivity.

You will find new confidence in your ability to make convincing presentations and conduct productive meetings – whether virtual or face to face. You will develop communication approaches that are sensitive to cultural and personal differences and are tailored to the occasion, whether online, in writing or face to face.

  • Develop fundamental business and finance skills

This course has been developed by The Open University Business School – a pioneering institution that is triple accredited by AMBA, EQUIS and AACSB.

Check out:

What is an MBA accreditation?

Why Care about Master’s and MBA Accreditation

It is one of eight from The Open University, designed to help you gain fundamental business and financial skills, including communication, networking, relationship building, project management, personal financial planning and management, investment and financial services.

You can complete this course as part of one of these two programmes:

Business Fundamentals: four courses which will boost your employability and effectiveness at work, and enable you to earn a FutureLearn Award.

Business and Finance Fundamentals: eight courses. Holders of the FutureLearn Certificates of Achievement for all eight courses can earn 30 UK credits towards The Open University Business School’s BA in Business Management by passing a linked Open University assessment module (requiring separate OU registration and fee).

Starting date: 15 August 2016

Duration:  4 weeks, 3 hours per week

Language: English

Instructor: Hilary Collins

Institution: The Open University

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