Careers Service

Develop your skills

Research opportunities to develop your skills further, and access training opportunities.

In addition to the learning that comes as part of your degree, there are lots of other ways to develop your skills. These options are free while you’re a student here and can, in many cases, be done at your own pace so you can fit them around your other commitments. Take advantage of these opportunities to expand your skills and abilities. 

Language skills: the Tandem Language Programme offers you the chance to work on language skills in a range of informal settings. There is also a language taster programme and if you have more time, the option to take an open language course as part of your degree. If you would like support with English, then this is available either with Tandem or through English Language Support for international students.  

Language learning opportunities at the University (Edinburgh Global)  

English Language support for international students 

Digital skills: the University’s Digital Skills and Training team offers resources and training courses to current students. LinkedIn learning covers similar ground, and remember to watch out for options advertised by the Careers Service on MyCareerHub – many organisations will offer opportunities such as an introduction to coding or coding bootcamps. 

LinkedIn learning: this immense collection of learning resources is made available to you free of charge and the courses cover a range of areas from Microsoft Excel or programming to developing your creativity. Many of them are available at different levels too - it's well worth exploring the range of options and trying one.  

How to use LinkedIn Learning (Information Services)

MOOCs: There are a huge range of free online courses available from leading education providers.  Find something that captivates your interest – perhaps explore something completely new or deepen your knowledge about an existing topic. Some popular MOOCs are listed below.

  • FutureLearn - Courses from 2 weeks to 10 weeks. Courses are run by leading universities and organisations and cover a wide range of subjects.

  • Coursera - Courses, certificates and online degrees in subjects like computer science, data science, IT, maths, social sciences and languages.
  • edX - Explore courses in a wide variety of topics including computer science, languages, data analysis and statistics, business and humanities.
  • Udemy - Learn about professional growth, wellness, professional skills and essential tech skills.
  • Alison - Over 1000 courses of various lengths. Subjects include languages, IT, science, health, humanities, business, maths and marketing.

MyDevelopmentHub: we understand there’s an enormous number of development opportunities available to you, and when you’re faced with so many options it isn’t always easy to keep track of them.  My Development Hub can help you with filtering some of the options which exist across the whole University. You can search on a skill that you’d like to develop to identify relevant activities or training opportunities. 

MyDevelopmentHub