Continuing Professional Development
Discover your next lifelong learning opportunity to help you deliver high-quality health and social care services
All of our CPD courses are delivered fully online and are self-directed, so you can study at your own pace.
Short Courses for CPD
Our flagship courses are suitable for anyone working in a Health or Social Care role, and require 30 hours of self-directed learning to complete.
These courses have been co-developed with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), and you can collect SSSC Open Badges as you work your way through the course. These digital badges can be curated to build your own learning portfolio via the SSSC MyLearning app to suit your career progression needs, and may be taken into account when applying for academic credit-bearing courses and programmes.
Scroll through the drop-down menus to learn about each course.
Are you a health or care provider working in any of the wide range of settings where person-centred service is delivered?
Do you work in a residential or nursing home, hospice, hospital, community setting or care for someone in their home? Are you interested in using the information that you generate and collect, as you go about your daily work, to understand and improve the service you and your colleagues deliver?
- Video: Systems of digital care
- Introduction to Systems of digital care - Sharon Levy - for website
This online course will help you develop your knowledge about the ways in which digital technology is used to help with compassionate, person-centred health and social care delivery.
Everyday delivery of health and social care services generate and use millions of data items, which can be transformed into information that is shared with service users and providers. But this same data could also be used to create new knowledge on which future evidence-based practice can be developed. This course will provide you with new knowledge and skills to explore how routinely collected data can provide an evidence base for improvements in health and care. It will also cover practical skills to ensure you manage data safely and securely in accordance with the law and professional guidelines.
"Systems of Digital Care" is made up of six chapters:
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Generating healthcare data from preconception to beyond the grave
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Transforming collected data to relevant healthcare information available at the right time in the right place
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Storing healthcare Information safely and securely and building meaningful data repositories
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Using healthcare information to make the right decisions
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Horizon scanning for new knowledge gains
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Healthcare Information Futures
You can choose to follow the course from beginning to end, or to pick and choose the chapters that are most relevant to you.
Is this course right for me?
There are no minimum entry requirements. However, to gain the most from this course, we would strongly suggest that you are:
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sufficiently fluent in English reading, listening and writing to engage effectively with other learners
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comfortable with and have access to a computer with reliable internet access
Assessment
Each chapter is assessed through online quizzes and once the minimum score is reached, you will be able to submit a short reflective account of your learning that is assessed for the award of a digital badge. Completion of the full course will enable you to collect a SSSC Open Badge for each chapter, and an additional completion badge indicating the level of knowledge and skills you have attained. These badges will be placed on the SSSC learning portal and MyLearning app, so you can curate and demonstrate your CPD learning.
Time frames
Suggested study time: 30 hours
For self-funded learners, course materials are available immediately upon registration. Contact us if you would prefer to study within a cohort.
Course fees
Each CPD course has a set fee of £360 per student for Academic Year 2023/24 (September 2023 - August 2024).
All course fees may be subject to annual increase, so if you are planning to enrol for a different academic year, please contact our CPD team who will be able to confirm the fee for your year of study.
Contact us about our CPD courses
Further information
Self-funding your study
If you or your sponsor are paying for your course fees in full, you can register directly through the University's ePay system.
Once you have paid, a member of the CPD team will be in touch with information on how to access your course materials.
If you are applying for any financial support, follow the application instructions for your selected funding route.
Register for a self-funded place on Systems of Digital Care
Funding opportunities
Scroll down to learn about our CPD Bursary for Social Care, or visit our dedicated Funding Opportunities page to see other bursaries and scholarships that are available for courses offered by Talent Programme.
Do you manage or work in health or social care services and would like to contribute to improvements in the delivery of evidence-based practice to service users?
- Video: Evidence based practice in a digital age
- Sharon Levy - evidence based practice short video
This online course will provide you with an opportunity to explore and understand how digital technologies can be harnessed to support the development and delivery of optimal care in the future.
This includes:
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Online learning
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Evidence informed practice
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Technology Enabled Care
"Evidence Based Practice in a Digital Age" consists of four chapters to be followed in sequence:
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Understanding Evidence Based Practice
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Applying research findings to practice
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Scoping your own proposed enquiry concerning technology enabled care
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Horizon scanning and informed decision making
Is this course right for me?
There are no minimum entry requirements. However, to gain the most from this course, we would strongly suggest that you are:
-
sufficiently fluent in English reading, listening and writing to engage effectively with other learners
-
comfortable with and have access to a computer with reliable internet access
Assessment
You will be guided to deliver a project within your own setting and will benefit from the opportunity to reflect on your own current and future learning needs.
Each chapter is assessed through submission of a short reflective account of your learning. Completion of the full course will enable you to collect a SSSC Open Badge for each chapter, and an additional completion badge indicating the level of knowledge and skills you have attained. These badges will be placed on the SSSC learning portal and MyLearning app, so you can curate and demonstrate your CPD learning.
Time frames
Suggested study time: 30 hours
For self-funded learners, course materials are available immediately upon registration. Contact us if you would prefer to study within a cohort.
Course fees
Each CPD course has a set fee of £360 per student for Academic Year 2023/24 (September 2023 - August 2024).
All course fees may be subject to annual increase, so if you are planning to enrol for a different academic year, please contact our CPD team who will be able to confirm the fee for your year of study.
Further information
Self-funding your study
If you or your sponsor are paying for your course fees in full, you can register directly through the University's ePay system.
Once you have paid, a member of the CPD team will be in touch with information on how to access your course materials.
If you are applying for any financial support, follow the application instructions for your selected funding route.
Register for a self-funded place on Evidence Based Practice in a Digital Age
Other funding opportunities
Scroll down to learn about our CPD Bursary for Social Care, or visit our dedicated Funding Opportunities page to see other bursaries and scholarships that are available for courses offered by Talent Programme.
If you work in Social Care in Scotland, you may be eligible for a fully-funded place on one of our short courses for CPD.
Applications are currently closed. We expect to offer new opportunities in Autumn, 2024.
If you would like to be notified about deadlines for our next bursary opportunity, please register for the CPD mailing list.
Sign up to the CPD mailing list
These bursaries have been made available by the Data-Driven Innovation Health and Social Care (DDI HSC) hub to help the sector harness the power of data to transform the delivery of care. This funding aims to provide opportunities for those working in the Social Care sector to enhance, refresh or develop new digital technology skills and deliver compassionate person-centered service in a digital age.
Your eligibility will be assessed at the time of application and determined by your employment status, as well as the number of places available at the time of submitting your application.
To apply for a bursary, you will need to complete our application form, and a member of our CPD team will get back to you.
Course completion requirements
Please note that all funded learners are required to complete their chosen CPD course within the established timeframe. In the event that you are unable to meet this criteria, please contact us immediately to discuss the support we can offer. Should the funded learner not engage with the course without contacting the CPD course team, any future CPD funding may be denied.
Byte Size Learning
Are you interested in our CPD courses, but not sure if they’re right for you?
You can try our Byte Size Learning through the Federation for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care (FEDIP) Hub.
Our Byte Size Learning is suitable for anyone working in a Health or Social Care service, and is new to using data. They are ideal for anyone wishing to gain a broad understanding of each topic.
What is Byte Size Learning ?
Each course contains approximately an hour of content, and will introduce you to a different aspect of data-driven innovation:
- Big Data Analytics
- Data Ethics for Health and Social Care
- Digital Technologies in Health and Social Care
- Foundations of Software in Health and Social Care
- Introduction to Databases and Information Systems
- Introduction to Data Visualisation
- Introduction to Health Data Analytics and R
- Systems Thinking
Because each Byte Size Learning corresponds to a Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) course, they are a great entry-point for anyone wishing to embark on their CPD journey with us, without having to commit to a substantial study programme.
To start your Byte Size Learning, you will need to request access to the FEDIP Hub.
Anyone can access the Hub for a 6-month trial for free, after which they must become FEDIP registered in order to maintain access.
Request your free 6-month trial to the FEDIP Hub
Further information
Learn about FEDIP and who they are
Find out more about the FEDIP Hub
Browse our other Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) courses
Free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
In addition to our short courses listed above, we have a selection of free open access courses hosted on Coursera. These courses are suitable for anyone involved in Health or Social Care, who are interested in learning about data science.
Recent advances in data science are transforming the life sciences leading to stratified healthcare and precision medicine. This free course outlines some of the different types of data and computational methods involved.
Have you ever wished you knew how to program, but had no idea where to start from? This free course will teach you how to program in Scratch, an easy to use visual programming language. More importantly, it will introduce you to the fundamental principles of computing and it will help you think like a software engineer.
Stay in touch
We are continually adding to our portfolio of learning opportunities. If you would like to receive updates on new courses and other ways to upskill, follow us on social media, or sign up to our mailing list.
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