CIWEM is delighted to announce an agreement with the Open University to provide web-based learning and development courses ideal for CPD for members. In working with the OU, CIWEM is able to offer all members a special discounted price for these courses. What’s more, successful completion of any of these courses can be counted towards your CPD requirements for the year.

OU CPD courses can be studied entirely online to work through study material relevant to each course. The course take around 20-30 hours (equivalent to 3-4 days training) which you can spread over a several months if you wish to suit your availability and style and offer:

• Skills development to suit your personal development and work-based needs
• The convenience of clearly presented and sequenced materials, activities and support, accessible via the protected course web-site whenever suits you (if you prefer, you can print key materials to work off-line)
• The support of an expert learning adviser acting like you own personal coach who will respond to you direct within 24 hours in order to clarify course materials, answer questions and help you relate the course to your specific needs
• A series of activities and case studies enabling you to reflect upon and assess your current practice and plan for your continued development in this area
• A final end-of-course assessed work-based activity connecting the course to your context and needs and leading to a Personal Development Plan sent to the learning adviser, who provides you with personal feedback
• An OU certificate to confirm successful course completion, which you can use to document your commitment to continuing professional development in your personal portfolio, or to provide evidence to employers or a professional body (note these courses do not carry academic credit points)

For more information  www.open.ac.uk/cpd/p6.shtml

Sustainable Scotland - Explore sustainability and its impact on Scotland

www.openuniversity.co.uk/sustainablescotland

If you want to know more about the many technological, economic and social aspects of sustainability that impact on Scotland, then our short course Sustainable Scotland (T123) is an exciting place to start. The course starts in May 2010 and we are now open for registrations. 

http://www.infoscotland.com/gogreener/1402.html

Managing Performance through People

Wish to review and improve the performance of your team?

Managing Performance through People , a web-based Open CPD course with a work-based focus from the Open University helps you step back from your own situation and look to achieve even better results from your staff or team.  This course explains the four key processes necessary to achieving this: setting clear objectives; monitoring performance; reviewing performance, and improving performance.

Influencing Strategic Thinking, for Finance Professionals

Need to present to or review strategic ideas for your Board or Management Team?

Influencing Strategic Thinking , for finance professionals  a web-based Open CPD course with a work-based focus from the Open University developed in conjunction with ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants),  helps you play a more effective role in contributing to strategic thinking within your organisation This course will provide you, as a finance professional with the tools, frameworks and ideas to help you apply strategic thinking in senior management situations.

Mentoring at Work

Would you like to improve your mentoring effectiveness?

Mentoring at Work , an online Open CPD  course with a work-based focus from the Open University is for those who use mentoring to help their staff learn and develop at work, it provides tools, structure, ideas, resources, activities and support to builds on and uses your own competence to facilitate learning in others.  

Specialist or Technical CPD Courses

Integrating Software Systems for IT Professionals
Overcome the problem of building up a system from pre-written components.
Integrating Software Systems for IT Professionals, an online Open CPD  course with a work-based focus from the Open University, introduces system integration and compares it with conventional systems development. It shows you how projects can be organised to facilitate systems integration by examining the varieties of systems integration and many of the technologies used, including application servers, integration servers, XML, web services, frameworks and scripting languages. While the main emphasis is on application level technologies, the course also considers the use of systems software such as message-oriented middleware.

Food From Farm to Fork (an overview of food production)
Need an Overview of Food Production? New to the Food Manufacturing Sector?
Food From Farm to Fork (an overview of food production), an online Open CPD  course with a work-based focus from the Open University, gives a general picture of food, food production and the supply chain known as ‘farm to fork’. The nature of food is outlined, and some food related safety issues (hazards) together with ways of controlling them are covered. Principles of processing, preservation and packaging with the implications for issues such as product integrity, safety and waste management are also introduced.

An Introduction to Travel Planning
Do you need an understanding of  travel planning and processes?
An Introduction to Travel Planning, an online Open CPD  course with a work-based focus from the Open University developed with support for Transport for London, is designed to familiarise newly appointed travel plan coordinators with crucial aspects of workplace and school travel planning. It will broaden your knowledge, identify further training needs and will familiarise you with the travel planning process. The first part of the course provides an overview of the philosophy and nature of travel plans. Transport demand management through travel plans involves not just the production of a set of measures, but is a process that is implemented by a dispersed range of stakeholders. The next section develops and explores this point by considering the development cycle of travel plans. The course concludes by concentrating on five key processes in travel plan development.

Finance for non-financial managers for professionals who are new to financial responsibility or who operate at a level where they need to understand financial issues.

Ethics at work uses cases and analysis you can develop the confidence and competence in handling complex, important and topical ethical issues.

Improving your negotiation skills to help you understand the principles of negotiation can help managers to achieve satisfactory outcomes for everyone involved. 

Consulting and communicating with staff so that you can engage with employees in positive ways by harnessing the know-how of the real experts you can improve business results. Two-way communication is the key to this.

How to design and analyse surveys which covers the generic principles and processes of gathering and analysing data, followed by showing how this is then applied to specific contexts such as Travel Planning

Effective collaboration in construction
New roads, new bridges, new buildings, new schools, new sports arenas - there is plenty of evidence of people working together on large construction projects. Understanding how different people and organisations work together successfully in construction is important. This course will help identify the necessary skills and conditions for working together, and recognise how to improve effectiveness in collaborative situations.

Practical leadership in construction
The housing market slowdown, the credit crunch, changing plans from central government on funding projects, mounting pressure for health and safety, welfare, environment, and sustainability, together with an increasingly diverse workforce, mean that leadership and management have never been so much in demand