Because we literally bombard you as students with information and administrative communications, many alumni tell us they feel bereft once they have qualified. Our job here in Alumni Relations is to keep that relationship open, and to stimulate you with OU news and interesting academic-related information, until we can tempt you back to study again!
Staying in touch
To do this, we extend a number of student communications, and tailor them specifically for you. Of course, having found these pages, you can see that our social community site, Platform is also aimed very much at keeping you up date with your university, with new courses, member benefits and with each other. But you will also continue to receive the Sesame magazine each year and a monthly email from us. Opennews is a series of themed e-newsletters to provide intellectual stimulation focussing on your faculty of interest and courses that may of be interest to you, and highlight what free learning materials are new in www.open.ac.uk/openlearn.
Continue to benefit
The Alumni Relations team continues to develop and provide a wide selection of discounts and offers from which you can benefit.
You can take advantage of OU expertise and connections and get practical help with planning, changing or developing your career, completing your CV, preparing for interview and finding work, via the university’s Careers Advisory Service. One-to-one advice is available to those who have qualified within three years, but much advice is freely available at www.open.ac.uk/careers and there are top tips and links within the careers pages in Platform too.
Part of the benefit of being an OU alumnus is gaining from its network. Join the OU Alumni LinkedIn network of over 1400 qualified alumni. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals. See more about LinkedIn on their website and search for 'The Open University Alumni' to join our group. There is also a special 4000-strong group for Business School Alumni called 'Open University Business School Alumni Network'. You can also find us on Facebook.
The Alumni team is here to help you with any query you may have. Just email us at alumni@open.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1908 655815.
You may have suggestions to help us improve our service to you, or may have ways you would like to help your fellow students, alumni or the University. We are always amazed at the experience, networks and skills the alumni community offer us. Please do get in touch.
So you've achieved your qualification or are taking a break from study? Welcome to a wide range of services and opportunities that we offer our OU alumni community...
Comments
Comment posted on behalf of Caroline Gillett:
Hi
I have submitted an article which I hope you find of interest... Although I had studied with the Open University before, when I was at college I had every intention of following my dreams of attending university. I went through the laborious UCAS form, the painstaking choice of course and University, all with the intention of packing up my bags and heading off for three years of study.
Indeed, while I was at college I would say that I was actively pushed into going to University, with promises of a burgeoning job market awaiting the completion of my degree. I think that we have all seen, especially these last couple of years that has not always been the case. There are some very intelligent people out there with good degrees and no job to show for it. The longer I was at college, the more these thoughts started to play on my mind.
As time marched on, my first choice university, Southampton, came up trumps offering me a place on the BSc Biochemistry course that I longed to do. But rather than leaping around the house, pleased and excited, I just felt a bit anxious. How much debt was I going to get into over my three years? Would I get the sort of job I wanted at the end of it?
My fears were batted aside by my tutors, but I felt uneasy about the whole situation. This is why I started to look into alternatives and why I started to look into the Open University. I had studied a couple of courses with the Open University before, more for fun than anything else. Could I use this experience to help build my degree? It was so easy to navigate the website to find the information that I required; a huge contrast to some of the sites I had been battling my way through just a few months earlier.
With time ticking away, I decided to take a gamble and I suspended my Southampton University place for a year and took up a course with the OU.Since then I have never looked back. I cancelled my place at Southampton and I'm now a third of the way through my degree with the OU. I decided to do Life Sciences, which is broad enough to encompass many areas and I can always specialise with my MSc. I won't pretend it's easy; I work full-time in a cosmetics laboratory and there are many nights I come in from work too tired to do anything.
And home study is all about sacrifices; I often spend the whole weekend studying, particularly around assignment time. But the rewards are huge and I would urge any A-level student out there to consider the OU carefully as an option. And when the going gets tough, just remember when you graduate not only will you be debt free and more mature than your friends, you will also have gained a huge amount of real life experience from your everyday job too. Your CV will thank you for it! Thank you for your time, Caroline Gillett.
Posting on behalf of 'Daniel':
I have recommended OU study to mature students wishing to further their career progression, particularly those in the social care sector. A lot of the time in my experience employers offer training and study mostly in 'in-house' designed courses which do not give a universally recognised qualification; only a certificate of attendance.
I brought to the mature students' attention that if they want to progress beyond a national minimum qualification of NVQ level 2 in Health and Social Care then the most available opportunities are with the OU. Personal experience has shown that an interview for promotion will most likely to be offered if one can show the ability to study and work independently doing what is asked by the OU team.