Free Online CPD

We will keep adding to this page as we identify new options but we’d also love to add your suggestions.  Some of these platforms will also have courses that may be helpful for your clients looking to add to their CV.

Upcoming free webinars

See our events page.

Members don’t forget you also have access to recordings of previous VRA webinars so you can catch up on any you missed.

Online courses of particular interest to VR practitioners

Understanding Sight Loss for Employment Professionals from RNIB

The Open University has free health, sports and psychology courses which you can start to suit you and have free access for as long as you need. We’ve picked out a few below:

• Work and mental health
• Exploring depression
• Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging
• Exploring the relationship between anxiety and depression
• Introducing public health
• Understanding depression and anxiety
• Making sense of mental health problems

Futurelearn’s psychology and mental health courses and healthcare and medicine courses, almost all are free! We’ve picked out just a few of particular interest below:

• Supporting people with health conditions back to work: individual placement and support (IPS)
• Mindfulness for wellbeing and peak performance
• Psychology and mental health: beyond nature and nurture
• Youth mental health: helping young people with anxiety
• Demystifying mindfulness
• Good practice in autism education
• Understanding anxiety, depression and CBT
• Understanding ADHD: current research and practice
• Understanding Autism
• Cognitive behavioural skills to treat back pain

Alison has a range of free health courses (it seems to be funded by showing adverts which you can remove for a small fee) including:

• Mental health studies – understanding behaviour, burnout and depression
• Mental health diploma

Coursera which offers a number of free courses

• The Science of Wellbeing from Yale
• Social Psychology

Khan Academy has some health and medicine options including anatomy and physiology and lots of short condition-specific overviews

Edx has some free courses, Through my eyes – Intellectual disability healthcare around the world

Learn BSL level 1 with Doncaster Deaf Trust

Free online courses and webinar recordings for employers and employees from the British Safety Council including Covid-19: managing the workplace a practical perspective, managing mental health, stress awareness, managing stress within your team, mental health awareness, remote workers health, safety and welfare are here.

Business skills

• Open University – wide range of free courses including business and management skills, communication, risk management, finance and much more.
• Stanford Online – has a few interesting business courses include rethinking teams, SEO and data
• Futurelearn – another varied range of courses including emergency planning and preparedness, digital, professional resilience and starting a business.
• Alison – lots of business and marketing courses (it seem to be funded by showing adverts which you can remove for a small fee).
• Shaw Academy – wide range of courses including digital marketing, graphic design, social media marketing, leadership and management, web design and much more.  Appears to be one course free for anyone joining new.
• Virtual College has a number of free e-learning options including an introduction to GDPR.