Screen reader users will find this section of the website easier to navigate using page headings rather than links (In Jaws this involves using the command key 'H' and/or 'H1', 'H2')
What will I learn?
Our business and management courses provide cost-effective training that fits around your working day. We have a range of short courses that you can buy online to plug specific skills gaps, as well as more structured programmes leading to qualifications, available to learn online or through one of our centres. Depending on your goals and circumstances funding may be available.
Loading courses - please wait
Business Essentials (89 courses)
Change Management (11 courses)
What is it?
Managing change successfully is a tough challenge for any business. Done badly, it can lead to employee disatisfaction. But when it's handled well, change can result in increased positivity and business growth.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Creative Thinking and Innovation (2 courses)
What is it?
The most successful businesses are willing to exploit new ideas, take advantage of new technologies and lead the market rather than follow it. This series of courses will help you to safeguard your prosperity by developing a culture of creativity in the workplace.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Finance and Budgeting (15 courses)
Understanding Accounts
Course Code: 104276BT001
About the course
Accountancy is the language of business, and those who do not understand it are at a serious disadvantage. Understanding the basics of financial management will give you a more informed view about your company’s performance and allow you to play an active role in shaping its strategy.
This course will help you to read and analyse Annual Reports and Accounts including Balance Sheets, Profit and Loss Accounts and Cash Flow Statements. You’ll learn how to identify trends in your company’s financial performance and how to determine if the business is financially healthy.
As you work through the course, a series of interactive exercises let you check what you’ve learned and allow you to build sets of accounts yourself, including the Profit and Loss Account and the Balance Sheet.
Why learn with us?
When you have completed this course, you will be able to:
• Know what a Balance Sheet is and understand what Assets and Liabilities are
• Understand why companies borrow and identify the benefits of using equity and borrowed funds
• Understand how companies and tax authorities treat the purchase of capital items
• Understand liquidity and the differences between Cash and Profit
• Measure the profitability of a business
• Understand depreciation
• Control cash and Working Capital
• Use simple ratios to measure performance
What should you already know?
This course is suitable for managers without formal accountancy training who need to be able to read a set of annual company report and accounts in order to make business or credit decisions. It will also help anyone running a business, or looking to invest in a business, to identify how well that business is performing.
How long does it take?
Short Course - This course takes between 3 to 9 hours to complete but we'll agree with you at the start a pace to suit you.
What's involved?
Online - You learn this course online. All you need is access to the internet.
To help you choose the right course you can call 0800 101 901, or click below for your next step.
How this course can help your business
- Have more control over your business finances
- Make sound business decisions based on accurate financial information
- Improve efficiency by through improved accounting
- Develop accounting methods that suit the needs of your business
-
Protect your business by adhering to the legal requirements regarding
financial management
Marketing (4 courses)
What is it?
Effective Communication is absolutely crucial in any business. Whether it's dealing with customers, clients or colleagues, it can have a major impact on your business success.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Negotiation (4 courses)
What is it?
Whether it's securing favourable terms for the purchase of raw materials or acquiring the financial support you need to run your business, negotiation is a vital part of modern commerce. This series of courses explores the modern approach to successful negotiation, from the relevance of culture and gender to strategies to break deadlock.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Productivity (12 courses)
What is it?
There are various techniques available to help you increase productivity in business - and many have been proved successful by some of the world's largest organisations.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Quality (5 courses)
What is it?
Managing business quality is about ensuring high levels of service, products, processes and much more. Successful quality management will set you apart from the competition.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Sales (6 courses)
What is it?
The sales team is often one of an organisation’s biggest overheads, so this series of courses has been developed to help you improve your return on that investment. They will equip sales staff with the skills they need to build profitable relationships with customers and make the most of every sales opportunity.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Understanding Organisations (7 courses)
What is it?
Having a fundamental understating of the way that organisations work is essential to everyone.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Using Information (16 courses)
What is it?
Advances in IT mean that organisations can access, record and store more data than ever before. This series of courses will give you new skills to turn that raw data into a highly valuable business resource.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Using Resources (7 courses)
What is it?
A surefire way to increase profits is to improve the efficiency of your business processes. From minimising waste to using equipment effectively, this series of courses will deliver new techniques to help you maximise both human and material resources.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Communication Skills (38 courses)
Briefings (5 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses explores practical techniques to help you plan, write and deliver comprehensive, focused briefs to suppliers, managers or team members.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Communication Skills (23 courses)
What is it?
Learn to communicate with others more effectively in a variety or ways - from questioning skills to reading people's body language.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Meetings (5 courses)
What is it?
Learn how to run successful and focused business meetings, and find out how to make your contributions more effective.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Presentations (5 courses)
What is it?
If you have great presentation skills, then you can deliver ideas professionally and present complex information in a way that’s clear to everyone in your audience.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Complying with the law (37 courses)
Complying with the Law (16 courses)
What is it?
With the number of workplace disputes ending up in court increasing by more than 25% since 2006 it's vital that you take a strategic approach to compliance if you want to minimise the cost and disruption to your business of avoidable tribunals. This series of courses explores your responsibilities as an employer under the major pieces of current employment legislation.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Food Hygiene (1 course)
What is it?
Each year, around 5.5 million people in the UK are struck down by food poisoning .This course will help you to ensure that the food you serve is safe to eat and so protect both the wellbeing of your customers and the reputation of your business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Health and Safety (20 courses)
What is it?
Around 30 million working days are lost to British businesses each year through preventable accidents and ill-health . This series of courses will help you to ensure that you meet your legal responsibility for the health and safety of everyone affected by your business and enable you to reduce the costs and disruption to your business of preventable illnesses, accidents and incidents.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Computers and Software (13 courses)
IT in the Workplace (13 courses)
What is it?
Effective use of IT can mean the difference between business success and business failure. In today's market, a good knowledge of IT is essential for any business manager.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Customer Service (42 courses)
Customer Service (19 courses)
What is it?
Customers are the lifeblood of any business. So paying attention to the way you look after them makes good sense! These courses will show you how.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Customer Service NVQ (23 courses)
What is it?
The success of any business begins and ends with the customer. This series of courses will help you to improve your key customer service skills and show your current employer - and any future employer - that you have reached a recognised, national standard in dealing with customers.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Job and Sector Specific Training (19 courses)
Business and Administration NVQ (3 courses)
What is it?
If you’ve got formal business training and qualifications, you’re an asset to any modern business. An NVQ in Business and Management is your chance to learn new skills and gain valuable qualifications at the same time.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Fork Lift Truck Operation (1 course)
What is it?
The UK's 350,000 fork lift trucks account for more serious accidents at work than cars and HGVs combined, hospitalising over 400 employees each year .This course explores good operator standards and safety practices to help you minimise the risk of workplace accidents.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Health and Social Care NVQ (15 courses)
What is it?
If you already work within the care sector, or are hoping to get a job in that field, these courses will help you to build the core skills necessary to provide exceptional care.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Leadership and Management (95 courses)
Briefings (5 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses explores practical techniques to help you plan, write and deliver comprehensive, focused briefs to suppliers, managers or team members.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Decision Making (5 courses)
What is it?
As a manager, those above and below you rely on your ability to make well-informed decisions. These courses will give you new skills to help you make better decisions and to solve problems skillfully, quickly and effectively.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Leadership (5 courses)
What is it?
To thrive, a business needs organised and effective managers who inspire those they lead to deliver outstanding performance. This series of courses explores the concept of leadership to help you identify, understand and develop more effective leadership skills.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Management NVQ (15 courses)
What is it?
If you’ve got formal management training and qualifications, you’re an asset to any modern business. An NVQ in Management is your chance to learn new skills and gain valuable qualifications at the same time.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Managing Performance (17 courses)
What is it?
It's vital that you take a proactive approach to managing team performance if you are to maximise output quality. This series of courses will give you new techniques to monitor the efficiency of your workforce and practical advice to help you identify and address skills gaps before performance suffers.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Managing Projects (6 courses)
What is it?
There's no mystery involved in successful project management - it's all about effective organisation. Improve your skills in this area and your projects will come in on time and within budget.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Motivation (5 courses)
What is it?
Motivated staff enjoy their work, produce quality results and can become your biggest business asset. This series of courses explore modern motivational theory and practice to help you improve performance, increase productivity and attract and retain loyal staff.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Organising and Delegating (5 courses)
What is it?
As a manager, your role is to focus on strategic business goals. This series of courses will help you to do that, by giving you new techniques to organise your time and resources more efficiently and deploy your team more effectively.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Persuading and Influencing (2 courses)
What is it?
From persuading potential customers that your products are better than your competitors to negotiating with suppliers to charge less for their goods, you need excellent influencing skills if your business is to thrive. This series of courses will develop your skills of persuasion to help you achieve business goals.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Planning (6 courses)
What is it?
Effective planning will enable you to concentrate resources on increasing productivity, improving profits and reducing costs. This series of courses delivers practical techniques to help you plan ahead skillfully and use time and resources more efficiently.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Team Leading (24 courses)
What is it?
A successful leader will inspire a group of individuals to perform as an effective, focused team. This series of courses explores all aspects of team leadership, from planning work and allocating resources to managing conflict and maintaining discipline.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Personal Development in the Workplace (52 courses)
Employability (8 courses)
What is it?
This series of courses is ideal if you are currently looking for work or think it's time for a career change. From writing a CV that stands out from the crowd to making a great first impression at interviews, you'll learn practical new skills to help you find and secure your dream job.Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Handling Stress (9 courses)
What is it?
Stress management is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses today - British workers take almost 14 million stress-related sick days each year. To help you improve attendance, job satisfaction and productivity, these courses explore the causes of stress and the techniques you can use to manage its symptoms.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Problem Solving (5 courses)
What is it?
If you can solve problems, then you are an asset to any modern business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Self Development (9 courses)
What is it?
For a business to thrive in today’s competitive environment, it’s vital that every employee is competent, efficient and productive. These courses will help you to identify skills gaps in yourself and your team and formulate a focused development plan to address them.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Time Management (5 courses)
What is it?
Wasted time costs British businesses £80 billion per year .These courses will help you to improve the way you manage your time and organise your workload so that you achieve more during your working day.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Working in Teams (16 courses)
What is it?
A well-balanced, focussed team is a potent business tool. Building that team could be easier than you think - it's simply a question of following some simple stages to develop your team in the right way.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Recruitment, Training and Appraisal (20 courses)
Coaching and Training (9 courses)
What is it?
Coaching is recognised as one of the most cost-effective and efficient ways to improve workplace performance. These courses will give you the skills and techniques you need to pass on your experience and expertise to your team.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Recruitment (11 courses)
What is it?
Recruiting the right staff with the skills, knowledge and experience you need is essential if your business is to prosper. This series of courses will guide you through the entire recruitment process, from writing a job specification to induction training for new recruits.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
Starting and Developing a Small Business (9 courses)
Starting your own business (3 courses)
What is it?
More than half a million people in the UK start their own business each year .These courses will help you give your new enterprise the best chance of success by exploring the challenges you will face in the early days of running your own business.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
The Apprentice (4 courses)
What is it?
Based on the popular TV show, these courses will help you learn better management skills in the areas of leadership, sales, and negotiation.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
e-commerce (2 courses)
What is it?
77% of all UK Internet users will buy something online in 2008 .These courses will help you to harness the power of e-commerce to access the mass market, find new customers and create 24-hour access to your products and services.
Next Steps
To get help choosing the right course, learn with the support of a tutor, or find out if you could get funding, visit your nearest learndirect centre.
Or, to learn independently buy a course online today.
