About the Careers and Employability Services
From the start of your studies and for up to three years after, the OU Careers and Employability Services (CES) are here to help you explore your options, plan and work towards your career or personal goals and support you with searching and applying for opportunities.
Services
You have access to a wide range of online tools, resources, workshops, events, and one-to-one guidance. You'll need to sign in as a student to see some of these services.
- The Careers and employability pages on the Help Centre provide a wealth of information and advice on many aspects of your career from initial exploration to searching and applying for opportunities.
- OpportunityHub is your online platform for connecting with employers and finding the latest opportunities. You can also book events and one-to-one consultations.
- Use the interactive Abintegro CV tools to create and review your CV, and practise your interview techniques with Interview360.
- Sign up for employer events and live workshops through OpportunityHub events and access a range of audio and webinar recordings, forums and other resources on our webinars and forums platform.
- For further help with any aspects of career planning or applying for opportunities, book a one-to-one careers consultation with one of our careers professionals to take place by email, telephone or video call.
To find out more about what help is available after you graduate, see Careers support for three years after you study on OpportunityHub.
If you're an overseas student studying full time through one of our partner organisations, you're not eligible to access our careers guidance services. You need to contact your host organisation for information on what careers services are available to you.
All other OU students based outside the UK are entitled to the full range of support offered by the Careers and Employability Services.
Other sources of help
For additional careers advice and guidance in the UK nations and Ireland, or for support beyond three years after study, look at the websites below. Keep in mind that the extent of advice and guidance provided varies and there may be charges for some services.
For employers
As an employer you can
- advertise vacancies free on our opportunities platform
- find out about our services for employers
- contact us by email for any other queries.
Your privacy
As an OU student or an Alumni who finished study within the last 3 years, CES specifically uses your personal information for the provision of personalised careers and employability support. This is a service which is part of our public task of delivering higher education qualifications.
We use your personal data in the following ways:
- To provide access to OpportunityHub (the CES careers management system) using your OU credentials. Your details will be used to communicate potential events or opportunities according to your student profile, preferences and choice of study. You can manage your preferences from within the system and switch off any communications you no longer wish to receive.
- To record any requests from you for careers support via the OU student management system.
- To create and document an action plan as a result of a careers appointment; this remains confidential within Careers and Employability Services.
For more information on how the OU uses your data, and on your rights, please see our privacy notices.
matrix accreditation
The OU Careers and Employability Services are accredited against the national matrix quality standard for the provision of information, advice and guidance services through our Regional Student Services and Student Recruitment service. Specialist careers advisers are professionally qualified.