City life | By Laura Hill
Explore a range of opportunities through City’s short courses
City offers over a hundred evening and weekend online courses where students can top up their skills or discover new passions. Affordable, interactive and renowned for their high quality, they also benefit from the University’s strong industry links.
City Alumni are entitled to a 25 per cent discount on the majority of short courses. In addition, permanent members of staff are entitled to 50 per cent off selected short courses. The 120 part-time courses available cover industries including business, computing, creative writing, languages and law. All taught by industry experts, these live online sessions are not to be missed.
Take Maggie Richards for example, she tutors on the Introduction to Copywriting short course. With an invaluable 23 years of experience as a writer, national press journalist and author, she credits the introductory course as being “a great way to start or grow your all-important (copy)writing portfolio.” During her weekend course, students can benefit from Maggie’s expertise where she provides an inspiring tour of the fundamentals of pro-level copywriting.
She says “students particularly enjoy the practical exercises, which they do individually, in pairs and as a group. The dynamic mix of theory and practice works really well.” When asked what students go on to achieve on completion of the course, Maggie explains, “several have gone on to secure full-time paid copywriting roles. Others seized the opportunity to have a 500-word piece of their choice professionally edited and published on City’s short courses blog”
Another example is Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone who teaches The Novel Studio, a unique opportunity to work on your novel for a year. “If you want help to write a fiction book, The Novel Studio is a brilliant course to help you on your way with all the tools you need,” she explains.
Rebekah is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at the Open University. She feels “going back to being a student again myself has been beneficial and enabled me to think about what students need and what really matters.” The Novel Studio is “a focused year-long programme, keeping an open-minded approach to helping you make your work actually happen.”
Although all teaching is now solely online, this has given a platform for short courses to cater for not only students across the UK, but all over the world. Rebekah says that The Novel Studio “takes pride in building a sense of community with all students, with the majority staying in touch with one another after the course has finished.”
“Those on the course get lots of attention on their work, with the annual showcase to publishing agencies in the final term, being a highlight. The feedback has been really positive. We always get messages from students at the end, saying how sad they are that the course is finishing. We feel it is key to sustain that contact with alumni, we care about continuing to help them grow and develop their careers.”
Students benefit from these life changing practical courses, introducing them to new skills and interests. But don’t take our word for it, hear from the students themselves.
“Maggie is a wonderful teacher and very inspiring. I came away from the course wanting to get straight into the copywriting business. A month later, I am already working with clients as a freelancer” Holly James, Introduction to Copywriting.
“The Novel Studio is a well-structured course, building through the planning stages, writing approaches and ending with how to navigate the publishing industry. The tutors were hugely supportive, in addition to benefiting from workshopping our material with class mates” Richard Bowyer, The Novel Studio.
“I would recommend The Novel Studio to any writer looking for the tools, space and skills to develop their novel. I came onto the course with an idea and here I am now deeply committed and working hard on my first novel” Hawa Maua, The Novel Studio.