The purpose is to offer education and learning opportunities for workers in Wales. This offer was initially focused on The OU’s informal (free to access) learning resources. It has since expanded to support formal (paid) study through the Wales Union Learning Fund (WULF), which is what this website has been designed to communicate.
Through an application to your union’s WULF project, certain formal courses can be paid for in part or in full by WULF.
Please note that an application to access WULF must be submitted and agreed by the relevant union’s WULF lead.
This is a great opportunity for you. There are no catches. If you start an OU course, we hope you will enjoy it and successfully complete it. But if you drop out of the course, there is no penalty; you will not be charged for any fees.
To see if OU learning is right for you, maybe start with one or two free courses on OpenLearn, and then you can progress on to something a little more formal.
This opportunity is aimed at members of unions in Wales, though support is open to all workers in Wales.
If you currently meet one of the following criteria, then you can express an interest and find out about applying for funding for the formal (paid) courses offered. The course fees will be paid directly to the OU for you by the relevant WULF Project if you are eligible.
- A worker, or recently made redundant.
- A member of a union in Wales.
- Non-union members are also potentially eligible; however, each union will have its own support and application structure.
Don’t forget that anyone can also access the free courses provided on the OU’s OpenLearn platform.
The OU offers a huge range of courses. Some free learning courses take less than an hour to complete, but most are a little more substantial. Most OU courses are self-paced, so you can take as long as you need to complete them. They are designed so you can study around your other commitments such as family or work.
Both OU Access courses and micro-credentials can be funded by WULF, an Access course is typically 30 weeks of study and a micro-credential is typically 10–12 weeks of study.