Month: August 2025

find lifelong learning at Edinburgh

Our short courses catalogue, which launched in May of this year, continues to grow, attracting visitors and over 1,800 enrolments to courses from engaged learners looking to learn something new, upskill or enhance their knowledge.

In the month of July there were over 800 enrolments to courses, an increase of 5% compared to June. Active users to the catalogue also increased by 68% month on month, with 58% more views to pages than in the month of June.  

With both organic and paid-for campaigns in place we expect to see this this trend of increasing web traffic and bookings over the coming months. We would encourage colleagues to share the short courses catalogue through their networks, mailing lists, on websites and social media channels.  

The Short Courses Platform Service team are working with colleagues to add more courses whilst also continuing to refine and optimise the catalogue based on user feedback. Some enhancements over the next few weeks and months will include a new and improved dynamic filter experience, enhanced course options table and cosmetic changes. This will ensure that the site continues to meet the needs of our users providing them with the best possible user experience when booking on to a course. 

Home | Short Courses – University of Edinburgh

Digital skills training for scientists and engineers

Building on previous research  analysis on who attends training, in what mode:

We know from our research that men in College of Science and Engineering (CSE)  are less likely to access digital skills training than women. This highlights a risk that they may get left behind.

My Digital Skills Training Team conducted a mapping exercise, matching our existing courses to the identified skills gaps, and ‘Digital Skills for CSE’ was born – a programme of 18 training sessions delivered over the course of two months, specifically for CSE staff audiences.

202 CSE colleagues attended the programme of training – this represents approximately 20% of the total annual CSE staff attendance across the entire Digital Skills Programme. ‘Digital Skills for CSE’ had a mean attendance of 11.2 people per session, which is slightly higher than our usual average attendance rate. We saw a no-show rate of 25% – this is lower than our usual no-show rate, which can vary between 30%-50%, depending on the course, time of year, and demographic breakdown of attendees (we usually see a higher no-show rate among student attendees).

The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive, with 96% of respondents stating that the course was relevant to their needs, and 98% of respondents agreeing that attending the course had given them a greater understanding of the topic.

Read more: Digital Skills for CSE – a data-driven success story – Digital Skills, Design and Training