Fourteen programmes covering the skills behind modern manufacturing, electronics, software, AI, secure computing and the buildings and data centres they run in.
Manufacturing · Level 3
Drone Manufacturing
Learn how multirotor drones are designed, built and tested, from the basics to the physical build, with practical work on a real production line.
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- How multirotor drones fly: frames, motors, propellers and flight controllers
- Making frames and printed circuit boards (PCBs)
- Assembly, wiring and soldering to a production standard
- Testing, quality checks and safe handling
- Working on an automated production line
For: New entrants to manufacturing and people moving into electronics assembly.
Diploma in Peripheral Engineering
Design and build the hardware devices that connect to computers, taking your own circuit board from first design through to release.
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- Electronic design for peripheral devices
- PCB design, prototyping and testing
- Firmware and device interfaces
- Compliance, documentation and release
- Eight units, each assessed through practical labs
For: Technicians and engineers moving into hardware and electronics design.
Diploma in Cyber Engineering
A two-level, 240-credit diploma in building and defending secure systems, assessed entirely through hands-on work in sandboxed labs.
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- Secure systems and network engineering
- Software and hardware security
- Detecting and responding to attacks
- Security operations and incident handling
- A dedicated lab for every learning outcome
For: IT professionals and graduates moving into cyber security engineering.
Chip Engineering
Learn how computer chips are designed, prototyped and verified, from digital logic to working hardware.
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- Digital logic and hardware description languages
- Prototyping designs on FPGAs
- Verification and testing
- Chip-to-board integration and PCB design
- How chips are manufactured and packaged
For: Electronics engineers and graduates moving into semiconductor design.
Data Centre Design
Learn how data centres are planned, designed and run, from site and power to cooling, networks and resilience.
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- Site selection, planning and layout
- Power supply, distribution and back-up
- Cooling and energy efficiency
- Network and rack design
- Resilience, security and operations
For: Engineers, facilities and IT professionals working on data centre projects.
Construction Trades
Work-based programmes for each construction trade, from groundworks to electrical installation, combining study with practical work on real building projects.
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- One programme per trade, including groundworks and electrical installation
- Practical work on live residential and commercial builds
- Health, safety and site working
- Progression from Level 3 to Level 5
For: New entrants to construction and tradespeople building their skills.
Software Development
Learn to build working software, from first program to deployed application, writing real code on real projects throughout.
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- Programming fundamentals and clean code
- Web, API and database development
- Version control and team workflows
- Building, deploying and maintaining applications
- Secure coding practice
For: New entrants to software and people retraining as developers.
Software Design
Learn how to turn requirements into well-structured software that is easy to change, test and maintain.
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- Requirements and user needs
- Object-oriented and functional design
- Design patterns and principles
- Modelling with UML and diagrams
- Designing for usability, security and change
For: Developers who want to design better software and move into senior roles.
Software Architecture
Learn how to shape large systems: choosing architectures, making trade-offs and planning for scale, security and cloud.
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- Architecture styles: layered, microservices, event-driven
- Cloud and distributed systems
- Scalability, reliability and performance
- Security and data architecture
- Documenting decisions and leading technical teams
For: Experienced developers and engineers moving into architect roles.
Software Testing
Learn how to find defects before users do, from manual testing to automated test suites in a delivery pipeline.
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- Testing principles and test design
- Unit, integration and end-to-end testing
- Test automation and continuous integration
- Performance and security testing
- Quality assurance and reporting
For: New entrants to tech and developers who want to specialise in quality.
AI Governance
Learn how organisations use AI safely, lawfully and ethically, from policies and risk assessment to oversight and accountability.
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- How AI systems work and where they go wrong
- UK law, regulation and standards that apply to AI
- AI risk assessment and impact assessments
- Writing and applying AI policies
- AI in finance, procurement and decision-making
For: Managers, compliance and governance staff, and anyone responsible for AI use at work.
AI Architecture
Learn to design and build AI systems in the cloud, with hands-on labs on real cloud platforms.
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- AI and machine learning building blocks
- Designing AI solutions on cloud platforms
- Data pipelines, storage and model hosting
- Security, cost and performance
- Hands-on cloud labs
For: Developers, engineers and architects moving into AI.
Machine Learning and Neural Networks
Learn how machine learning models are built and trained, from the basics to convolutional neural networks for images.
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- Machine learning fundamentals
- Training, testing and evaluating models
- Neural networks and deep learning
- Convolutional neural networks
- Responsible use of data and models
For: Learners with some programming experience who want to build AI models.
Building AI Agents
Learn how AI agents and assistants are built, connected to tools and data, and kept under human control.
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- Large language models and how they work
- Prompting, retrieval and tool use
- Building agents on cloud AI services
- Testing, monitoring and guardrails
- Human oversight and governance of agents
For: Developers and technical staff building AI into products and workflows.
These programmes are designed by Orvanta Open College. Course content, levels and start dates may change before launch.