Whether you’re looking for interesting activities to boost your skills on specific subjects, or support with activities that can make you more employable and build your CV, we’ve found some apps and websites that will help you do it!
TIP: Some of these will be particularly useful if you’re in Year 12 and looking to enhance your personal statement!
Open Learn
Open Learn is the free learning platform from the Open University. Designed to increase confidence and develop the skills needed to enter Higher Education, its free courses cover an impressive range of subjects, including Health, Sports and Psychology, History and the Arts, Languages, Money and Business, Nature and Environment, Science, Maths and Technology, and Society, Politics and Law.
Isaac Physics
Isaac Physics is another free platform for learning. It is dedicated to Physics and it is designed to offer support and activities in physics problem-solving to students transitioning from GCSE, through to A-levels, onto university. They are also running a free student virtual bootcamp in Physics between 23 August and 27 August.
Plus
This is a free online maths magazine aimed at the interested and intelligent general reader, including older students (16+). Lively, accessible and in-depth articles and podcasts explore all aspects of maths, ranging from what string theory predicts about hidden dimensions to mathematics in medicine. Meanwhile, news items uncover the hidden maths behind media headlines and report news from the world of research. It is part of the wider Millennium Maths project from the University of Cambridge.
Will Play
WillPlay is an immersive educational experience for mobile and desktop, aimed at secondary school students. It uses a new machine-learning story-telling platform, Charisma.ai, to create an Artificial Intelligence-powered reimagining of Shakespeare’s plays. It is created by researchers in the Faculty of English in collaboration with UK games company. Imagine texting with Juliet while Romeo is under her balcony and advising her what to do (hint: she won’t listen if you tell her to stop talking to him!)
Skills2 use
Skills2use is an app that can help you prepare for interview questions. It has 200 questions answered, tips on how to articulate your transferable skills and advice to increase your self-confidence when interviewing. Its questions can help you with a job, apprenticeship or university applicant interview and it is free to download for Make Happen students.
Springpod: virtual work experience programmes
If you are looking to find a virtual work experience programme, then this website has a wide collection of opportunities. Online work experience can be a very rewarding process, as you will still be able to learn and make contributions to the projects you will be working on, similarly to what you would be doing in person.
Duolingo
Duolingo is a language learning website and mobile app which are accessible without charge, although Duolingo also offers a premium service for a fee. The app offers 106 different language courses in 40 languages and it has over 300 million registered users across the world. It offers a skill tree of lessons that use listening exercises, flashcards, and multiple-choice questions to drill you on new words, phrases, and sentences.