Prospectus Online supports you to find the learning to develop the skills, knowledge and networks you need for a successful career in the Civil Service.

Whether you’re browsing for your own benefit, or looking for something to meet your team’s development needs, you should be able to find whatever you require.

For ease of navigation, the home page provides you with links to the Universal Skills, Specialist Skills and Talent programmes.

The offer

There are many free to access courses hosted on Civil Service Learning. The home page enables you to find courses recommended by the National School linked to each of the 6 Universal Skills categories. However, you can still find courses by searching for the course name and all course links remain the same, so if you have saved links or your department has recommended them to you, you will still be able to go directly to them.

Courses are a mixture of online and live events, either face to face or virtual. The digital elements of these courses are bite-sized and accessible, allowing you to engage with them when, how and where you choose, conveniently slotting them around your work commitments. These activities include everything from videos and self-assessments through to quizzes and online tutorials.

These are often accompanied by a workshop to enable you to practice skills and learn from others. These are social learning activities, rather than traditional classroom learning. The focus here is on discussing and practising, as a group, what you covered in the digital activities that preceded the workshop. This is an opportunity for you and your colleagues to support one another in your development, reflect on what you’ve learned and think about how best to use your new-found skills back in the workplace.

Universal Skills

Universal Skills are the skills important for everyone, regardless of grade, profession, department, or level. Built around six core capability areas, the Universal Skills curriculum comprises over 200 courses designed to enhance productivity and professional effectiveness:

• Working in Government: Understanding Parliament, Ministers, devolution, and the responsibilities of a civil servant.
• Leadership & Management: Skills for leading teams, managing operations, and line management.
• Digital, Data, Innovation & AI: Digital literacy, data analysis, innovation, and Artificial Intelligence.
• Communication & Collaboration: Working with customers, Stakeholder management, writing, presentation, and listening skills.
• Personal Effectiveness: Productivity, organisation, wellbeing, and resilience.
• Strategy & Critical Thinking: Strategic planning, problem-solving, systems thinking, and foresight.

These courses are available on Civil Service Learning website.

Specialist Skills

Many roles require specific, technical, or professional expertise. Alongside our Universal Skills curriculum, we are developing dedicated pathways for Specialist Skills. These provide targeted learning opportunities to help civil servants master the professional requirements of specific roles.

On Prospectus Online you will find courses recommended by your professions for each stage of your career. As you start to browse the prospectus, you can click on an individual course to find out more. You’ll find out what the activity involves, the subject matter it covers, the expected outcomes and how to make a booking. In addition, you can search for training by using the Courses by Topic list. This gives you access to a substantial portfolio of off-the-shelf learning to meet niche and role/ department specific requirements. These are ready-made courses where no Civil Service contextualisation is required, as well as a vast array of technical accreditations and qualifications.

Talent programmes

Our talent programmes offer accelerated development opportunities to equip civil servants with the skills, networks, and confidence to succeed at every career stage, from early entry to senior leadership. The Accelerated Development Schemes provide targeted development and cross-government networking opportunities for high potential individuals to accelerate career progression and drive key government priorities.

Bespoke Learning Design & Delivery

The offer includes design and delivery of bespoke learning solutions. Operating across five core stages—Strategy, Design, Development, Delivery, and Evaluation—the offering ranges from capability assessments and transformation roadmaps to bespoke digital content, immersive simulations, and course facilitation. This ensures learning is directly aligned with departmental goals and drives measurable behavioural and performance change.

Coaching & Subject Matter Expertise

The offering includes access to a diverse community of experienced coaches via a consumer-grade platform that aligns personal and organisational objectives. The platform supports coach matching, booking sessions, and tracking goals, while enabling macro-analysis to inform long-term leadership strategy. Additionally Subject Matter Experts, facilitators, and guest speakers to support specialist learning requirements, leadership events, and action learning sets is available.

How to book

If you haven’t used the portal previously, you can find plenty of help and guidance on the ‘how to book’ page.