However, Hull College has continued to offer fully-funded skills training for workforces and support unemployed individuals to move into work and training opportunities through its online learning platform.

“Online learning has become key throughout lockdown and that will no doubt continue to be the case post-COVID,” explains Simon Bowman, Team Leader at HCUK Training. “As a team, it has been great to work with and help a wide range of businesses and learners – aged from 19 all the way to 60 – over the past twelve months.”

“Although no-one knew how long we would be in lockdown for when it was first introduced last March, we knew that we would have to change our approach somewhat if we wanted to continue providing our services to both businesses and learners.”

“Working with employers and the Job Centre, we successfully managed to find a way to deliver our training experience fully online. This resulted in us providing courses ranging from customer service and food safety to manufacturing skills and health and safety, although we found the biggest uptake was for qualifications in awareness of mental health problems and digital skills, and successfully delivering over 16 Sector Work Academy Programmes online for more than 10 employers.”

“And courses are still running now as we continue to work with employers wanting to upskill their existing workforce, along with supporting those who find themselves unemployed and looking to get back into work. The whole experience has been very rewarding and we look forward to more success stories throughout 2021.”

About Simon Bowman