New free online learning platform to boost workplace skills

28 Apr 2020 02:30 PM

The Department for Education has signposted to digital and numeracy courses that will help people gain skills while staying home during COVID-19.

A new online learning platform to help boost the nation's skills while people are staying at home has been launched by the Department for Education. Free high-quality digital and numeracy courses are available through a new online platform called The Skills Toolkit to help build people's skills, progress in work, and boost their job prospects.

This approach is hugely welcome as the impact of COVID-19 has shown how important digital skills are - both for work and communicating with our loved ones. techUK has previously called for establishing a digital learning pathway because we believe that everyone should be able to access resources to improve their skills and retrain at any age and at all skill levels. It is crucial that such high-quality and free-to-access courses continue to be spotlighted by industry and Government alike so that adults are able to refresh and retraining their skills.

With more people working and studying remotely in the coming months, the platform offers a great opportunity to learn new skills to help to get ahead online and gain the knowledge we'll all need for the future. The platform also offers employees who have been furloughed an opportunity to keep up their skills development while they are at home, as 82% of all job vacancies currently require some form of digital skills.

The site highlights introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses designed to meet a range of needs. The courses have been selected on the advice of experts and leading employers, including techUK, to make sure they meet the needs of business.

Tech is going to play an important role in our economic recovery post-pandemic and this platform is a great first step towards assisting with the longer-term recovery by ensuring we encourage everyone to continue learning.

Julian David, CEO of techUK yesterday said:

"techUK is pleased to see Government taking an active role in signposting and motivating the public to take advantage of the digital skills training industry offers, techUK has long advocated for a move in this direction. Digital skills will be crucial to the future of the UK economy and our recovery from the COVID crisis.

"techUK is passionate about ensuring everyone has access resources to improve their skills and retrain at any age and at all skill levels and we expect this initiative to be a great start on the journey to upskilling Britain."

Employers are also encouraged to use The Skills Toolkit to help to support and develop furloughed employees who are interested in learning from home.