Consolidating our online, self-study training

Looking to the future of our online CPD training

This summer, we’re embarking on a project to consolidate and unify our offering of online, self-study courses with our wider online training provision so that we can continue to provide you with flexible, affordable and high-quality training.

Over the coming months, all of our online self-study courses will join our other online, blended and face-to-face courses on a new version of Moodle, the hub of our online learning environment. A key part of our new Digital Education Strategy, this consolidation will support us in further embedding digital approaches in our teaching, while delivering a more consistent and streamlined experience for all our students.

As part of this work, we’ll be starting to phase out the use of our Digital Academy brand. The Digital Academy was first launched in September 2020 as a platform for our online self-study courses. It has been hugely successful with students from all over the world and we’ve upskilled students in a range of topics, including perinatal mental health, trauma, children’s development, and wellbeing at work.

Now, with the majority of our courses incorporating digital elements, and almost all short, CPD courses being delivered remotely online, it no longer makes sense to differentiate between our Digital Academy courses and wider CPD training. Instead, all our courses will be supported and delivered through the same online learning environment. This consolidated approach will enable us to offer a more cohesive digital learning experience for all our students.

This means that you might notice a few changes to the branding and appearance of some courses and communications. We want to reassure you that this will not affect the content of live courses and that you’ll be able to continue with any existing learning, as well as booking onto new courses.

Paul Dugmore, Director of Education (Learning and Teaching) shared: “By unifying and upgrading our learning platforms, we are re-affirming our commitment to delivering first-class training to students worldwide. I encourage you to experience this for yourself by joining a course. It’s never too late to learn something new and we are dedicated to making this ambition easily achievable amidst the demands of modern life”.

We have exciting plans to continue to expand our online training over the coming months and years. This Autumn, we will be opening bookings for further self-study training including our brand new courses Child sexual abuse disclosure: how to support adult survivors and Supporting children of parents with mental illness: a systemic approach.