They say necessity is the mother of invention but I reckon that pregnancy and pandemics challenge you to think differently too.  Let me explain….

I’m going back a few years to when I was Riverside’s Level 5 tutor and heavily pregnant with my 3^rd daughter. In those days we relied heavily on work-based training and I was beginning to find all the travelling around the country exhausting. We also had many learners travelling to our Hereford HQ for sessions. It seemed like we were spending many hours not actually training and tutoring but in transit. And it was costly too.

So I thought there had to be an alternative delivery mechanism – one which could be done remotely and save both time and money and my aching back. It wouldn’t call it an original idea but I hit upon the use of Skype to make contact with my learners. It wasn’t the best technology but it worked and within weeks I was reaching out to almost all my learners and employer contacts in this way.

The key thing I found was that they all seemed to embrace remote contact as much as I did. I just hoped it wasn’t personal! I don’t think it was as several of my tutor colleagues started working the same way.

Fast forward  a year or so and I was being interviewed for the role of Operations Manager on the Senior Management team. As well as managing our team of tutors the role called for someone to drive forward Riverside’s whole approach to its delivery process. So my pitch was based on the concept of moving towards a remote learning model as Riverside’s primary delivery mechanism. The clincher I think was the proposal to re-invest the money we’d save on more technology and innovative platforms which you can explore here later.

As it happened it proved to be a bold and very important decision by the SMT as within months the covid pandemic had hit and we were compelled to work in a completely different way. Remote learning suited the new environment perfectly.  Not only does this provide a safe learning environment for our learners and our staff, it also allows our client businesses to continue to up-skill their employees whilst remaining Covid-compliant, ensuring business continuity. Today most of our courses are delivered via Zoom which is Covid-safe, limits disruption and does away with costly travel and overnight costs. It just makes complete sense.

Many businesses really struggled to survive during the pandemic and although our business was impacted by it, we are fairly sure that our adaptable and innovative approach enabled Riverside not just to survive but to thrive. By thinking differently we’ve emerged stronger with a distinctive modus operandi and identity.

Has it worked operationally? Well we are currently achieving 100% pass rates once learners pass through Gateway (versus an average of 94% amongst a clutch of other providers). And 75% of our learners are achieving qualifications at distinction level. Whilst our post qualification tracking of satisfaction levels remains very strong at 96% amongst employers and 86% amongst learners.

That said  we are all constantly learning how to adapt the process to keep it engaging for both our learners and our staff. So we are employing symbols and chat boxes and plug-ins like Jamboard to keep the experience highly-interactive and a bit of fun too.

But I’m the first to admit too that people are social animals and F2F interaction with colleagues is something that people have missed during lockdown. Now that things have eased a little we are trying hard to encourage safely-held water cooler moments both live in the office and online too. So that we can natter about issues other than work. It’s good to talk but it’s great just to chat sometimes.

Donna Loynton, Operations & Quality Manager

As ABBA succinctly put it, this is all about the Money, Money, Money

There was an interesting article in last week’s Sunday Times. A respected former Head of Kings College School, Wimbledon was offering advice to anxious 6th formers who’ve fallen short of the offer grades for getting to Uni. He asked ‘What can you do? And he offered several slices of advice:

• Clearing; except that this year places at many of the better Universities are more limited because they admitted more students than planned last year, following the grading fiasco. So forget trading up. Do you really want to end up at a lesser Uni with still-high expensive tuition fees and living costs? More on this point later.
• You could maybe consider re-taking your subjects but you’ll need to find a tutor (not cheap) or college or see if you can do  a third year 6^th back at school (though all your mates will have left of course)
• You could try for a place studying a related subject eg archaeology instead of history or materials science rather than that engineering course you’d set your heart on. And possibly risk disappointment later?
• You could look at Uni’s abroad but how viable is that in a covid world?

He then posed the big question; do you really want to go to Uni at all? It’s a very good question. Uni can be a great experience of course but traditional teaching methods are fast disappearing.  Many courses now rely heavily on online teaching. Will you be happy to pay those expensive tuition fees and rarely have a face-to-face session with your lecturer/tutor? Forget the days of Good Will Hunting; today it’s more like Big Bill Resulting.

Look we need to get into the economics of this as it is likely to be the biggest investment of your life outside of buying a place in which to live.  I’m the MD of a dynamic and respected training provider specialising in Apprenticeship training so you might think I’m biased. But I’m a Finance guy and numbers matter to me.  I’m convinced that choosing an Apprenticeship course compares incredibly favourably with heading off to Uni from a financial point of view.

And here’s the headline bit of logic; young people who choose an Apprenticeship over a University place could be more than £50,000 better off. Let me just repeat that: you could be more than £50,000 better off.   Here’s the maths….

• it’s generally accepted that average rent costs are c £12,500 and living costs c £14,250 for any student away at Uni or on an Apprenticeship over 3 years
• Apprentices typically earn £40,000 over 3 years whilst qualifying, delivering an excess of c £13,250 after living costs and rent
• Meanwhile University graduates incur debts of c £40,000
• The net balance is that Apprentices can be well over £50,000 better off

That’s a hell of a lot of a financial edge when you’re in your 20’s (or even at a more mature age). And here’s another pointer; the average salary after graduating with a degree is between £18,000 – £23,000. The average after completing an Apprenticeship is £20,000 – £25,000. Impressed?

But important as it is, it’s not just a financial equation, compelling as it is. There’s just so much sense to learn as you earn whilst achieving equivalence in qualifications and parity of esteem. Apprenticeship training is no longer the Cinderella  learning option; it’s the most sensible and smartest choice if you are feeling anxious about those results. Trust me.

Paul Workman

MD, Riverside Training

Jane Preston, the founder of Riverside Training, describes her motivations behind setting up the company some 25 years ago and amazingly she appears not a day older. We learn about her background and her influencers and the values she has embodied within the company.