Created by employers in hospitality to upskill young people in the industry, Apprenticeships in Hospitality Scotland (AHS) recognised the huge impact that the shut down of the industry was going to have on its apprentices. The organisation developed a range of online activities including master classes, meetings and even a graduation ceremony. AHS also communicated to apprentices that they could access wellbeing support from the Hospitality Action Employee Assistance Programme as the organisation was aware of the impact that the sector closure could have on their apprentices’ mental health.

This independent network of residential care homes moved its face-to-face training online. This was in response to the need to close care homes to visitors and meet regulatory requirements in relation to Covid-19. Caring Homes focused on the wellbeing of staff and launched a buddy awareness system and a weekly wellbeing email. In response to the impact on the care sector, the organisation has also launched a PTSD workshop available to all employees.

This immersive learning company providing professional skills development needed to overhaul its in-person live events and trainer facilitated sessions to create an equally engaging virtual experience. By conducting a gap analysis Chronyko discovered what was needed and upskilled employees in technology and video production. As a small team that was used to working together, moving to remote working was challenging but this helped employees to better understand and overcome the issues that the clients were also facing. This has led to a more confident and versatile team who understand that pushing boundaries will create new learning opportunities.

When close contact services re-opened after the first lockdown, Dermalogica had to manage and communicate different guidance to its service and retails partners working in a range of settings and across the 4 UK nations and the Republic of Ireland. To prepare staff for re-opening and to provide a positive experience for all, Dermalogica developed a three phase plan mapping each service to tier restrictions. E-learning programmes were developed for each phase and rolled out prior to stores re-opening and live sessions were available to offer advice and troubleshoot. The programme was highly regarded and was adopted as a model by many retail partners including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

This community radio station recognised the importance to mental health and wellbeing to its listeners and initiated a community response which included distributing face masks, giving away free radios and delivering fitness sessions on air. The station continued to offer learning and development opportunities to its volunteers by moving programmes online to a dedicated server. Gateway also supported its volunteers to enable them to broadcast from home by providing equipment and learning support.

This construction company with a strong commitment to apprenticeships used a range of approaches when the pandemic hit including moving some training online and increasing its fleet to allow trainees to travel to sites separately and safely. At a time when many businesses halted their apprenticeship programmes, Gelder invested in their apprentices. Outcomes include the apprentice rate remaining at 90% and the business’s ethos still places great importance on an apprentice recruitment philosophy and approach.

GSK faced immediate challenges in March 2020 around employees working safely in its laboratories. It made the strategic decision to continue to honour placements for post-graduate and PhD students asking that they finalised university work and produced scientific papers whilst working from home. This led to a number of students having papers published and achieving awards for their work. GSK introduced innovative techniques such as trainers wearing Smart glasses so that students could see what was happening in a lab whilst based remotely and the company plans to retain some of the adapted ways of working.

The Counter Fraud Academy delivers criminal justice training to HMRC’s employees. In March 2020 the Fraud Investigation Service was in the midst of a significant recruitment programme of 300 employees. All face-to-face training stopped and an agile move was made to using Digital Classrooms. The Academy’s 40+ trainers were quickly upskilled to the technology and as confidence grew, more elements of the face-to-face programme were built into the online solution. In the year 2020-21 86% of training has been delivered online and the pandemic has changed the Academy’s approach with some programmes continuing to be delivered remotely in the longer-term.

Home Instead Senior Care is a franchise operator with over 220 sites providing essential care for older people in their homes. The organisation needed to recruit and upskill caregivers to be able to provide support to new clients as quickly as possible. Using its Learning Management System, Home Instead made topics such as hand washing technique and infection control mandatory and also introduced online training around conditions that caregivers may not be familiar with such as Multiple Sclerosis. There was a large uplift in using the online system with 85% of caregivers engaging and over 100,000 e-learning modules were completed by employees during the pandemic.

IBM used a range of online channels to continue to deliver all learning programmes to schedule and onboard early professionals across all schemes from March 2020. The business used champions within teams who could support with the roll-out of new ways of working. IBM has continued to encourage opportunities for personal and professional growth and understands the importance of learned-led groups and the continued need for communities during this time. The company has learned that some elements of training have been improved through the online approach and is looking at how to integrate the positives into future learning and development activity.

Legal & General had already been moving towards an agile working model when the pandemic hit. Pre-empting stress and anxiety in staff was an immediate focus and managers were used as a focal point to ensure staff wellbeing was a continual priority. An online learning model has led to unexpected benefits including better interaction between departments and improved e-sat scores reflecting that employees have felt supported through the lockdowns.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime. As Covid-19 lockdown restrictions eased, the NCA reinstated some face-to-face training delivery to maintain its operational effectiveness. Some skills-based learning such as officer safety training needed to be undertaken at close contact therefore ensuring a safe space for this to take place was of the utmost importance. A range of other training interventions was used including self-guided learning and digital delivery where possible and the following engagement survey showed an overall positive increase.

Openreach’s engineers were operating as key workers during the pandemic and this provided challenges around communicating essential information on ‘permitted workarounds’ both to employees and customers. All training initially moved online and ‘bite size learning packages’ were created. Openreach developed a ‘Be an Expert’ podcast series which provided information on testing and improving broadband quality for customers and service providers which has built up a high number of listeners and has led to a visible reduction in faulting and repairs. Openreach has seen many positives due to adapting ways of working including bringing together learners virtually from Orkney to Cornwall and improving skills, innovation and expertise across the business.

The Royal Navy faced a variety of challenges due to the global nature of its learning and development responsibilities as well as its obligation to meeting national security requirements. By developing a flexible approach using a range of digital and face-to-face training – which included reaching apprentices and conducting assessments at sea – the Royal Navy has identified and introduced new and effective ways to deliver its learning and development agenda.

The University of York created a number of resources and programmes in response to addressing concerns and supporting staff amidst a shifting landscape. ‘Moving to Thriving’ was created as a set of wellbeing webinars focusing on different topics and providing a safe space for employees to ask questions and share experiences. Resources were shared with delegates and a dedicated Slack channel was established as way for them to continue to communicate. 97% participants said they valued the webinars and the university saw the ripple effect as attendees shared resources and opened up conversations about wellbeing with their colleagues and peers.

As a leading technology company, UK Fast was well equipped to set up its employees to work remotely. However its challenge was to replicate the energy found in the classroom into an online learning offering. UK Fast adapted programmes to include more activities and fun elements. It established regular check ins with its apprentices and offered online exercises sessions, virtual lunches and coffee breaks. The outcomes for the business have been positive with apprentices having to adapt and take ownership of tasks sooner; some apprentices have fast tracked into cloud engineer support roles during the first year of their apprenticeship, which has not happened previously.

As the insurance sector is predominantly driven by relationships, Willis Towers Watson knew that it needed to create strong support systems for its apprentices in 2020 when a large part of the business moved to online working. The organisation used mentors and buddies as well as utilising apprentices from previous years. Retention of 2020 apprentices is at 100% and the organisation is using its experience to develop a modified and blended learning strategy for future cohorts.