Go the distance: supporting adults with training for employment

We’ll help you engage hard-to-reach adult learners and ensure they have the confidence to retrain and upskill.

While the pandemic has caused job losses, not all sectors have been affected – some are even growing. Even so, some jobs that people considered secure for life may no longer be stable or viable. Many adults are now looking to education and training to retrain or upskill for a fresh start.

Empowering adults with the skills they need to take on employment in growing sectors will be pivotal for their future, and that of the economy.

How we support adult learners

Adults may not have previously considered alternative training or areas of employment – or some may find the idea of this daunting. However, now, the educational pathway may be their best option.

We’re committed to supporting our colleagues across adult education to engage these adults and help them to take their next steps.

So, we’ve expanded our go the distance initiative to ensure adult learners are fully supported.

Our go the distance initiative will:

• Provide qualifications to create employable adults who have the skills they’ll need to succeed
• Ease adults back into learning and education with clear pathways into growing sectors
• Equip learners with the skills and confidence to find suitable employment
• Reassure employers that adults entering their sectors have the right skills to transition
• Support adults who want to start their own business with the knowledge they’ll need to make their dreams a reality
• Give providers regional expertise, sourced from the regional engagement activity we’ve already undertaken, and help them build a curriculum that maps to local priorities.

Our offer

We’ve identified the following growth sectors which are core for our adult go the distance offer:

• Digital
• Health and Social Care (including Childcare and Early Years)
• Business and Enterprise
• Low Carbon (Environmental Conservation)
• Warehousing and Distribution.

Most qualifications in these sectors can be funded through the Adult Education Budget, either through the ESFA (national) or via a Mayoral Combined Authority (including the Greater London Authority).

The sectors are evidenced regionally through existing skills plans or COVID recovery plans. All enable curriculum mapping and meet the requirements of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework. Our local Account Executives will provide full support with curriculum building and mapping. Fill in our form on the right, and we’ll be in touch.

Alongside go the distance, we have a full adult provision for learners who don’t want to go into these sectors. This gives our adult education colleagues flexibility to expand their curriculum according to their current contracts and bid for additional funding.

How to select the best qualifications

Use our Adult Programme Builder to build a bespoke programme. This details our qualifications from growing sectors, so that you can identify learning pathways to help your learners gain new skills and progress to employment.

Materials and resources

Improve your delivery with our range of resources, including schemes of work, teaching resources, workbooks, and support materials.