Online courses provide a great option for in-work training or CPD (Continuing Professional Development). Employers can often not afford to offer their workers in-house training, or to bring in specialist training companies. With an online course however, the training costs are far lower, and they actually have several practical advantages over other forms of CPD, such as workshops, away days, or one-to-one tutoring.
Flexibility
Flexibility is something of a buzzword in modern training circles. It’s an important concept, because the way that people work is changing. More than ever, people are working from home, or across multiple locations. Hours of work are also shifting, and there are fewer and fewer people who you can positively locate between 9-5, Monday to Friday. With traditional forms of training this represents a problem, because it requires workers to set aside a significant portion of time to being in one place, doing one thing. With an online course you can work from anywhere, and tailor your study hours to suit whatever schedule you choose.
Support
Again, this ties in with the idea of flexibility. With most in-work training, direct support is limited to face to face contact with your teacher/instructor, during the time that they are with you in the workplace. However, with online course tutor you have 24/7 access to your tutor via email. This means that you never have to grapple with the ins-and-outs of Surveying Technologies Theory, or Project Management, for example, without a guiding hand to help you overcome any obstacles. In addition, with a UK Distance Learning tutor you are assured of having a tutor that is not only highly qualified in the course subject, but also someone with a vast experience of working and teaching across a range of different, interlocking disciplines.
Qualifications
Most CPD or in-work training courses are not nationally recognised qualifications. This is also true of many online courses, as their main purpose is to teach you new skills and improve your base of knowledge, rather than assess you for a particular competency. However, with UK Distance Learning, you do at least have the assurance of being awarded a certificate that is licensed by a national awarding body. This means it has been quality assured and measured against Ofqual standards. This isn’t always the case with other, more traditional forms of in-work training. It is also worth noting that, particularly if you work in child care, some of our courses are actually full national qualifications as well. Naturally, when working with children, this additional layer of quality assurance is very important to parents and employers alike.
Confidence
One of the best things about an online course with UK Distance Learning is that you and your employer (who may be paying for the course) is that you can have confidence that you are paying for a proven product. Unlike many of the companies that provide workshop or classroom-based training, UKDLP has a strong online presence. If you go to our Facebook page, or onto the independent review site, Review Centre, you will see literally hundreds of positive reviews for our services. This will, hopefully, give you the confidence to enrol on one of our courses, secure in the knowledge that so many others have done so before, and come away entirely satisfied.
Hopefully this article will have helped to convince you of the case for online courses as an alternative to other forms of CPD or in-work training. However, if you have any questions please do go to the ‘contact us’ section of our website, and speak to one of our helpful course advisers.
