One Monday in March, an announcement in the UK was made that changed how millions of people lived and worked. The COVID-19 virus changed all of our lives and how we connected with one another. Work and social interactions quickly moved online whilst the nation grappled with the impact of this change on their mental and physical health and wellbeing.
Ad-Lib Training is known for its engaging, interactive face to face training – how would we and our customers adapt to this new world? We collaborated with one of our partners, the Bromley By Bow Centre, to reimagine an existing face to face course into a new online training programme. The Ad-Lib Training Healthy Influencers course provides learners with the skills, knowledge and confidence to become more physically and socially active whilst exploring their own lifestyle choices and identify where positive changes can be made to improve their health and wellbeing.
We worked with the Bromley By Bow Centre team to create an online environment that supported learners to build their self-esteem and improved sense of wellbeing. Learners were brought together to share and learn with Ad-Lib Training Tutor, James McKeown, in an online classroom for two hours per session, twice a week for four weeks.
Challenges included learning (along with the rest of the country!) how to become an expert at setting up and running online meetings, supporting learners who may have never used technology like this before, ensuring online safety and safeguarding and the adapting of delivery of face to face sessions.
We found the whole process exciting and stimulating - we would never had considered running this course online prior to COVID-19. Our learners have fed back that the course was vital for them as it provided them with the social interaction opportunities that lockdown took away. 50% of learners stated that they would prefer to study future courses online.
As the UK moves towards the lifting of lockdown measures, it’s clear that many are reluctant to return to the ‘old normal’ and the impact of the pandemic on physical activity levels and lack of access to exercise opportunities on mental health is not yet known. Lots of fantastic online content has been created to provide many with the opportunity to exercise at home but a ‘digital divide’ exists for individuals in poorer communities who cannot afford access to the internet or electronic devices.
Ad-Lib Training will continue to offer face to face and online solutions and work collaboratively with our partners to stimulate ideas that meet the needs of all of our customer’s communities post COVID-19 and beyond.
