The coronavirus lockdown has not only forced most of us to spend huge spans of time at home, but the furlough measures have also meant many have quite a lot of time on their hands. It’s perhaps no surprise, given these perfect circumstances, that the Institute of Coding (IoC) recently announced a bumper number of students enrolling on their courses since the lockdown began in March.
Indeed, enrollments have grown nearly tenfold, with around 32,000 reported at the start of the year, growing to over 400,000 by June. The courses, which are created by a number of university partners, are largely free throughout 2020, with learners able to start at any time.
Many of the courses feature on The Skills Toolkit, which was launched by the UK Department of Education to help provide access to free digital and numeracy courses as they respond to the economic fallout of Covid-19.
The courses, which have averaged nearly 5 out of 5 among learners on the FutureLearn platform, are being completed by a wide range of people, with an almost equal split between men and women.
Back to work
The courses are clearly also helping some to return to the labor market, with data suggesting around 13% of learners are currently looking for work, with a further 19% of students on full-time higher education courses and seeking to top up their skills before entering the labor market.
The most popular courses cover a wide range of digital disciplines, from the perennially popular computer programming all the way to more esoteric subjects such as collaborative working in a remote team. As befitting past research highlighting the importance of soft skills, the course on ‘Communication and Interpersonal Skills at Work’ actually came out as the most popular.
“The success of these online courses is not only a testament to a wide desire to gain digital skills, but to the importance of flexible learning,” the IoC says. “Our goal at the IoC is for a larger and more diverse group of learners to join digital skills education and careers, but this can only happen if we continue to make courses accessible to everyone.”
