Virtual College gives New Year boost for colleges and training providers on Apprenticeships

Free online Apprenticeship foundation level resources are now available to colleges and training providers, thanks to an initiative announced today by awarding body OCR and the Apprenticeship e-Academy, a division of the Virtual College.

The partnership between OCR, which offers Apprenticeship qualifications in all Framework areas, and the Apprenticeship e-Academy, aims to help colleges and training providers deliver more effective programmes to apprentices in a more economical manner.

The resources cover six core areas relevant to all Apprenticeships:

Apprenticeship Induction, Equality and Diversity, Introduction to Health and Safety, Learner Charter, Employee Rights and Responsibilities, and Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS). Each e-resource has been designed to match SASE requirements and to make tracking learner progress as simple as possible.

The free online foundation level resources are exclusive to those using OCR’s Apprenticeships, and will be accessible via OCR’s secure website, Interchange. All these resources run through Virtual College’s powerful learning management system, E>nable. This gives the learner an easy to navigate learning journey, while the centre has access to key learner tracking data, such as guided learning hours and learner progression.

Mark Dawe, OCR Chief Executive, said: "We are delighted to make these high-quality online resources available to our Apprenticeship customers through this partnership. The Apprenticeship e-Academy, as part of the Virtual College, has expertise and success in delivering e-learning globally. Apprenticeships are an increasingly important part of the UK economy and making Apprenticeships relevant and accessible is key."

Liam Prendergast, Apprenticeship e-Academy Commercial Manager, said: "We hope to develop our relationship with OCR to make colleges and training providers fully aware of our range of powerful online Apprenticeship solutions. This partnership will further establish the Apprenticeship e-Academy as a market leader of online apprenticeship resources. "

1. 1. For further information, please contact Sophie White at sophie.white@ocr.org.uk, 01223 552767, and Roger Moore at roger.moore@virtual-college.co.uk, 01943 605976.
2. 2. OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA) is a leading UK awarding body, providing a wide range of qualifications to meet the needs of learners of all ages and abilities. OCR qualifications include AS/A Levels, GCSEs, Cambridge Nationals, Cambridge Technicals, Entry Level qualifications, and vocational qualifications in areas such as IT, business, languages, teaching/training, administration and secretarial skills. Each year more than three million students gain OCR qualifications, which are offered by 13,000 centres including schools, sixth form colleges, FE colleges, training providers, voluntary organisations, local authorities, and businesses ranging from SMEs to multi-national organisations.
   OCR is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group.
3. 3. The Apprenticeship e-Academy is a division of Virtual College. Virtual College has been a UK leader in e-learning and online learning over the past 15 years. It works with some of the largest companies in the UK, as well as providing e-learning to over 900,000 online learners.

The Apprenticeship e-Academy has a number of online resources to support apprenticeship delivery by training providers and colleges, including: Recruitment, Functional Skills, Foundation Level learning and Technical Certificates.