Last week, the children and I sat down together to watch the First Minister’s unveiling of the four-phase "route map", aimed at restarting society while suppressing the virus. They rather enjoyed the spontaneous applause they got (all just for my two, obviously). I’m delighted at how well they’ve been coping with the restrictions, and they seem fairly resigned about staying off school until August. In fact, the youngest seemed more upset about not getting school dinners in the meantime, so clearly the quality and level of choice far surpasses what she’s offered at home...

The coronavirus has become a pandemic, but it is clear that the changes it has led to will have knock-on and long-lasting consequences for the way we live and work. Not least my youngest now having to make her own lunches.

When we began working from home, online video calls became the normal way of communicating.  Now that companies are seeing how effective this is, they are likely to support home working more in future. Finance departments will start questioning spends on city centre offices and travel expenses for meetings. 

Indeed, many home workers who have found a way to balance caring and working from home (please send tips!) and who have tasted freedom from the 8-hour stint in the office cubicle, will likely start to question why they have to return. This sounds great at first, but the motivation is key.

Lantra supported home and flexible working (pre-lockdown) where it was going to be better for the employees and where it was feasible, regardless of their mode of work. Where the driving motivation is profit, it might not be long before such companies realise that staff who don’t need to be based in the office don’t need to be based in the UK either, and outsourcing will rise.

So does the same apply in education? Will an increase in remote learning have both pros and cons?

With the doors of our colleges and universities being closed to staff and students, online teaching is having its biggest test yet. Some (including UHI, OU and others) have been doing this for years at higher education (HE) level and for some further education (FE) subjects, such as open learning Highers. Many are predicting that, once the glitches are ironed out, usage by other FE and HE providers will skyrocket.

In theory, online learning increases access for more remote and rural areas whilst reducing pressure on the college or university estate. In other words, it’s a way to fill the classes, without filling the classrooms.

With the increase in interest in remote learning, a revolution in access to education could be just around the corner, even in practical training such as in the case of apprenticeships. There are some programmes (such as aquaculture) that already focus heavily on distance learning. Due to geographical constraints, providers have worked closely with employers to deliver distance learning alongside practical, in-house training, and Scotland now has more apprentices in aquaculture than it does in agriculture.

Shortly, Lantra will be releasing a report into ways that we can better support the delivery of apprenticeships in remote and rural areas. Increased online support (eg increasing the use of e-portfolios) is ‘in there’, but so are recommendations to reduce the assessment evidence burden and for partners to work together and create shared resources.

From a taxpayer’s perspective, apprenticeships are clearly the most efficient way to develop our future workforce. There might be an associated cost for training and support, but this is designed to suit the needs of the employer. The wages might have to be covered by the employer, but the apprentices are needed, or the employer would not have taken them on. 

Distance learning can also be seen as ‘cheaper’, without the need to pay for travel (by student or employer), or using expensive real estate, often in prime city centre locations. However, it is not always the cheapest or most efficient option for colleges.  For example, the staff time required to support apprentices and distance learning students can actually be considerably more, not less. Completion rates, something colleges are heavily scrutinised on, are not always good. It is for example, much easier to ignore an email or to skip an online class than it is to ignore the tutor in front of you or to hide the fact that you have completely failed to go to college today.

“There is a strong shared commitment to protecting the health and wellbeing of everyone in the school community. Delivering a new blended learning approach is potentially the biggest curriculum challenge of this century, however, and it will require significant commitment from all parties to make it work.” EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan.

Households across the country have already learned that home learning takes a great deal of time and commitment. Time from the parents to ‘stand over’ children as required, and time from the children, whose homes are now also schools, classrooms, gym halls and labs. This adjustment has not been easy for anyone.

After the FM’s announcement, there was some press coverage about teachers going ‘back to work’ in June. Teachers have of course, carried on working, providing exercises for pupils to do at home, creating online videos and attempting to mark a tsunami of blurred worksheet photos. But I can understand why it feels like teachers have not been there, because teaching suddenly became incredibly inefficient.

As well as all of our nation’s teachers still working flat out, a significant proportion of the working population have had their workload dramatically increased, as we are now required to support our children’s education in a way we never had to before.  Some are finding this easier to do than others. I know of some parents on furlough who have enjoyed the greater connection with their children’s learning as well as having something to fill their days. Others have been struggling to either find the time, or to support their children in key areas.  For example, a recent online survey by Connect in Scotland found that parents are generally confident about supporting their children in terms of health and wellbeing, but less confident about supporting literacy and (to a greater extent) numeracy.

However, in the longer term, I think researchers will find that 2020 has re-engaged parents with the education system. I knew something about key stage levels before, but now I really know what they mean in practical terms. Lockdown has meant a huge amount of extra work, but I do now have a better idea of what my kids enjoy and what they struggle with (other than my cooking).

I would love to think that post-lockdown we will see an increase in businesses re-engaging with training and education within our sector. And of course, one of the best ways to do this is to take on an apprentice. It might not look like the cheapest option from a balance sheet perspective; far easier perhaps to take on a college leaver. Apprentices take up staff time, in mentoring the new entrant and completing the inevitable paperwork. The apprentice will not always be accessible; sometimes they will be ‘off the shop floor’ for training.

But apprenticeships ARE effective, good for the company and for the employee.  Supervisory staff re-engage with learning, often becoming more open to change and new ideas. The videos and testimonies throughout our website are testimony to this.

Eventually, we will overcome the coronavirus and go back to some sort of normalcy. There is certainly a need for innovative and hard-working people within the land-based sector, whether it is fishing or forestry, aquaculture, or agriculture, all are key industries, important for the economy and for our communities. There is interest, as the huge number of applications for our Skills Matching Service shows. And one of the best ways to support new entrants is to take them on as an apprentice. It will take more time. It won’t always be easy, but the learning they give you is more than worth the cost.