The road back to the classroom

Mitesh Nathwani, Training Manager

It’s been just over a year since the coronavirus brought about all the changes we now call normal. Initially we kept thinking about how we would adapt to delivering our training online, what systems we would need to put in place and how to make the most of the situation we are in. Now it’s more a case of how will we return back to classroom based training and, more importantly, when? The last twelve months has shown that, like our assessors old and new, we have adapted in the way we are offering our training, whether that’s online, hybrid or classroom based.

We have seen this change in our day to day living as an opportunity to cement our place further as the premier trainer in the Energy industry. This is due to the great deal of confidence in the housing and energy industry. The housing industry must be one of the most buoyant and has seen massive growth in the past year, especially since the introduction of the government’s Stamp Duty holiday, and the furlough scheme being extended further. It has also meant that lodgements have been at their highest for a long time.

Roadmap out of lockdown

With the introduction of Boris Johnson’s roadmap to ending lockdown, we are now in a place where we are preparing to return to classroom based training as the demand is still high, with many learners still wanting classroom based training over the online format. The last twelve months has shown that, like our assessors old and new, we have adapted how we are offering our training, whether that’s online, hybrid or classroom based. That said, we will be limiting numbers back to the classroom to ensure social distancing. We will also start using local venues to ensure we can keep up with the demands we have for training. It’s funny how over a year ago members used to ask why we could not deliver our courses nearer to them… and now we get asked when can we deliver classroom based training?

A buoyant industry

The Chancellor’s Stamp Duty holiday has definitely played a huge part in ensuring the housing market has stayed so resilient during the pandemic, especially when other markets and industries have taken a huge hit. This has kept demand for training at an all-time high. We believed that this would die down once the stamp duty holiday came to an end, but it never really tailed off. Now with the extension to the stamp duty holiday and funding from the Government’s Green Homes Grant scheme we are busier than ever. The funding has allowed us to offer our Retrofit Assessor online course as well as our ever popular Live Online Domestic Energy Assessor course for a nominal fee as well as offer learners our great membership and accreditation packages too. Such has been the popularity of this that we have trained over one thousand Retrofit Assessors in the past few months and over one hundred Domestic Energy Assessors too during the same period, too.

This clearly shows the growing confidence in the housing market as well as the energy industry. We have also noticed clients are recruiting new people into the industry to meet the demands put on them and existing Energy Assessors are taking on new strands to meet demand. The knock on effect is that we a refilling each and every course within a short period after releasing new dates. We are now at a point where we are having to put more courses on than we had ever imagined, and being able to return to classroom based training will definitely help with meeting the growing demand.

Could you deliver training?

Because of the demand we are looking for freelance trainers who have industry experience. If you or anyone you know may be interested in working with us to deliver our ever expanding portfolio of DEA courses please do not hesitate to contact me.

See you soon!

With that said, I just wanted to thank you all for being a part of the Elmhurst family and together we can see that even during hard times, growth is still possible. I envisage the next few months, with the loosening of the lockdown rules, that life will become easier for us all and busier too. Here’s looking to the spring and summer, stay safe and I hope to see you face to face in the near future.