We recently partnered with our friends at Arlo to help deliver a live Q&A webinar to training providers across the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Hosted by Arlo’s CEO John Mitchell, we referenced our recent UK and Australian student surveys on the impact that COVID-19 has had on student learning.

We were lucky enough to participate across both the UK and APAC webinars, thanks to our global presence, and it was a great opportunity to speak about some of the key trends that training providers are witnessing across the globe.

Arlo is a training management system for training providers. Put simply, it’s a complete training management solution to promote, sell and deliver courses and events.

Given the very recent changes in the industry, Arlo has enabled training providers to deliver live online webinars and e-learning and will help their partners switch back to face-to-face when the time is right.

While our most recent study focused on student sentiment throughout the crisis, the webinars were a unique opportunity to get real-time feedback from the training providers that participated in the live Q&A session.

According to Arlo’s most recent industry research, 98% of respondents said they had been affected by COVID-19, with 75% adopting blended learning and 62% of their respondents adopting self-paced e-learning, as training businesses have continued to adapt and change over the past two months.

In March, Arlo also saw a 285% increase in live online courses scheduled by training providers, which shows the speed at which these changes have occurred to the education industry.

We have seen a massive development in the demand for online courses on our Marketplace, as well the student feedback that states their preferred method of learning is now online. While this is no surprise to anyone, the situation is indeed unique, and it’s difficult to anticipate the changes and developments that we’ll continue to see.

Unsurprisingly, many participants in both the UK and APAC webinars were quick to ask us ‘just when’ we expected the industry to recover.

Arlo’s own industry research shows that 60% of their training providers believe that it will take up to 12 months to recover, and just 9% think that it will recover in the first three months, post COVID-19.

The various exit strategies across Europe and both AU and New Zealand are vastly different, so it’s a challenging question if we consider what ‘back to normal’ and ‘recovery’ will actually look like.

Here at Candlefox, we’re confident that online learning is here to stay, in what some are referring to as a ‘watershed’ moment for e-learning and blended learning.

Many of our partner providers globally have actually had a very successful March and April, particularly with the uptake of online professional courses, such as short courses. Online learning platforms such as Coursera are said to have seen an eightfold increase in sign-ups, and all signs point towards online learning and training being just as strong, if not stronger than before the virus took hold.

We hope and can only imagine that there will be a more diverse and flexible approach to learning in the future.

The ‘shift’ to online has been happening for years, and COVID-19 has just accelerated the movement to online learning.

For businesses such as Arlo, “..we can count ourselves among the lucky ones – we have a viable option in online learning to continue operating during these challenging times. We know the transition isn’t an easy one, but we’re already seeing incredible uptake of online learning from both our training providers and the market.”

Whether it’s the recent announcements in Australia around short course funding for universities that have fast-forwarded the micro-credentialling conversation, or the additional support for tertiary students to learn online in New Zealand – the industry is learning to adapt.

And adapt it will. Economic turmoil tends to lead to a surge in people seeking out further education, and this is a life-changing event like no other.

Here at Candlefox, we’re confident education providers of all shapes and sizes will continue to thrive, albeit with some changes to the nature of study, and it won’t be without challenges.

We look forward to keeping you up to date with news and updates on this topic over the coming months!

If you’re keen on finding out more about Arlo for your training business, you can Schedule a Demo with them or Start a Free Trial with them today.

If you’d like to watch the webinar, you can catch the full recording here.