Health Education England (HEE) continues to support the education and training of the existing and future health and care workforce during the response to the pandemic by introducing a remote teaching solution.
With the closure of physical training spaces as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to train the future and existing workforce using remote teaching facilities. HEE’s Technology Enhanced Learning team (TEL) has worked with professions across the health and care sector to ensure the continued provision of education by accelerating the use of digital technologies to support this.
Following the announcement by NHSX and NHS Digital about the enterprise licence agreement to supply Office365 and Microsoft Teams to all NHS employees, HEE and TEL are working with partners to ensure the availability of Teams to the widest possible health and care audience for use in education and training.
The supported arrangement will be an interim hybrid solution that incorporates Microsoft Teams and HEE’s recently launched platform, the Learning Hub. Teams will be used for the delivery of the training and the Learning Hub will be used as the hosting solution for the recordings for participants unable to attend live training sessions or those who wish to revisit training sessions.
A series of training resources are being created which will be made available to support learners, trainers and local and regional administrators.
It is important to acknowledge that some regions are already using their own solutions and this option is not intended to replace any regional arrangements. In the interim, colleagues are advised to continue to use other products but will no longer be able to sign up for new licences as Teams will be included as part of the offer.
During the COVID-19 pandemic HEE has conducted over 500 online interviews for Foundation Year 2 posts and is planning for a further 1500 online interviews in October. This new method of working has received positive feedback and was considered to have advantages for students and trainees.
Further information on the roll out of the remote teaching solution using Microsoft Teams will follow over the coming weeks with details about the availability of licences and access to training materials to support online delivery of education.
Frequently Asked Questions are being produced and will be available soon here. For more information about the remote teaching solution please email tel@hee.nhs.uk.