Digital learning gets a boost at Central YMCA

We are offering more e-learning opportunities with a new Online Course Shop.
8 June 2016

Smart phones. Google Drive. Cortana. Apple Pay. The world is changing fast, and so is the way we access information. We’re on our way to becoming a paperless society (as newspapers are discovering at their peril) and with these changes we – through our operation YMCA Awards – also needs to think differently about how it delivers education.

In May 2016, we launched a new YMCA Awards Online Course Shop. It provides bite-size, digital-learning opportunities across a range of health and fitness subjects, including anatomy, physiology, weight management and food and diet. Each mini course has been developed by YMCA Awards’ experts based on one of our larger award-winning courses and diplomas.

It looks like the next few years will interesting times for the education sector.

The idea, says Gary Baldock, YMCA Awards’ E-Learning and Publications Manager, is to give everyone access to content without having to become a formal student at a training centre.

“If you are in the gym and you want to know more about your body and maximise results without having to pay a lot of money by joining a centre, this gives you the same information,” he explains.

Everyone who completes the course gets a certificate and it can be a good way to learn about something new, or as a taster of a full YMCA Awards diploma. The great thing is you know the information has been created by experts for one of our award-winning courses, such as the Diploma in Health, Fitness and Exercise Instruction.

Gary says the plan is to offer an even more diverse range of subjects in the future, expanding into different markets, such as photography. A bite-sized Introduction to the Workplace course, taken from the Level 1 Award in Employability and Personal Development, could also be developed for anyone thinking about their first steps on the career ladder.

It looks like the next few years will interesting times for the education sector. YMCA Awards is certainly keen to continue experimenting and exploring new possibilities. As we said in a recent thought-leadership piece we published: “It’s simply part of our DNA.”

YMCA Awards is one of Central YMCA's operations. Read more about Central YMCA and its four operations.