According to internal year on year data from the course comparison website CoursesOnline, training courses covering skills for use in the healthcare sector grew in popularity by 153% for the whole of 2020 when compared to 2019.
These health courses are delivered by a range of educational institutions and cover specific skills such as nursing, psychology, healthcare leadership, and so on.
What is driving this demand?
This surge in demand comes against the backdrop of the Covid pandemic which has strained health services like never before and health professionals likewise have been pushed far beyond what would normally be considered their reasonable limits. Whilst the demand for skilled health workers is nothing new, the scale of the current crisis has led to a call for all available hands to pitch in. Indeed, healthcare work has been thrust further into the spotlight not only as work which provides immense communal value, but as a very secure source of income when compared to other sectors which have suffered greatly from job losses.
The demographics of demand
This has been reflected in the age demographic of those opting for such training courses, with the 25-34 bracket seeing a spike in demand of 55% year on year – the greatest of any bracket. With regards to gender as well, there was a significant increase in demand by both men and women, by 116% and 187% respectively compared to the preceding year’s figures. Location wise, London was unsurprisingly the city with the largest number of those opting for health courses, followed by Birmingham and then Glasgow.
What does this mean for those in the training industry?
Despite the bleakness of the past year in general and especially for those working on the front line of providing healthcare, the vaccine rollout means that hopefully Covid will become of less concern as 2021 continues. Those providing health training courses may therefore expect there to be a fall in enrollment as the crisis abates but Sarah-Jane McQueen, General Manager of CoursesOnline explains why this might not be the case.
“Those looking for training courses tend to be looking for three things: affordability, the ability to improve their knowledge or learn a skill, and thirdly they are looking for a learning option which emphasises convenience.
Whereas pre-pandemic a lot of training courses included mandatory in-person aspects, recent events have forced them to move entirely online. Whilst this is of course not totally feasible for every course with a practical aspect, those which are more theory based can now be done as and when is most convenient for the person studying. This desire for flexible study options won’t be going away anytime soon as it helps with the ever crucial work-life balance.”
