At entitledto, we are always on the lookout for ways to help people on low incomes so they can better their own lives. As a result, in 2022, we trialled a new service aimed at helping connect potential learners with places on free and government funded training courses.

The new project, called entitledtolearn, was funded by Ufi VocTech Trust, and was a collaboration with The Digital College.

What was our original aim?

entitledtolearn was designed to provide clear guidance to potential learners regarding the opportunities available to them to access training and education so that they could progress in the world of work.

There are documented skills gaps among the UK workforce, and while there is government funding available to adults looking to upskill and reskill, often these entitlements are unknown to potential learners.

entitledtolearn aimed to close this gap, working to help its users find placements on free training and education courses.

What did we learn?

Our main takeaway was that some things don’t end up working, and unfortunately entitledtolearn was one of them.

We’ve prepared a report detailing our findings about the world of work and training. Read on for a summary, or you can access the full report and appendix to find out more.

How did it work?

We advertised entitledtolearn via a panel displayed at the conclusion of a benefits calculation on entitledto:

When users clicked through to the entitledtolearn website, they were shown various job sectors, and courses in their area.

If they wanted more information about the course, they would be contacted by the entitledtolearn account manager, who would help them find the right course, ultimately putting them in touch with a relevant training provider.

The end result was that despite successfully placing a number of learners on courses, entitledtolearn was not able to place the majority of people who got in contact.

The user base expressed a clear interest in starting training, with a view to upskilling and improving their wages and quality of life, but many of the requests of potential learners could not be fulfilled.

The most significant challenge was the lack of correspondence between the funded courses available, and the courses requested by users, and this extra administration cost turned out to be larger than expected.

What happens next?

entitledtolearn was designed with the intention to transition to a service paid for by training providers after the period funded by the Ufi VocTech Trust.

As our full report explains, this ended up not being feasible but we are pleased to leave a number of other legacies, including:

• This report (click the image to access the pdf) and its Appendix:
  
  
• The connection made between entitledtolearn and the Learning & Work Institute.
• And, last, but by no means least, we have created a new help page, Funding for Learning, which we hope you find useful.