We are proud to welcome a new academy, NEW Training, to the IOEE family. We had a chat with Natalie from NEW Training to find out more about the work they do, and the importance of the IOEE membership.
NEW Training focuses on wellbeing and health as well as enterprising skills and business development. Finding a balance between business, enterprise and wellbeing practices, NEW training delivers some of our well-being units within the Passport to Enterprise and Employment. When I spoke to Natalie, we had a chat about the Passport qualification, NEW training’s history and how NEW training plans to run in the future.
Natalie told me that NEW training delivers some of our well-being units, such as Stress and Stress Management, Healthy eating and mental health awareness to name a couple. Whilst these units may not appear to have a direct link to enterprise and employment, there are some clear benefits to having knowledge in these areas. Not only do these units teach us about day-to-day life, but they also give the learner transferable knowledge so that they can be safer and healthier at work, home or out and about.
Particularly after a pandemic, these units are really important for learners to consider, in order to improve the quality of their work life, social lives and personal lives. Being healthy, aware and feeling well is a really useful quality that is sometimes overlooked.
These units fit really well with the focus of NEW training, and also the focus of the learners who approach Natalie’s company.
Natalie said that she had put through a cohort before the pandemic and found the qualification to be really useful. Natalie agreed the Passport qualification is like an educational stepping stone, so her learners were able to get an introduction to a few areas of study, before committing to a longer course of study. It lets the learner try out some new skills, find some new areas to study and gives them an insight into the well-being and enterprise world.
We love our Passport qualification, and we often tell centres that it is a useful qualification for those who may be looking to find a new interest. We love to hear that the qualification has given learners a glance into a new area of study, and it has been used as a foundation for further study. This is exactly what it was meant to do, and so it is great to hear it is still being used as planned.
I wanted to know more about how our enterprise, employability and self-employment qualifications could be useful to those looking to learn about health and wellbeing. So I asked Natalie how the two industries are connected and how our course allows NEW Training learners to understand wellbeing in a business context, as well as in day-to-day life.
Natalie said there is a real connection between well-being and enterprise. In the enterprising world, we are often looking for ways to reduce stress, be more aware of our physical and mental health and we often look for ways to be more effective and efficient. The Passport units that Natalie delivers allow the learners to become more aware, in a general sense, of their health and wellbeing. This knowledge can be applied to their work life, setting up a business, being at home or interacting with people when they are living their everyday lives. The link between wellbeing and enterprise was a clear one for Natalie to make, and a good one to base the cohort of learners on.
We are really excited to have NEW Training on board, and we are looking forward to finding out more about the learner’s experiences at NEW Training and their experiences with the Passport to Enterprise and Employment qualification.
If you are interested in becoming an academy, delivering our qualifications or getting one of your own programmes recognised by the IOEE, find out more at https://ioee.org.uk/ioee-recognised