We are pleased to announce that the Northern Skills Academy is becoming a national programme, formally giving all of our customers access to the academy.

Published 25 October 2021

Last updated 26 October 2021

The Northern Skills Academy was piloted as a virtual platform to share knowledge at the start of the first coronavirus lockdown, in March 2020.

With many of our customers facing issues driven by coronavirus, the sessions initially provided clarity on how to compliantly extend contracts to get through the lockdown period and ensure continuity of service. Since then, we have delivered sessions on topics including good record keeping, contract management and cyber security.

While the name reflected the role of our northern customer community in building the scheme, over the past 18 months, we have been delighted to welcome registrations from customers spanning the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. 

We now feel it’s time to formally recognise this is now a truly nationwide offering and, from November, change the name to the Skills Academy.

 What you can expect  

As a regular attendee of the Skills Academy, you should simply see a branding change. The look, feel and quality of the sessions will remain unchanged.

For those new to Skills Academy events, here’s what you can expect:

  • a session each month, lasting no longer than an hour, that brings together delegates and subject matter experts from across the country 
  • our content and themes to be completely driven by our customers – so we talk about the issues that truly matter to you
  • the sessions to be designed to make sure they contribute to your learning journey and they can be logged against your Continuous Development Plan 

Join our upcoming events:

Get involved

If you’re interested in attending a Skills Academy event please contact Phillip Hodgson at phillip.hodgson@crowncommercial.gov.uk for more information.

We are committed to continuing to develop our Skills Academy events. If you have any feedback, topics you’d like to see covered, or any other thoughts on how we can make the sessions as useful as possible, please contact Phillip. 

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