At a time when face-to-face interactions are still restricted, Virtual College, a well-established digital learning provider with over 25 years' experience, recognised that organisations need effective alternatives to face-to-face training. Understanding that managers and leaders set the tone for an organisation, with their skills, commitment, and passion often being integral to business success, Virtual College acknowledged the challenges that remote working posed for effectively upskilling leaders and managers and recognised that digital training can help bridge that gap and overcome the challenges.

In response to this need, the company has been developing a wide range of relevant training and has just released a suite of courses dedicated to improving leadership and management skills.

Discussing this latest offering, Simon Falconer, Chief Marketing Officer at Virtual College, explained their aim: "Working closely with subject matter experts, we discussed the skills that leaders and managers would need to develop and evolve, and most importantly, the essential skills businesses need from their leaders and managers to grow and succeed in these challenging times. As a result, we have created a suite of quality courses that truly benefit both the learner and organisation, ones that will allow them to develop into managers and leaders that will be true assets to their company, both now and in the future."

This suite is suitable for new or experienced managers alike in any sector. The courses available in the suite are as follows and can be bought as a package or as individual courses, allowing the purchaser to build a package that is relevant to their needs.

• The Role of the Manager
• Understanding Yourself
• Personal Effectiveness
• Communication
• Coaching
• Performance Management
• Managing Change
• Managing Teams

The package is ILM Assured, which guarantees that it provides the greatest quality standard within leadership training. ILM are a leading UK Leadership and Management qualifications specialist and are the Leadership and Management arm of City and Guilds. They are well known in their field, and their assurance adds value and gives learners confidence in the course.

A learner focused company, Virtual College understand that learners need to adapt and develop their skills to keep up with the changing business environment. To achieve this, the company always has the learner at the centre of their design process, as they believe it is necessary in order to ensure the training has the desired impact: to increase the learner's confidence, skills and knowledge.

They have incorporated numerous methods to make the training relevant and engaging to the learner and help drive the necessary behaviour change:

• Flexibility - The learning is flexible and can be done at a time and pace that suits the learner.
• Bite-sized - It is broken into manageable "bite-size" chunks to ensure that the learner can fit it more easily into their schedule or available time.
• Range of different media - Using different media such as videos, downloadable resources and challenges ensures that the learner is engaged and that the knowledge is conveyed in the most appropriate way.
• Relevant and relatable material - The suite covers relevant topics such as coaching and managing change, as well as a focus on the learner themselves, including the importance of understanding yourself as a manager, developing your own individual leadership styles and personal effectiveness.

Sarah Baker, Virtual College's Chief Learning Officer, explained their creative approach to this suite of courses. "We know how vital leaders and managers are to any company; therefore we wanted to create a suite of courses that would empower them and help them develop skills and habits that would truly allow them to grow in the organisation and ultimately support business growth. Our fantastic team of talented learning-experience designers has pushed the boundaries and thought of new creative ideas that really bring the leadership and management topic to life for the learner. I do believe this is what really sets our training apart from the crowd."