About our courses

If you live in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby, or Derbyshire, you can take part in our face-to-face training.

If you live outside these areas, you can still join us through our online courses.

To take part, you must be:

19 years or older, and
Either claiming unemployment benefits or earning under £25,750 per year.
Additional rules may apply if you're an asylum seeker or on a student visa.

There may also be other location-based restrictions, so please get in touch with us before applying to make sure you're eligible and to get more details.

Content varies depending on which course you have signed up to, but you can find out more about what you'll learn on the course pages.

We also run Information Days for some of our courses - if you get the chance to attend one of these, you'll be able to hear directly from your tutor and ask any questions you have.

After receiving your application, we aim to contact you within 5 working days. If you haven't heard from us after this, you can give us a call on 08000 85 85 20 and talk to our Customer Support Team about your application.

If you consider yourself to be in financial hardship, please speak to a member of staff or your enrolment officer who will be able to discuss it with you in more detail.

For childcare, you must use an Ofsted registered provider to be eligible for reimbursed costs. For travel, we can only reimburse public transport cost.

Some of our courses have an employer attached and you are guaranteed an interview for an available role when you've completed the course.
All courses are accredited, and you receive a certificate at the end.  
All courses are funded by the Adult Skills Fund, so you won’t have to pay for your training.
You will achieve industry relevant skills and can mention the course on your CV.

The courses that we offer range from Entry Level to Level 3 qualifications, and you will achieve different qualifications depending on the course you complete.

You can find more about the type of qualifications available at each level below - please note that this is a general overview of each level and not a list of the courses we offer.

Entry Level
Each entry level qualification is available at three sub-levels - 1, 2 and 3. Entry level 3 is the most difficult.

Entry level qualifications are:

entry level award
entry level certificate (ELC)
entry level diploma
entry level English for speakers of other languages (ESOL)
entry level essential skills
entry level functional skills
Skills for Life

Level 1
Level 1 qualifications are:

first certificate
GCSE - grades 3, 2, 1 or grades D, E, F, G
level 1 award
level 1 certificate
level 1 diploma
level 1 ESOL
level 1 essential skills
level 1 functional skills
level 1 national vocational qualification (NVQ)
music grades 1, 2 and 3

Level 2
Level 2 qualifications are:

CSE - grade 1
GCSE - grades 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 or grades A*, A, B, C
intermediate apprenticeship
level 2 award
level 2 certificate
level 2 diploma
level 2 ESOL
level 2 essential skills
level 2 functional skills
level 2 national certificate
level 2 national diploma
level 2 NVQ
music grades 4 and 5
O level - grade A, B or C

Level 3
Level 3 qualifications are:

A level
access to higher education diploma
advanced apprenticeship
applied general
AS level
international Baccalaureate diploma
level 3 award
level 3 certificate
level 3 diploma
level 3 ESOL
level 3 national certificate
level 3 national diploma
level 3 NVQ
music grades 6, 7 and 8
T Level
tech level

You can find further information on the government website.

We offer both face-to-face courses and online, self-directed courses.

Our face-to-face courses are tutor-led and delivered at our training centres in Nottingham and Mansfield.

Our online courses are self-directed learning, and you will need to complete coursework on a weekly basis.

While the learning is flexible and you can complete it at your own pace, making it a great option for people who are learning around other responsibilities, there are submission dates and an end date that are set and must be met.

Your tutor will support you throughout your learning journey and classes are delivered in a welcoming and non-judgemental environment where you can feel free to ask any questions.

For face-to-face courses you will have an assigned tutor that you will see every day. For online courses, you’ll be able to communicate with your tutor and ask questions over email.

Enrolment is available either face-to-face in our Notitngham and Mansfield centres, or virtually over a Microsoft Team call.

If you’re enrolled over Microsoft Teams, you’ll need to show your ID on camera.

We recommend doing one course at a time to help you focus on the learning, however, you can discuss other options if multiple courses are needed. This will be assessed on an individual case basis.

Think about your career aspirations, your goals and what you aim to do in life. If you’re not sure which course would be the best option for you, talking to a Careers Adviser before enrolling on a course might help you with choosing the right path.

We would recommend you attend all the hours of the course to achieve the best results and to avoid missing key elements of learning. 

If there are some circumstances where you are unable to attend, please talk to your tutor to see what we can do to support you and your learning.

You will need to complete a literacy and numeracy assessment when applying for a course, which will help us to support you to develop in both of these areas during the course if needed.