The first British online school will open in Coventry on Saturday, attracting an international consortium of schools.
Students from around the world will be able to start at £3,500 for the two-year course and move on to a year at the Coventry-based school, which will be run by the Centre for Online Learning (COOL).COOL is set up by the UK government to offer more online courses to children.COOL will offer three different modules, with one module focused on social media, and two modules focused on business and online.
Students will have the option to choose a course from the first two modules, and a module from the third module.COLL will also have two international schools offering classes to students from different countries, including Germany and Spain.
COLL is offering a two-month course from a local business and an English-only one from a UK school.
The online school’s founder, Simon Wood, said the programme was aimed at encouraging the development of a British workforce that could then be used to help in the global economy.
“We want to develop a workforce that can use its skills in the digital age and not be restricted by geography or income,” he said.
The first class is expected to start on Monday, but Mr Wood said it would be “in the summer” before the online school was fully operational.
“It’s about getting children to be part of this and then we’ll have them working in Covidnest,” he added.
“Our aim is to get them into Covidns job centre and start to take them to the next level of their education.”‘
It’s going to be very easy’For the next few months, students will be taking courses at the COLL school.
They will also be learning to write code, learn how to run a website and create and manage applications.
The curriculum will focus on business development, business literacy and online learning.
Mr Wood said the curriculum would also help students improve their English language skills.
“This will be the first time we’re ever going to get a school to start in the UK, but the curriculum we’re using is a standardised, open-source version of a curriculum that we’re trying to use in a number of other places around the globe,” he explained.
“The key to getting that right is being flexible enough to accommodate different languages and the different curricula we want to use.”COLL has secured funding from the UK Department for Education, which is helping to cover the cost of the online course.
Students in Coventure will be allowed to enroll in COLL online from the start of September, but they will have to register and pay for a course at the school from September 1.
A student from Covidngen, Covidnes business centre, will be entitled to the free online course and will be paid for that cost.
“Students are getting a great deal for their money, we’re very pleased to have secured the initial funding for our first COLL course,” said Mr Wood.
“But it’s going the other way, we’ll be able use it to bring our international students in as well.”
Students will be offered a free certificate of completion in 2018.COll is aiming to offer courses to more than 30,000 students by 2019.
