A few customers have asked about Training and Travel after covid. Resuming our face-to-face, classroom Training on-site, at events across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
At Solveworx we design and deliver Online and Classroom Training on banking and topics related to Banking and Financial Services. Human nature being what it is, we are already thinking about Training and Travel after Covid. After the Pandemic put paid to our face-to-face, classroom Training, so like the rest of the world, we turned to On-Line.
“Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” … “We always hope, and in all things it is better to hope than to despair.” … –Philo (Greek scholar, 2nd century A.D.).
We had been experimenting with Online delivery when the pandemic struck and so, like most companies we adapted quickly and learnt fast.
The change to Online has mostly been for the better. Most of our Courses are well suited to Online Training, while others are best suited to face-to-face training, which we can’t wait to resume.
We’re ready, but we’re keeping a close eye on the following…
It will be a slow process, and will likely happen in stages. Our #1 priority is and always will be the Health and Safety of our Course Directors who run our Courses and the Delegates who attend. Some of our customers have asked us when this will happen, and so here is the best answer we have, with the information on hand today. We will resume when can guarantee the following;
- The availability of a vaccine that safely reduces the risk of contracting or transmitting Covid for the Course Director
- Host Governments and Countries (en-route) accept the validity of this vaccine
- A Vaccine passport (or proof) that gives our Course Directors unhindered entry and exit (subject to Visa Conditions) without any overly burdensome quarantine restrictions or limitations
- Travel Risk insurance that we can trust
It is just a case of ‘when’ not ‘if’ these things happen. For instance, Vaccine distribution, at least for some, has already started in some countries. The first three on the list are eminently achievable. I’m less sure of the last one.
Insurance Companies have on the whole (and I know I am generalising here), have behaved absolutely dismally. They have ducked and dived the spirit and principle of their obligations at just about every turn. The Insurance industry, has not covered itself in glory.
Instead, insurers have resorted to tiniest of fine print. I mean literally, the densest 5 point, zero-spaced legalese (sans kerning), to weasel their way out of doing the right thing.
But now is not the time to dwell on that. We we are absolutely committed to resuming our International Programs and Training and Travel after covid. This is despite my reservations about the value of buying Insurance, from insurers. But’s that’s my issue, and I’m dealing with it..
Bottom line, there is reason for some cautious optimism. That researchers and scientists have a vaccine for Covid, in such a short time is nothing short of awe-inspiring. A testament to the power of collective human will, ingenuity and resolve.
Of course, things won’t be perfect, but then again, nothing ever is. Welcome to the real world. But things will be better than before. Things (at least as far as this pandemic, this time), will get better over time. That’s cold comfort to many who have suffered, and lost as a result of what’s happened; whether through their own doing or of circumstances beyond their control.
But now there are signs of ‘Green Shoot’s among the weeds. Australia announced it will be starting a vaccine program in the next few months. My family and I will be first in line. We’ll be taking our turn behind those who are eminently more entitled to it than others; Nurses, Healthcare workers, the old, vulnerable and sick.
When that happens we will be ready, and continue as before, albeit with a mix of Online and Classroom Training.
Horses for Courses
But for all that our Online Training is here to stay. Like most companies we have learnt (ie read ‘forced’) to ready (adapt) ourselves to online quite quickly.
Mostly its been for the better. Most of our Courses are well suited to Online Training. Then there are others that only really ‘gel’ with that ‘eyeball-to-eyeball’ human interaction that Online, for all its technological awesomeness and amazement, cannot replicate.
So it’s a case of ‘Horses for Courses’. Where one works better than the other, or our customers prefer one rather than the other, we will keep doing that.
So we envisage that in the future, some of our courses will remain as Online Training (eg. our shorter courses, like Blockchain). We are growing our portfolio of these online classes. If there is a topic you think we can help, please let us know).
Fits and Starts
For other courses like our Digital Leadership/Banking, Mobile & Enterprise Risk and Credit Risk, we would like to return to our Classroom training as soon as its safe, practical and feasible to do so – and so we are watching all these developments closely.
It is likely that our return to In-Class Training will likely be piecemeal and proceed in fits and starts, as some areas are doing better than others.
But of course, the situation remains fluid, and after a year full of surprises it would be foolish and arrogant to presume that we can predict the future, and so I say this with the utmost certainty, it really is إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, .
