As a partnership between Equity, the Musicians’ Union, the National Union of Journalists and the Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, pre-Covid, FEU Training was happily running a successful business skills training programme for our freelance members.

While we’d been delivering monthly webinars for some time, until last April, most of the training opportunities on offer were venue-based and a tried and tested method of engaging learners.

At the beginning of lockdown, we soon realised that we would have to quickly change our ways and start online training if the programme was to survive. This proved a huge challenge at first: while our freelance team of three already had expertise in developing bespoke training, we certainly didn’t expect to have to convert to a new medium in such stressful circumstances overnight.

Basically, we took a leap of faith and learnt how to do it as we went along. This included finding out what online platforms to use and how, teaching ourselves and our freelance tutors to train online and developing topical learning opportunities that would be most useful to our members – many of whom had seen their work wiped out for the foreseeable future with no employee support to hand.

Our early lockdown courses and webinars included Finding a balance while staying at home, Controlling freelance finances in uncertain times and Cash flow planning through crisis and beyond then adding to our programme to include a range of opportunities such as digitally focused courses to help members find new ways of working and showcasing their work as well as stay connected with their clients and audiences. For example, Creating a podcast, Networking and social media and Unleash the potential of your technology.

On the upside, many of our learners are used to working from home, at least in part, and are digitally able to various levels. However, most people were not used to learning via Zoom and so, given the general atmosphere of panic and anxiety, it took some longer to adjust than others.

Gladly however, the response has been fantastic with typical comments including: “Excellent – everything was so well presented”, “You made it easy to understand”, “A lifeline - at the best of times crucial, at the worst of times, even more so” and “It’s like being with friends – great to feel supported like this by people who understand you.”

Admittedly, it is more difficult to teach online, especially when people are at different levels and need individual attention to keep up and where technical skills like recording and editing need to be demonstrated. I was worried that the quality would drop but this hasn’t been the case - all our tutors have been brilliant in adapting to the online environment and showing such patience, positivity and kindness to our learners, often working with individuals in their own time. Adversity has certainly highlighted the union spirit of working together for everyone’s sake.

We can’t fund venues for social distancing so the aim is to expand our online provision until things get back to ‘normal’. For example, having the opportunity to virtually meet with peers who are experiencing the same problems has proved an invaluable part of the learning process and an antidote to enforced isolation. Therefore, we are also developing more opportunities for virtual ‘get togethers’ that aim to help overcome Covid-induced psychological challenges such as anxiety, uncertainty and lack of motivation.

While I don’t think online will completely replace face-to-face, there are several benefits to the new virtual set up. For example, it has improved access for people who couldn’t previously get to our training venues perhaps because of location, disability or ill-health, cut costs in both travel and time taken for training and many have used the opportunity to either start or continue learning key skills (that they wouldn’t have done so otherwise) that will help them now and in the long term. Therefore, while we welcome a time when we can actually meet in person again, we will also maintain our online offering when the current danger is over.

If you’re a freelance member of Equity, MU, NUJ or WGGB, you can find out more and access our training programme by registering at www.feutraining.org