Virtual College

Innovative Safeguarding Training for the Middle East

Ilkley (UK), May 2017 - Virtual College is to work in partnership with Arabian Child to deliver innovative online child-safeguarding training in the Middle East. The partnership will help support a new initiative in the United Arab Emirates that makes child-protection training mandatory for individuals who work with children. The UAE’s new child-protection law applies to all children up to the age of eighteen and will place teachers on the front line in the crackdown on child abuse.

Arabian Child is recognised as the pioneer in the early-childhood-education sector in the UAE. Since its inception, Arabian Child has been working to improve the quality of early-childhood education by training and supporting early-childhood professionals, policy makers, and other professionals. 

Virtual College is an expert in online training and won the prestigious “"learning-technologies supplier of the year" for 2016/17. The UK's number-one provider of online safeguarding solutions, it first started developing online safeguarding-learning resources in 2006 to provide a cost-effective route to accelerate education and training around awareness of child abuse.

Virtual College has gone on to deliver safeguarding and child-protection training to more than one million people, and it works closely with over sixty Local Safeguarding Children Boards in the UK, the statutory agencies responsible for child protection at the local level. It also provides eLearning courses to individuals, charities, schools, hospitals, private businesses, the police, and local government.

Virtual College has developed over forty safeguarding and child-protection courses, ranging from “Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect” to “Children’s and Young People’s Development".

Ms. Samia Kazi, CEO of Arabian Child, commented, "We are pleased to be able to tap into the learning-technology and child-protection expertise Virtual College has developed over a long period. This innovative solution will help us deliver effective, economical training rapidly to a large group of learners."

Arabian Child serves all the Arab countries in the Gulf region - Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait - supporting quality improvement of early childhood by integrating international best practices and programs with the local culture and heritage.

Hannah Bridle, Director at Virtual College, commented, "There is real synergy in our partnership with Arabian Child, and we look forward to using our complementary skills and experience to deliver effective online child-safeguarding training in the UAE."