Launching today digitalacademy.tavistockandportman.ac.uk opens Trust teaching to a global audience. Anyone with an interest in learning about mental health can register their interest now, with courses bookable from mid-August.

The Tavistock and Portman Trust is a distinctive education provider in the UK, offering clinician-led training for aspiring clinicians, social workers, teachers and other professionals, within an NHS mental health clinical setting.

The Trust has educated and trained thousands of people in the UK and from the international community. Now, with the Digital Academy, students will be able to access learning programmes from anywhere in the world.

Building on the existing provision of e-CP and blended programmes, the Academy offers modern and innovative online courses that reflect the Tavistock and Portman’s unique teaching model, and Pearson’s online teaching experience, in a range of formats to suit the needs of learners wherever they are. 

Digital Academy courses will be designed as a complete online learning experience, presented by the Trust’s leading clinical educators. Rather than videos of classroom lectures, concepts and ideas will be introduced via short videos, activities, articles, peer discussion or reflective exercises.

Courses will include one-hour Masterclasses, one-week mini courses, one-month short courses and one-year Trust Certificates, all of which will focus on the Trust’s deep expertise across the mental health discipline.

The new Digital Academy will sit alongside the existing education and training provision. In 2019, the Tavistock and Portman welcomed over 600 first year studentsto their validated long courses, and delivered CPD training to nearly 2,000 attendees.

Brian Rock, Director of the Department of Education and Training and the Dean of Postgraduate Studies said: “We are excited about the partnership with Pearson and the ability to meet the demand for our courses in an innovative way. The provision of training at the Tavistock and Portman is unique and our clinician-tutor model of teaching will now be accessible to those across the UK and internationally.”

Gary Gates, Pearson’s SVP for Higher Education, said: “Tavistock and Portman is a leader in their field, providing unique and high-quality teaching. We are excited to offer our expertise in online and blended learning delivery to their new Digital Academy and broaden their provision to help more people – an objective entirely aligned with our own vision to help people make progress in their lives through learning.”

About the Tavistock and Portman

Founded in 1920, the Tavistock and Portman clinics embody a distinctive way of thinking about and understanding mental distress, mental health and emotional wellbeing. Working with children and families and adults, our approach brings together psychoanalytic, psychodynamic and systemic theory and practice and other approaches and seeks to understand the unconscious as well as conscious aspects of a person’s experience and places the person, their relationships and social context at the centre of our practice.

About Pearson

Pearson are the world’s learning company with more than 24,000 employees operating in 70 countries. Pearson combines world-class educational content and assessment, powered by services and technology, to enable more effective teaching and personalized learning at scale.