Illumi Learn Academy

About Us

Does the world need another educational institution?

The directors of the Illumi Learn Academy believe so.

The events and challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic changed society and education forever. It demonstrated that remote working was not only possible but beneficial, and it required all levels of educational establishments - from secondary through to higher education - to change their methods and mechanisms of delivery and assessment. In this endeavour, some were more successful than others.

Illumi Learn Academy is an internationally focused, British-based educational institution. It is the brainchild of 3 academics with over fifty years of experience of designing, delivering, and managing online courses between them (gained at leading online learning institutions). Our focus is on practical, practice-oriented courses designed to help students reach their potential as quickly as possible - whether that potential is getting a first job, progression in a chosen career, or even pursuing further academic development. Our focus is on practical courses - that is diplomas and certificates - rather than Bachelors and Master's degrees - because research shows that Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) overwhelmingly look for new employees with practical skills and qualifications as opposed to graduates and Master's students. It is also worth bearing in mind that SMEs are the predominant businesses in the UK and Europe.

Some people tend to favour and value industry-standard certifications over academic ones. At Illumi Learn Academy, we realise that industry certifications are valued by employers (sometimes over-valued) and so we ensure that our qualifications - where appropriate - cover the same syllabus as industry standard ones. This provides two benefits: firstly, all of our qualifications are certified by academic award bodies so they are standardised and administered centrally, and therefore carry academic credit which means they can be used to help get a place at university, for example. Secondly, because they cover much of the same syllabus as industry standard certifications, it means that our students have completed a compatible training regime so that they can sit the tests required to acquire industry-standard certification. In other words, our courses prepare students for two paths - both academic and industry technical.

Illumi Learn Academy is also a not-for-profit operation. This has several benefits. Firstly, it means that we can offer courses at much lower rates than many other institutions, without compromising quality. Thus, we can offer high quality education, consisting of fully interactive, tutor-led lectures; group focused activities such as seminars, tutorials, forum-centric and practical exercises to reinforce the learning delivered as part of the lectures - at the same price many providers charge for just a set of standalone videos and .pdf files. Secondly, it means that we can re-invest any profits into the business to improve our services, create new courses or even provide sponsored and free scholarship places. Thirdly, because we don't have a board of shareholders continually demanding that we pay (or maximise) their dividends, we can instead focus on delivering the best courses, to the widest and most diverse group of students, that we can.

So, how does it all work?

Illumi Learn is primarily an online learning educational provider. This doesn't mean that we just sell you a bunch of pre-recorded videos and .pdfs (although all our seminars are recorded and are available asynchronously). Instead, we run live lectures and seminars for every cohort. Face-to-face support from a fully qualified course tutor is available to every student, as well as the usual email and forum support routes, in every cohort.

The costs of the courses vary based on the level and type of the course - details are available on the course description pages. Funding for courses is available from several sources. Firstly, the UK government provides support in the form of an 'advanced learner loan'. This loan will fully cover the cost of the course, and it is only due to be repaid once the student gets a job that pays mpre than a certain threshold (in 2024, that threshold is £25,000 per year). One can also only pay a percentage of the amount you earn over the threshold. We are also looking to set up similar schemes with governments from other countries. Secondly, one may be eligible for funding under the usual education schemes offered by the UK government (the equivalent of GCSE and A level funding). This will be dependent on age and current qualifications, in addition to other requirements.