Eureka Online College is an organisation made up of teachers who work together to provide subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses for aspiring teachers.  SKE courses are funded by the government and are designed for pre-ITT students to gain the depth of knowledge needed to train to teach their chosen subject.

Eureka began delivering SKE courses in 2012, which was until recently funded by DfE via grant funding to schools and universities.  Through our succussful model of combining on-demand content, online course tutor support and live one to one lessons we have grown year on year and have become a household name amoungst ITT providers nationally.  

We pride ourselves on the bespoke service we give to our students and as an organisation, we are service driven.  

From 2021, SKE is now delivered via contract with DfE and we operate through 2 main regional partners (please see link on 'how to apply) who complete complete the financial governance, manage student bursaries and attend steering groups with DfE, leaving us to do what we do best, which is to deliver SKE courses to our trainees. 

Funding for SKE has been made available by the DfE for courses of 8 to 28 weeks in the following subjects:

biology; chemistry; computing; design and technology; English; languages; mathematics (Secondary and Primary Maths), physics and Religious Education (8-week SKE only for RE)

Students with knowledge gaps in the subject they would like to teach would usually discuss SKE with their prospective ITT provider (i.e. the institution they will train with to become a teacher).  This can be during the interview process, or at any other time before receiving a conditional offer to train to teach.  SKE is offered to prospective ITT students who, without SKE, would be unlikely to meet the subject knowledge requirements of the Teachers’ Standards (Standard 3) by the end of their teacher training course.

All of our SKE courses are online, which means that it is possible for you to continue working at your current job whilst you develop your subject knowledge at home and in your own time. 

We use a wide variety of strategies and study methods on our SKE online learning platform, offering an inclusive form of teaching.  PreITT students that study with us regularly comment on the ease with which the innovative and interactive e-learning platform, powered by Blackboard Learn, enables them to learn and consolidate their subject knowledge.

All of our SKE programmes are flexible and bespoke, tailor-made to the individual student.  We have done extensive research into the delivery of SKE and the quality of provision nationally and we can say with confidence that our subject knowledge enhancement courses are as good as they get.  One of the main reasons for this is that we are all practising teachers and senior leaders working within outstanding schools, we are fully in touch with the changing curricula and understand what it's like to teach young people and the importance of subject knowledge and pedagogical skills. Please contact us if you would like to discuss your options / our SKE provision.

Eureka online college is a specialist in subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) and has an excellent track record at delivering SKE for universities and SCITTs, helping them to prepare their preITT students for ITT.  All of our SKE courses attract funding from the DfE making studying with us completely free to students, schools and universities.  The eight subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses that Eureka online college run are, Maths, Primary Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Religious Studies , Computing, D&T and 3 MFL languages.  Please contact hello@eurekaonlinecollege.co.uk for more details or to speak to one of our SKE tutors

When a potential trainee attends an interview with an ITT provider, a SKE course will be offered because, without SKE, the trainee is highly unlikely to meet the subject knowledge requirements of the Teachers’ Standards by the time his or her ITT course is complete.  

As a rough guide:

• An 8 unit SKE course (which is the smallest length course we run) would be appropriate for someone with secure knowledge and understanding in most of the GCSE curriculum but who need to consolidate this and build confidence with A level.
• A 16 unit course, is good for candidates that have achieved an A or B grade in their chosen subject at A level, but it has been 5+ years since they studied this topic to this level.  
• Longer SKE courses (20 to 28 weeks) we recommend for a candidate that has achieved a C grade at GCSE / GCE and had very little subject content relating to their preferred PGCE or School Direct ITT course in their degree.  Such candidates would benefit from our bespoke courses and one to one tutor support for a longer period before (or during) their ITT.   

A common question we are asked is about issues surrounding early or late start dates.  

• Due to the bespoke nature of our SKE courses, we are flexible with start dates which means you can start studying towards your subject knowledge enhancement course and meeting your conditional offer for ITT as soon as you are ready. Something that an ITT provider will need to consider is that to qualify for DfE funding, candidates need to be registered with their preferred SKE supplier to commence their subject knowledge enhancement course before their ITT course start date.  Once on a SKE course, students are able to study both programmes concurrently.  
• Full time SKE is based on 25 hours study per week, which is challenging if students are also completing an ITT.  If this is proving too challenging for students to keep up with their work, we are able to offer an extension, to spread their workload. Something else that we do to support our students that are completing their ITT parallel to their SKE is to build units and topics around what the student is teaching at school, which has really helped.  One thing to watch out for is the student bursary (i.e. the SKE bursary) will stop once a candidate commences their ITT.    

Since the course is online, another common question we receive from ITT providers and students is how they would know how someone’s SKE was progressing.

• Once accepted onto one of our SKE courses, students will receive regular feedback via our online learning tools including weekly feedback as they complete each unit of study.  
• For providers that request updates, we provide monthly feedback to let them know that their students are on track, which we ensure happens before a bursary payment is due to be made.   If students are not engaging with the course, we inform ITT providers of our concerns immediately.  
• The more personalised successes and challenges for each student are contained within the end of course reports. 

You can read more answers to frequently asked questions via the link below:

• SKE FAQs

How we know that we provide an excellent subject knowledge enhancement course:

• Our student feedback is excellent.  We find that our learners particularly value having a dedicated course tutor that they can contact whenever they need to and also flexible online tutorials with a subject tutor.  Whether you are interested in maths, biology, chemistry, physics, geography or MFL SKE, please click the links above to find out more about these courses. 

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