The Department for Education, Sport and Culture will announce which of Isle Learn’s courses will be provided by the college soon.

It comes after the closure of Isle Learn, which was the only private education provider in the island enabling individuals to acquire professional qualifications.

It provided 24 courses.

Julie Edge, the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture, says that the plan is for University College Isle of Man (UCM) to provide some of those courses, however which courses and how many would need to be viable to UCM.

She told the House of Keys: ‘UCM is exploring procurement of an online platform to provide opportunities for standalone courses and to complement existing apprenticeship and English and maths programmes.

‘Some of the island’s course offerings such as functional skills, English and maths, access to a higher education and counselling are already available at UCM and these courses do have capacity for additional numbers.’

She added: ‘I can confirm that my department’s chief officer and the principal at the University College Isle of Man met with Isle Learn prior to that closure to ascertain their plans going forward, the scale of provision and the potential numbers for 2023 to 24.

‘Following the announcement of Isle Learn’s closure, the University College Isle of Man hosted a meeting and welcomed a number of professionals spanning the local childcare industry to consult In the provision of trainings to support the sector.

‘No decision has been made as to what courses can be moved forward and we are aiming to do that as quickly as possible.

‘A viable course is costs and numbers and it has to be appropriate, however, we do as a department have a complete understanding and commitment to the island plan and to the economic strategy that we do need to be training people on island and providing lifelong learning.’