Annabel Richardson, Head of Functional Skills Programmes and Partnerships at Get Further, shares how the organisation delivers small-group tuition for learners in England, and how VEDAMO supports this work across their programmes.
Who Get Further Are
Get Further is a UK-based education charity dedicated to helping young people and adults who left school without GCSE English and maths to gain gateway qualifications in maths and English. Working primarily with learners aged 16 to 19, the organisation provides structured tuition designed to support those who have often experienced challenges or setbacks in their educational journeys.
Get Further’s programmes focus on enabling learners to secure the qualifications required to progress into further study, apprenticeships, and employment. Many learners supported by the organisation come from disadvantaged backgrounds or have faced barriers to engagement within traditional classroom environments. Their primary delivery model is face-to-face tuition but, to maximise accessibility and learner participation, Get Further operates a flexible delivery model that includes online learning for some programmes – particularly their Functional Skills Programmes.
Small-group tuition forms the foundation of Get Further’s teaching approach. Informed by research, mastery principles, and the science of learning, sessions are designed to foster confidence, strengthen core subject knowledge, and provide learners with a supportive and structured learning experience. Group sizes are capped at one tutor to three learners.
How Get Further Deliver Their Programmes
Get Further’s tuition programmes run across multiple cohorts and qualification pathways. Within the GCSE programme, learners typically join through structured intakes beginning in September and January, receiving tuition through to the examination period in May.
The Functional Skills programme follows a more adaptable structure. As learners can sit examinations at various points throughout the year, tuition delivery extends beyond the traditional academic calendar and may continue during holidays or summer periods.
While in-person delivery remains the preferred model wherever possible, online tuition plays a critical role in ensuring continuity and access – particularly on their Functional Skills Programme. This programme targets learners who need English and maths for their next steps, but have faced previous barriers to learning, including those who have been out of education for a while and those who are, or are at risk of becoming, not in education, employment or training (NEET).
For learners who experience challenges such as social anxiety, difficulties engaging in classroom environments, or barriers related to travel or work commitments, online sessions provide an essential alternative learning pathway. Online delivery also enables Get Further to recruit tutors from a wider geographic pool. This allows the organisation to offer tutors greater consistency and flexibility while matching teaching capacity with learner demand across different programmes and learner groups.
What Challenges Get Further Faced Before Using VEDAMO
As Get Further’s programmes expanded, delivering accessible and consistent online tuition became increasingly important. The organisation required a virtual learning environment capable of supporting structured teaching, small-group interaction, and safeguarding oversight without introducing unnecessary barriers for learners.
Learners within Get Further’s programmes often require highly accessible and low-friction learning experiences. Simplicity, reliability, and ease of access are therefore central considerations, particularly when working with learners who may already struggle with confidence or engagement.
The organisation also needed a platform that would allow tutors to deliver curriculum-aligned lessons using Get Further’s carefully designed resources, as well as maintain session continuity and adapt flexibly to both learner and tutor needs.
Why Get Further Chose VEDAMO
Get Further selected VEDAMO as a platform is well-suited to the specific demands of education-focused tuition and long-term programme delivery. The organisation has used VEDAMO consistently for approximately five years, integrating the platform into its programmes from an early stage of development.
Based on Get Further’s experience, several aspects of VEDAMO have proven particularly valuable:
- The ability for tutors to upload Get Further’s curriculum materials in advance, ensuring continuity of lessons.
- Communication tools such as chat and breakout rooms that support interaction within small-group sessions.
- A clean, intuitive interface that minimises technological friction for learners.
- Simple room access through a consistent session link, avoiding the need to repeatedly change rooms or links.
- Direct learner access without requiring account creation, reducing barriers to participation.
- Safeguarding functionality, including session recordings that can be reviewed when necessary.
- Flexibility for tutors to deliver sessions from different locations.
Benefits for tutors
Online delivery through VEDAMO provides tutors with flexibility, consistency, and practical teaching support. Tutors can:
- Upload lesson materials in advance, supporting structured and curriculum-focused sessions.
- Use communication tools such as chat and breakout rooms to adapt to learner needs.
- Work across different programmes and learner groups without geographic constraints.
Benefits for learners
For learners, VEDAMO provides a low-barrier and accessible entry point into online tuition. Learners benefit from:
- Simple session access through a consistent link, without the need for account creation.
- A clean and intuitive interface that minimises technological distraction.
- A structured online environment that supports clarity, focus, and continuity.
Technology, Implementation and Adoption
Alongside VEDAMO, Get Further uses Salesforce as a core system for managing programme operations. Additional tools support timetabling, coordination, and tutor quality review processes. This integrated technology environment enables the organisation to coordinate thousands of learners and sessions while maintaining oversight, structure, and quality assurance.
Annabel Richardson described the introduction of VEDAMO as intuitive and adaptable to Get Further’s delivery model. Tutors complete structured onboarding and training focused on pedagogy, curriculum delivery, relationship building, and subject-specific techniques.
Tutors delivering online complete additional training designed specifically for virtual delivery. During the transition from a previous platform, they required a short adjustment period.
Learners, however, were observed to adapt quickly to the new system, highlighting the importance of a simple and intuitive user experience.
Over time, VEDAMO has become a familiar and reliable component of Get Further’s delivery model.
VEDAMO provides a flexible and intuitive environment that works well for both tutors and learners. The ability to upload materials in advance, use breakout rooms, and allow learners to join easily through a single link is especially valuable. These features help us maintain accessibility while delivering structured, curriculum-focused tuition.
Annabel Richardson, Head of Functional Skills Programmes and Partnerships, Get Further
