Posted: 13 February 2026
DN Colleges Group’s Level 5 Healthcare Assistant Practitioner Apprentices are embracing the opportunity to enhance their studies, in two immersive classroom spaces.
Launch of the spaces came following funding from UK Government via both South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire College partnerships as well as investment from DN Colleges Group to create a collaborative, cross campus training resource for students and educators alike.
The innovative learning spaces have been installed at both North Lindsey College and Doncaster College, and feature wall-to-wall digital screens, interactive displays, VR Headsets and tracking cameras.
In partnership with regional employers, the immersive classrooms deliver virtual ‘on-the-job’ experiences, mirroring real-world settings to aid development. Because of their digital nature, the immersive classrooms are providing wider-reaching apprentice and employer engagement possibilities.
Nicola McDonagh, DN Colleges Group Apprenticeship Curriculum Leader (Health, Social and Childcare), said: “We are currently using our Immersive Classrooms with the Level 5 Healthcare Assistant Practitioner Apprentices from a range of NHS Trusts, to enable us to commit to a blended approach to learning. We have apprentices in face-to-face classes from Humber Health Partnership (North Lincolnshire), Care Plus Group (North East Lincolnshire), Lincolnshire Community and Hospital NHS Trust (Lincoln), Rotherham and Doncaster and South Humber NHS Trust and St John’s Group Practice, whilst joining online, we have Humber Health Partnership (Hull) and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.
“Taking this approach allows us to deliver our apprenticeship wider, offering apprentices and employers who are further afield access to the Healthcare Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship by being able to provide high standards of teaching with a wider reach, utilising classroom technology. This supports apprentices to gain a range of skills outside of their apprenticeship, including digital skills and communication skills. This is proving to be an excellent approach to apprenticeship knowledge delivery, with apprentices seeing the lecturer and everyone in the group on the wall-to-wall digital screens.”