Repaying the costs of the Coronavirus will be with many countries for many decades.  These are not just the economic costs but the societal costs of people losing their jobs, the impact on graduates seeking work, and on what roles we need to fill future occupations.  The virus is furthering online debate and discussion about the kind of World we want to create.  The measurement of any society will be the dignity with which it supports and develops individuals and families who have hit a low ebb because of this crisis, and the way it continues to continue debates surrounding how we start to live the values that we are now all recognising as so vital in a time of crisis. 

Where does this leave the role of higher-level education and skills?  Many people will be using these days indoors to reflect on their lives and what they might do next, especially if they have been made redundant or feel a call to find a different vocational route for themselves.  There will be many adults seeking to retrain and to develop new approaches to things.  There is a real opportunity for collaboration to support such people through Access to HE programmes, and to collaborate across Further and Higher Education to provide a way of making more learning available to individuals seeking to forge a different path.  The opportunity for that collaboration across the skills sector to grow and develop now we all seek further ways to connect will provide opportunities to develop new ways of supporting academic and vocational students progressing to HE so that the most vulnerable are not left behind.