Yes, absolutely! We are an Approved Activity Provider with the DofE, which means our flexi-time home touch-typing course has been assessed and accredited by the DofE. It’s a fantastic skill to learn for DofE, because it’s a life skill that your child can use for the rest of their lives!

Learning to touch type is a life skill that every child should learn. If your child can type up to 5 times faster, without looking or thinking about what their fingers are doing, it’s going to save them so much time and energy. These are benefits that will help them at school and university but also once they enter the world of work. These days, touch typing is a digital skill that all employers expect their workforce to have.

Our 13-week flexi-time home DofE Course is easy to follow with just one hour of practice each week. We offer lots of on-screen videos and instructions, so your child really can’t go wrong. Together with weekly feedback from their tutor, they will find the course manageable and enjoyable.

We can proudly say that 100% of our students that complete the 13 week course, pass their DofE skill with us. Occasionally we have had some students that have had to put their course on hold for personal reasons.

This course runs for 13 weeks. As part of DofE requirements, our course is designed to so that students practice their typing for one hour per week. This course cannot be fast tracked. DofE Participants have to demonstrate that they are dedicating one hour a week of practice. We will be using our online system to track timings. The course is continuous, so lessons shouldn’t be missed unless away on holiday or because of illness. At the end of the 13 weeks we will submit their Assessor Report directly to the DofE for you.

With the 13 week DofE flexi-time home course, lessons can be completed from home on any day at any time, allowing your child to fit in their lessons around their busy schedule. They just need to ensure they have their lessons completed before their feedback day, which will be given to you in advance.

If your child needs to take a break, just let us know in advance. Obviously, taking a break in the middle of the course may mean that your child is a little bit rusty coming back so we may have to set some refresher lessons. Always check with your DofE Manager at school with regards to deadlines.

It’s really important that they read the starter pack carefully so they know what to do. It also includes information about how to make a box cover and order Velcro stickers. We would advise that parents also read the pack and help their child get started.

• The programme includes specific instructions on what to do and we have even uploaded ‘how to’ videos so your child can follow along with finger positioning.
• They will be given a deadline day in the week when they need to have completed all of their lessons by. For example, if that day is a Monday, your child can complete their practice from Tuesday – Sunday, ready for their tutor to check their work online and give written feedback by email.
• The feedback will include information about their overall results e.g. accuracy and speed, any tricky keys and how to overcome those problems, any lessons they need to repeat, what to do next and how to do it. The next set of lessons will be unlocked by their tutor.
• At the end of the course, their tutor will send you a final feedback, a certificate of their achievement and upload their Assessor Report directly to the DofE.
• The main contact at Type IT! for DofE is: Wendy Petersen, wendy@touchtypeit.co.uk, 020 8434 7111

Our aim is that your child finishes the course with a great accuracy and speed and also enjoys their touch typing journey. We hope that they can use their wonderful new skill to help them get through their work faster at school and also use this skill for their future careers.

Final speed will depend on a number of factors, the main ones being natural ability, age and also how much practice your child does. Speed will increase naturally the more a person practices and so we see speeds go up towards the end of the course. We do set certain speed exercises throughout the course, and we hope that most students finish the course with at least a speed of 30wpm. Many of our students finish with speeds in excess of this.

It’s really important that your child completes all of their assigned lessons each week and your child’s tutor will be checking this. The lessons are carefully set to ensure that your child is practicing for approximately one hour each week, and if they are not completing all of their lessons, it means that they are not adhering to the requirements of the DofE. We will notify you if this happens and we like to work together with parents to ensure that students stay on track. Missed lessons without notice will count as a paid feedback which means your child may not finish the course in 13 weeks. Additional weeks can be purchased at the end of the course.

With the DofE course, you shouldn’t need to directly help your child unless you feel they need some assistance. It is helpful to read the starter pack together with your child so they understand how the course works and what they need to do each week. For safeguarding reasons, we do not communicate directly with students under the age of 18. However, we are happy to copy them into any emails that we send to the parent. Just let us know their email address when you make a booking. As many of our tutors have secondary roles working in schools, we do not pass on direct telephone numbers for our tutors. However, we have a very helpful support team on hand to answer any of your questions or concerns and you can call us Monday – Friday during normal office hours.

We give a summary of their journey over the 13 weeks. We discuss what their starting point was (their baseline test), what outcome they wanted to achieve and whether they have reached their goal. We talk about how they have progressed with their touch typing, discussing any difficulties they had to overcome. We will then submit this to the DofE Assessor Report for you online.

Yes, as well as our 13-week course, we also offer a 3-month extension/advanced course, so they can complete their skill over 6 months. Just sign up and pay for the 13-week course to start with, and indicate that you would like them to do this for 6 months. There will be an additionaal fee of £99 for the extension course.

Sometimes students don’t quite finish in 13 weeks, so many decide to carry on learning with us after this. Extra lessons can be paid for on a pro-rata basis. It won’t affect the outcome of their DofE if they choose not to carry on. The Assessor Report is written based upon their journey so far, not their final results.

We also have other students that wish to carry on touch typing to try and increase their speed. We encourage all of our students to carry on touch typing with us. We know from experience that once the course has finished, students may forget to carry on practicing. For students that have finished the course but would like to increase their speed further, we recommend our ‘Carry on Course’. This is a 3 month lesson plan, focusing on speed work, dictation, symbols, numbers, with tutor feedback once a month.