Since our inception in 2008, the Primary Care Academy (PCA) has delivered training to thousands of healthcare professionals and ancillary staff across the primary and community care sectors, as well as reached out to many others through community outreach, health education and various training courses for members of the public. We have also partnered many training agencies and specialty trainers from across a wide spectrum of clinical and non-clinical domains to bring the best and the most necessary of knowledge and skills to both our staff and non-staff participants alike. Under the stewardship of our founding Director, A/Prof Chong Phui-Nah, and others after her, PCA has been able to build itself a reputation as a one-stop primary care training centre that is able to provide good quality training and accreditation to healthcare professionals and the community. Today, we have established partnerships with various community, professional and academic partners to continue supporting the myriad of skills needs in our rapidly evolving healthcare system.

It has been fortuitous that, before the COVID-19 pandemic took root in early 2020, PCA had started to explore opportunities and technologies to support blended learning through multimedia engagement. This came in handy when the pandemic compelled us to minimise, or even avoid completely, non-essential face to face interaction. Within months, our team of trainers and administrators pivoted training programmes to online delivery, using a range of technological tools, refining curricula to better suit distance learning, deriving novel ways to complete evaluation and performing competency assessment through proxies and with the help of technology such as video recording and online conferencing. Today, even as life reverts towards pre-pandemic norms, with most restrictions having been lifted and the returning of face-to-face training, many of these investments in time, effort and technological knowledge continue to reap benefits of scale, accessibility and value for both learners and trainers alike. Kudos to the team at PCA for rising to the epic challenge of our generation and riding the waves of change with laudable candour and ease!