Marking two years since our first NES podcast

Marking two years since our first NES podcast

September 2025 marked two years since NES launched its podcasting journey.

Managed by the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) support team, NES’s podcasting activity has continued to grow steadily. This milestone offers a good moment to look back at the progress made so far.

From a quiet launch in 2023 with 3 channels, the NES podcast site has developed into a busy learning platform. We now have 18 channels producing regular content, with another 5 currently in production. With 17,800 followers and rising, it has become a well-used space for flexible digital learning.

2023 to 2025 momentum highlights

We now have 12,000 listeners catching up with their chosen content across desktops, mobile apps and streaming services. Listener engagement rose sharply in 2024 with the release of 7 new channels. Downloads increased by 160% in February 2024 alone. Thursdays at 11am are our peak listening time for UK audiences.

England accounts for 55% of our UK audience, Scotland 38%, and Wales, Northern Ireland and non-disclosed locations each around 2%.

No such thing as an AWI, Talking about Bereavement and The Whole Story are our top three channels by download. The AWI episode on Incapacity Legislation in Scotland leads overall with more than 2,500 downloads, closely followed by the Digital community events episode from the Leading to Change team.

Our reach continues to grow internationally. Listeners are tuning in from across the world. The Let’s talk FNP team is particularly pleased to be reaching colleagues in Canada, Norway and Australia. Supervisors there, as well as in the UK, are using the FNP episodes as pre-learning and as a foundation for teaching sessions. Series two is now in development.

Hosted on the Podbean platform, our podcasts are increasingly used as learning aids in health and social care, supporting formal education through flexible multimedia formats.

Explore the NES podcasting site 

---