Background:
Despite the introduction of safe, effective vaccines, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to mutate and spread across the world. As of March 2025, there has been >7.10 million deaths globally due to COVID-19 which is likely to be an underestimation since some countries have limited testing and medical records, and/or poorly functioning death registries. High and ongoing public uptake of the vaccine relies on health and social care professionals having the knowledge and confidence to actively and effectively advocate it.

Digital training development and approach:
An internationally relevant, interactive multimedia training resource called COVID-19 Vaccine Education (CoVE) was developed in the UK using ASPIRE methodology (authors: HB, WJ, AF). CoVE is a digital training resource which aims to improve knowledge and confidence for promoting the COVID-19 vaccine. This rigorous six-step development process included: (1) establishing the aims, (2) storyboarding and co-design, (3) populating and producing, (4) implementation, (5) release, and (6) mixed-methods evaluation aligned with the New World Kirkpatrick Model. Two synchronous consultations with members of the target audience identified the support need and established the key aim (Step 1: 2 groups: n = 48). Asynchronous storyboarding was used to co-construct the content, ordering, presentation, and interactive elements (Step 2: n = 14). Iterative two-stage peer review was undertaken of content and technical presentation (Step 3: n = 23). The final resource was released in June 2021 (Step 4: >3653 views).

Evaluation aim and approach:
To explore satisfaction, usability, relevance, knowledge, confidence, and behaviour change. The broader team was involved in various aspects of the evaluation. We undertook a post-training survey 45 qualitative interviews.
- Study 1 (HB, HS): Evaluation took place with health and social care professionals from 26 countries. Health and care professionals undertook the training then completed an online evaluation survey (n = 162). Fifteen of these end-users took part in a qualitative interview to explore their views in more depth.
- Study 2 evaluation (HB, VP, AP, SS, SKK): An additional evaluation was undertaken with ethnic minority healthcare workers (EMHCW), due to the low uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in ethnic minority communities in the UK (including EMHCW). Thirty EMHCW completed CoVE training, then took part in an interview.

Evaluation results:
CoVE was viewed to be engaging, accessible and relevant to health and care workers. This training increased EMHCWs’ perceived knowledge and confidence to provide evidence-based information to others, dispel myths, and reduce vaccine hesitancy. Participants reported changes in vaccine promotion behaviours and vaccine uptake.

Conclusion:
The CoVE digital training package is open access and provides a valuable mechanism for supporting all health and care professionals in promoting COVID-19 vaccination uptake, enhancing communication about vaccines and improving vaccine literacy.

Keywords: Technology, web-based, education, public health, vaccines.