In benign non-VMC without nearby ground terrain, pilots should be trained to push forwards, let go of everything else and trim for a 500 fpm descent whilst communicating with ATC.
If a basic autopilot (wing leveller) is installed AND was pre-flighted, use that too. Preferably if it has a heading bug, spin that around to the non-cloud zone too.
It aint hard.
I was taught rate-one turns under the hood in a PPL many many years ago. This is a non-event and cudos to the pilot for contacting ATC when it didn't quite turn out right.
Forget the VOR - that's like plotting graph lines on your obituary. Just fly.