This ‘cloud first’ policy was issued as the government’s third G-Cloud framework went live and this approach has also been strongly recommended to the wider public sector. G-Cloud director Denise McDonagh explains:

“The adoption of a cloud first policy will give added impetus for Whitehall and the wider public sector to move in this direction – complementing our on-going work to encourage cloud adoption and to help buyers adapt to this way of purchasing IT, which is already showing results.”

What is G-Cloud?

First launched last year, G-Cloud is a framework agreement that means that public sector organisations wishing to buy services from Learning Pool can do so directly from the framework rather than by going through expensive and onerous procurement processes. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude clarifies:

“G-Cloud brings a step change in the way government buys IT. It’s quicker, cheaper and more competitive, open to a wider range of companies, including a majority of SMEs, and offers more choice and innovation.”

Who can use this?

G-Cloud is open to any public sector organisation in the UK. This includes local authorities, housing associations, central government, the NHS, schools, Fire and Rescue services and police authorities – there’s quite a list!

If you think your organisation is eligible and you want to know how to purchase Learning Pool services this way then please contact us.

What does it mean?

Learning Pool services have been available to purchase through the government’s G-Cloud framework for the past year. As a result, our customers have been able to access our services through a much more straightforward buying process. 

Using G-Cloud has also resulted in drastic reductions in the costs of procurement, not to mention flexibility and reduced timescales. This all means organisations can get on with doing what they want to – making government better with Learning Pool’s help!

What next?

You can find out more here or get in touch to discuss how G-Cloud can make your life easier.

The post Public sector must buy IT through the cloud appeared first on Learning Pool.

Aimed at school leavers and those looking for work experience, the programme offers an opportunity to join Learning Pool’s Technical Support team.

Initially I was slightly overwhelmed as I was introduced to 40 people that I have never met before in the space of five minutes! At the time, it was impossible to remember all the new names and faces.

What really impressed me was the buzz around the new office in Derry’s renovated City Factory. From the start the guys in the support team made me feel at home, through friendly banter and playing the Baywatch theme tune (my previous job was as a lifeguard).

Looking back I was surprised at how much I learned in those first couple of days – all with the help of a very supportive crew.

There are never two days the same when working with the support team. I’m continually learning new things and I now have a good understanding of our various services and e-learning solutions.

Ultimately, I am looking forward to kick starting a career in one of the UK’s fastest growing companies as I help to support our fantastic customers.

Would you like to work at Learning Pool?

We’re always interested in hearing from talented people.

If you think we should hire you send a two page CV plus a cover letter saying why we’d be lucky to have you to jobs@learningpool.com.

The post My first week report from Learning Pool’s Rising Star Programme appeared first on Learning Pool.

Learning Pool Encore is all about providing learners with content that is time delayed from the moment they take the initial learning.

This means that course administrators can use Learning Pool Encore to remind, refresh and reinforce learning messages to their learners in a structured way days and weeks after they take the learning.

Research shows clear benefits to this spaced practice type of learning in terms of the main thing that matters – learning retention. We’re also excited about the benefits of this training approach around accessibility, getting to users without computer access and of course providing genuinely ‘just in time’ training.

We’ve put together a quick slidedeck to summarise the key features of Learning Pool Encore:

People have already come up with innovative ways for using this feature as pre course assessment and we are looking forward to lots more as people get this technology into their hands.

So what do I do now?

If you are interested and would like to be part of the early pilot of this project, register your interest here. We’ll then set you up and start collecting your feedback on using the tool before we have a full launch later in the year.

The post “We Want More”… Introducing Learning Pool Encore! appeared first on Learning Pool.

The release of People1st’s 2013 State of the Nation report has brought to light the importance of workforce induction training within the hospitality industry. The figures published by People1st reinforce the on-going need to close skills gaps, reduce turnover rates and increase employee retention within the sector.

Cause for concern

The industry is continually losing employees at an alarming rate and the sector will face more pressure in the future as skills that businesses need to grow, are already in short supply. 

According to the report, nearly half of the hospitality and tourism workforce is part time leaving employers open to significant turnover and skills gaps.

People1st who are the skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism in the UK is now promoting its new ‘Act Now Campaign’, which aims to encourage employers to:

• Promote and provide pre-employment training
• Provide well defined development pathways that offer careers in the sector
• Focus on recruiting and retaining a core professional workforce

People 1^st Product Development Director, Martin Christian-Kent says that the power to make a difference largely rests with employers “who need to support those entering the sector through recognisable career pathways, recruit stable permanent full-time and part-time roles, and develop staff through training that shows a return on investment”.

Increasing employee retention through e-learning 

Learning Pool customer’s Jurys Inn has begun addressing retention issues by implementing our Total e-learning solution, with a particular focus on: 

• Ensuring that a comprehensive and consistent learning and development experience is delivered across all 35 locations
• Increasing employee retention and reducing staff turnover – The blended L&D solution now offered by Jurys Inn particularly appeals to the demographics of its workforce – over 60% of employees are under 30 years of age
• Recognising talent using Totara LMS talent management capabilities
• Induction training – New recruits can now complete their introductory modules online before they start their employment, learning about the company culture and values and gaining awareness of how Jurys Inn are actively investing in their career 

“The way that e‐learning works in a blended approach ensures that knowledge is retained, helping employees work in a smarter way and thus delivering an evident return on investment.” Edward Gallier, Jurys Inn.

How Learning Pool can help 

At Learning Pool we deliver low cost, supported and effective e-learning solutions to over one million people in the UK. Our unique offering has enabled our customers to save over £50 million and effortlessly create, share and customise quality e-learning.

We help you to provide consistent, low cost hospitality training across your company to front-line operational staff, management and head office employees online and soon through our new mobile learning solution.

We provide the content, technology and extra support to help turn your team into experts, ultimately leading to the increased effectiveness, retention and consistency of your employees. 

For a free consultation or free trial of our e-learning solutions visit here.

The post Employee retention and staff turnover in the hospitality sector appeared first on Learning Pool.

Now in their fifth year, the Learning Pool Live events bring inspiration, practical advice and a lot of fun in equal measure. Learning Pool will be going on tour throughout the UK and providing an opportunity for delegates to take away tried and tested e-learning strategies.

With ‘Develop the Possibilities‘ as the theme, the events will take place in Sheffield (9 October), Cardiff (16 October) andLondon (23 October), and expect to attract hundreds of learning and development professionals from across the UK public and private sectors.

Originally trained as a psychologist, Steve Wheeler has spent his entire career working in media, technology and learning. He is a renowned speaker in his field and has presented training sessions and workshops for various local and national government authorities and professional development organisations.

Steve will explore ‘Learning Futures: How new and emerging technologies will impact learning and development’.

Denise Hudson-Lawson is Head of Online Services for Parliamentary ICT and has recently moved from being Head of ICT Training. She is responsible for Service Delivery for over 7,000 customers for a number of areas including training, support and product delivery. 

Denise came to the Houses of Parliament from the private sector where she has considerable experience in managing and delivering IT services and training.  As well as working in IT, she is also a coach and mentor and helps individuals both inside Parliament and outside reach their goals.

Passionate about advocating online training, Denise will cover “Getting Out of the Classroom” in her keynote.

Delegates can save 50% on their Learning Pool Live ticket if they book before 31st May 2013.

The post Denise Hudson-Lawson and Steve Wheeler to headline Learning Pool Live events appeared first on Learning Pool.

There’s some excitement in the Learning Pool office this week at the release of Open Badges functionality into Totara LMS and upcoming versions of Moodle.

We’ve been watching the development of Open Badges in the Mozilla foundation for some time and we can see some real opportunity for members of the community to take advantage of this new technology.

What is it?

In a nutshell, Mozilla’s Open Badges project aims to provide a technically smart, web savvy, open access framework whereby an organisation can offer tangible recognition to learners who demonstrate achievement in a given area.

There are tons of definitions of Open Badges out there . This one from the recent Pelecon conference in Plymouth made the most sense to me!

How do I use it?

So, after we get past the language barrier around badge issuers, ecosystems and backpacks – how do we actually use this stuff? The good news is that Moodle and Totara have just become the first LMS’ in the world to support this functionality, with Mozilla announcing version 1.0 of Badges just last month. 

What would I use it for?

We’ve been brainstorming this a little bit and see a few really obvious examples where this could be useful including:

1. Customer service training for front line staff;
2. Social workers and their continuing professional development (CPD);
3. Professional development in areas like environmental health or regulatory services;
4. Delivering quality and approved training to citizens and tenants social housing.

The challenges

Of course, simply because the functionality is available doesn’t make this a complete solution just yet. In order to make this workable we think badges need:

1. Brand credibility – that’s why we’re talking to several accreditation bodies about how we can work with them to accredit badges to offer our customers;
2. Content – this all comes back to content in the end and we think that what’s in the Learning Pool catalogue is just right for a project like this. Light, targeted, easy to update and ready to be delivered on a Moodle based platform;
3. Engagement – we know that unless a project is well supported it’ll fail sooner rather than later. This is all the more evident with a badges based environment; 
4. Browsers – that old chestnut! But it’s clear that the new functionality in Moodle 2.4 and Totara 2.4 is designed for modern browsers only – anyone with internet Explorer 6 and 7 is going to have an issue.

What next?

We’re busy testing the new functionality in Totara and Moodle and will plan a release of this functionality in the next few months.

In the meantime, if you have ideas about how you’d like to use Open Badges in your organisation, post them here for the rest of the Learning Pool community.

Keep your eyes open for an upcoming Learning Hour on this subject to find out more.

The post Welcome to the world of Open Badges appeared first on Learning Pool.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a term being used more and more within human resources departments and it’s one which is now making its way into executive boardrooms. But what exactly is EI, why is it so important and how has proven to impact the bottom line in the workplace?

What is Emotional Intelligence?

It was Daniel Goleman who first used the term “emotional intelligence” in 1995 and his model is still the most widely accepted today. In his research, Goleman found that while the qualities traditionally associated with success in the workplace—such as intelligence, determination and vision—are required, they are insufficient.

Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Why is Emotional Intelligence so important in the workplace?

Whether we choose to be or not, all humans are powered by their emotions. They’re involved in every human interaction and are a powerful factor in the workplace.

People with high EI can focus on the ability to monitor their own and others’ emotions and to use this information to guide their thinking and actions- resulting in more harmonious working relationships and, in turn, higher productivity.

How does this impact the bottom line?

Emotional contagion—the tendency to be influenced by the emotions of others—is a reality at work, just as it is anywhere people come together. Every person with low EI who acts negatively at work can potentially bring down the performance of those around them.

Conversely, when it comes to making the most of all the talent available inside an organisation, professional awareness and improving staff EI has the potential to make a real difference in your organisation.

How can I improve my Emotional Intelligence level?

Learning Pool has created a module to help you assess your Emotional Intelligence. By the end of the training you will know what is meant by EI and understand how it can increase your emotional self-awareness.

The training will also help you appreciate how you can use EI to bring improvements to your team and performance. There’s also a handy checklist of what you intend to do differently in your work and daily life and enhance your ability at meeting career goals.

Access our Emotional Intelligence training now

Learning Pool customers can access this module free here.

If you’re not a customer, you can preview our content free for seven days or contact us on 0207 101 9383.

The post Emotional Intelligence: Does it matter more than anything else in the workplace? appeared first on Learning Pool.

Here at Learning Pool, we’re looking forward to attending BlueLightCamp on Saturday, 27th April. In 2012, around a hundred people took part in this landmark emergency services event, including representatives from the police, FRS and ambulance services, as well as the wider public and voluntary sectors.

We had a fantastic time last year, sharing our experience of how online training services can be best used in emergency services. We also got the chance to mingle with some lovely folk from blue light services from all over the UK.

Five reasons why we’re sponsoring this year’s event

In no particular order, here are our reasons why we’re sponsoring 2013’s event:

1. Ties in with our ethos of sharing best-practice and working together
2. We advocate using social media to engage with staff and stakeholders
3. We can share our experience and advise on using online services
4. We’ll get the chance to learn something new
5. We had such a great time last year!

Customer experience
Our customers include, Cambridgeshire FRS, Avon FRS, Hertfordshire FRS and Devon & Somerset FRS, so we’re well equipped  to discuss how online services are helping these organisations, particularly in terms of staff training.

Relevant training
Our e-learning catalogue is made-up of over 500 modules created by Learning Pool and members of our community and includes topics like Health & Safety, Safeguarding Adults & Children, Flexible Working, Equality & Diversity and Social Media.

Want to find out more?
Read how Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service has saved over £7,000 in just one assessment using Learning Pool services.

The post Learning Pool Proud Sponsors of BlueLightCamp 2013 appeared first on Learning Pool.

1. Classroom Connect Activity Session Custom Fields

There are a number of customised settings available for the Classroom Connect activity plugin. These are available from Site Administration Menu > Plugins > Activities > Classroom Connect.

If you have particular information that is required when setting up a Classroom Connect session, such as adding a field for capturing specific information on the booking form, this information can be captured by setting up custom fields for the Classroom connect plugin.

Setting up custom fields:
1. Open the Classroom Connect plugins settings: Site Administration Menu > Plugins > Activities > Classroom Connect
2. Click Create a new custom field
3. Give the custom field a fullname and a shortname
4. Select the type of custom field required
5. Select the default value if required
6. Click Required to make the field compulsory
7. Click Filter to allow the custom field to be searchable
8. Click Show in export and lists to ensure the field can be reported on
9. Click Save changes

Note: If you select menu or choices or multiple selection you need to list the available options in the list of possible values as a comma-separated list.

2. A Classroom Connect Activity

Setting up a Classroom Connect session is a two-step process. In the first step you create the Classroom Connect activity and set its options. In the second step you schedule the Classroom Connect session for the activity.

One of the changes that existing Classroom Connect users will experience is that it’s no longer possible to add a Classroom Connect activity via the block located on the home page of the site.

To add an event the course page must first be created and the activity added via the Add Activity option.

However, before you commence with the creation of an activity, venues and assets must be added in order for these to be selected as part of the event creation process.

3. Adding Venues

Venues are added/viewed via the Classroom Connect block which is displayed on the home page of your site.

1. On the Classroom Connect block click Administration – Add venue
2. Give the venue a name noting that each venue name must be unique
3. Add location information
4. Choose the venue type from the drop down or choose Add new if the required type is not listed
5. Provide a description, you can use the HTML editor to insert an image for example
6. Add the address information, you can also choose to insert a Google Map of the location
7. Add a contact name for the venue
8. Add a number for the contact
9. Add the capacity of the venue. When adding your session you will be asked if you wish to set the number of places on an event to match the capacity of the venue
10. Add a rate (£) if applicable. This is set as hourly, in line with industry standard practice
11. Make the venue status active my ticking the check box

To read the rest of this user guide please click here and login with your Learning Pool details.

Where can I read more user guides?

User guides will be covered in future blogs so keep your eyes open or better still, subscribe to the blog so that you never miss an entry.

The post Learning Pool User Guide | Classroom Connect appeared first on Learning Pool.

Mind and media is one of my favourite e-learning sources of research. This is a book that literally changes how you design and media components in e-learning. The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television and New Media Like Real People and Places by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass, two Stanford academics, is full of juicy research on media in learning.

It provides a compelling case, backed up with empirical studies, to show that people confuse media with real life. This is actually a highly useful confusion: it is what makes movies, television, radio, the web and e-learning work.

The post Donald Clark shares 35 studies in media and learning appeared first on Learning Pool.

I spend a lot of time telling people to ditch their face to face training programmes on the basis that they are unaffordable, inconsistent and ineffective. Despite my best efforts, and notwithstanding a lot of real progress, I and the rest of the Learning Pool team are struggling to meet this objective 100% of the time. Which leaves me to think that maybe improving areas of classroom learning could be the real answer.

We’ve got a number of customers using Classroom Connect as part of their Learning Pool subscriptions and we launched a brand new version of this last year. Frankly, I think it’s one of the best features we’ve ever released and the results of using this service really speak for themselves.

Effective classroom management

The main benefits that Classroom Connect customers are demonstrating are really clear:

1. Reduced administration for face to face programmes;
2. Increased engagement and attendance at classroom training;
3. Improved efficiency across the board but especially with delegates who need to move, change or cancel their place;
4. Improvements to training programmes by enabling overbooking and demand led training;
5. Streamlined approval processes with zero paper and complete transparency.

Blended learning in practice

These days everyone is talking about blended learning – Classroom Connect makes this a complete reality by providing all the learning in a single place and by linking completion of other activities to the face to face training. I’ve yet to see a blended programme delivered better than this for the level of investment that’s required.

Save the planet too?

I met with a Learning Pool customer this week (case study on the way) who has demonstrated that by using Classroom Connect for three months they have saved a whopping 35KGs of paper for their organisation… I think that’s about the same weight of my three kids combined!

Tangible benefits

So if you are alarmed at the cost of administering your classroom training programmes or if you are interested in making this whole process more efficient and even, dare I say it, easy, you should really be talking to us. We’re certain we’ll be able to help you.

You can get more information on Classroom Connect here.  You can also request a free demo.

The post Could the real value of e-learning be in the classroom? appeared first on Learning Pool.

A few things about Staffordshire

John Wilson, Staffordshire County Council

Staffordshire employs 16,000 people (excluding schools) and learning and development is delivered centrally from a team that is responsible for commissioning services on behalf of the service areas.

Like so many councils, Staffordshire is undergoing tremendous change and is moving to a broad commissioning model like lots of other Learning Pool customers such as Lambeth and Telford & Wrekin.

Some of the learning and development teams are about to start the transition into a new joint venture company called Entrust which the council is creating with outsourcing giant, Capita. Thankfully though, John and Marilyn will continue in their current roles as part of the Council.

Progress so far

Staffordshire rolled out their learning portal – called STEP – in 2011 and have made steady progress since then. STEP is a collaboration portal between the county council, districts and other partners.

A range of training is delivered across adult safeguarding, resilience and civil contingency, information governance and more. So far almost 150 courses have been set up by the team and these are being accessed every month by people from across the county. Some of the numbers that stood out during the session were:

• More than 700 people completed ‘Protective Marking’ e-learning saving money and increasing compliance against this statutory obligation;
• The STEP portal takes about 75 new enrolments on an average day;
• 1,200 course completions in the previous 3 months providing a return on investment of nearly £37,000 in that period.
• Hayley Jenks was the most active user on the system pre-Christmas… well done Hayley!

Focus for the future

The group discussed a bunch of new ideas and fresh perspectives, lots of which were interesting including:

• Engaging with the community and voluntary sector on whom Staffordshire County Council will rely more and more around service delivery
• Engagement with young people and supporting the skills agenda – the team were interested in the work we’re doing around apprenticeships
• Embracing new technology as a way of increasing knowledge retention and creating real performance improvement
• Expanding authoring capability and rolling this out to new areas of the council, hopefully making use of the content jam approach and perhaps with other Learning Pool customers.

What made this session a success

John and Marilyn did a good job of getting some senior management colleagues along and engaged in e-learning. I think the secret was their ability to ground what they are doing in real life scenarios, sell the success that they’ve had so far and listen to what their senior people were identifying as challenges so that they can tailor their offerings.

The great thing that struck me was that the impending restructure at Staffordshire wasn’t even mentioned. Too often I think people get obsessed with things like this, so it was great to see a team just getting on with things and focusing on what’s important.

All in all a great day out in the West Midlands. Let us know - what are you doing to engage your senior team?

The post Focusing on the future at Staffordshire County Council appeared first on Learning Pool.

Here’s how we’re joining in:

1. Giving away 7 free learning resources in our ‘ALW E-learning Bundle‘ 
2. Hosting an online Learning Hour around Social Media & Learning
3. Supplying downloadable promotional resources
4. Creating an engaging discussion platform

1. ALW E-learning Bundle

Exclusively for Adult Learners’ Week we are offering a bundle of 7 free resources to help you along your learning journey. It includes:

Four Free modules:
Getting Started with Social Media module, Writing for the Web, Quick Guide to Outlook 2010, Information Security 

Two Social Media Guides:
2013 editions of  Twitter Guide & Facebook Guide

One Complimentary webinar place:
Place on our next online Learning Hour with Social Media buff Paul Webster (details below). 

Request your ALW Bundle here today

2. Online Learning Hour

Social media has arguably an integral role to play in the future of learning.

In this free online Learning Hour, social media enthusiast Paul Webster will look at how platforms such as Twitter and Facebook could be leveraged for learning, with examples of how this has been done successfully. 

When: Wednesday 29 May 2013, 11.00 – 11.40am

Quick register here

3. Downloadable Promotional Resources

We’ve created the resources below for you to use to promote your plans for Adult Learners’ Week.  Click on the links to download.

1. Graphic for you to use on your DLE  (& link to this page)
2. Editable poster for you to promote your activities
3. Some text to include in your newsletter/intranet

4. Join the Learning Community discussion

Have a look at the discussions about Adult Learners’ Week right now to find out what everyone else is up to.

If you are not yet part of the Learning Pool community, you can join 12,000 other members for free here.

Plus if you are a Twitterer, follow #ALW13 for events as they unfold.

The post Adult Learners’ Week 2013 | Free learning resources appeared first on Learning Pool.

We had an overwhelming response to this competition and a big thank you to everyone who entered by booking their Learning Pool Live ticket.

The lucky winner is revealed

Without further ado, we’re delighted to announce that Sheba Franklin from Alliance Homes will be receiving the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the post very shortly! 

You can still grab your half price ticket

You can be a part of this year’s must-attend learning event, Learning Pool Live, for an early bird price of £50 instead of £100. Be quick though as almost half of the tickets have been snapped up already!

Now in its fifth year, our annual get-together promises inspiration, practical advice and a lot of fun in equal measure.

Click the links below to book:

Wed 9 October, Sheffield City Hall Book now

Wed 16 October, Holiday Inn, Cardiff Book now

Wed 23 October, Camden Town Hall, London Book now

Keep up to date with the latest news

Never miss another Learning Pool Live announcement and join the pre-event online group here or follow #LPLearningLive on Twitter.

The post Winner of Learning Pool Live Samsung Galaxy Tablet announced! appeared first on Learning Pool.

Learning Pool’s recent Steering Group meeting

When asked to attend last month’s Steering Group, having never travelled with work before, I felt a little bit apprehensive. 

I had lots of irrational thoughts running through my head the night before my trip. I was worried I’d sleep in or forget my passport! As soon as I sat on the plane though, the nerves were gone – but next were the trains…

Living in a city were nearly everything is within walking distance, taking a train isn’t the norm. The journey was fine though (minus standing clinging on for dear life on the tube!) and I arrived safely at the meeting.

So, what’s new at Learning Pool?

There was a great turnout to the Steering Group and it was good to finally be able to put faces to the names of the people that I had spoken to over the phone so many times before.

The Steering Group started with each guest introducing themselves and giving a little update on what they had been working on. It was great to see these people so proud of the work that they are doing and so interested in what the others had accomplished. 

Next, Paul McElvaney discussed the Spaced Practice project. This is the first mobile app in development for our customers. It sends through reminders, quizzes and bite sized pieces of information to your smart phone to keep your learning fresh. Feedback from the sneak-peek was excellent and everyone was excited to try it – so watch this space!

Mary McKenna then spoke about open badges and how it would be useful to have these as an alternative to certificates on CVs and LinkedIn profiles, for example.

We also got great feedback on the one-to-one support calls. Those who had tried them had excellent feedback for our support stars and everyone else was keen to try them out.

Lastly, Andrew Jacobs discussed our recent successful Content Jam session, where an enthusiastic group got together with our experts to create e-learning resources.  

All in all it was a fantastic experience and I’m already looking forward to the next meeting! If you’d like to join our Steering Group, drop me a line at rachael@learningpool.com for more information.

The post Planes, Trains and Steering Groups! appeared first on Learning Pool.

OSCA Learn and Improve winners

Learning Pool was proud to sponsor and present the Learn and Improve Award to Maureen Cornell and Steve Jones of Norfolk Library Service.  

What matters are the people

Each year, Norfolk County Council recognises the achievements of staff who deliver over and above in their day job. Norfolk Council’s Chief Executive David White explained the importance of the awards, “The OSCA’s are a key part of how the council works”.  David continued, “What matters are the people and their dedication shows how important the wellbeing of Norfolk and its community is to everyone in the council”.

Recognising employee achievements

So what is the importance of recognising and rewarding employee achievements?

In a time of uncertainty across many organisations, there are a number of reasons to reward and recognise special effort and achievements from staff. The following were evident at the OSCA’s : 

Positive reinforcement: By publicly recognising the efforts of a selection of staff members through nomination and award, the bar is set to show peers what makes a difference and what kind of effort is needed to be rewarded.

Boost in morale: From pay cuts to job uncertainty, employee awards can create a voice for employee value from higher up the ranks and indeed from the public at a time when a lot of people are unsure if what they are doing is valued at all.

Public awareness: By publicly releasing details of employee awards and nominees, the public get an insight into untold success stories and get a look at how the organisation rewards its staff.

Recognition: Those who are nominated and win the awards are now seen as role models and advocates. They have been recognised for their services which in turn can encourage them to continue their amazing work knowing that they are valued by their organisation.

Norfolk CC’s Kerry Furness and Tony Morley with Learning Pool’s Kevin and Serena

Norfolk stars

It is easy to see why Norfolk County Council recognise and reward their staff. I was lucky enough to meet some of these wonderful individuals who go that extra mile that undoubtedly sets them apart from the rest.

Even those who didn’t win an award on the night should be extremely proud of themselves. Their passion and dedication in their work is exemplary and nothing short of inspiring.

Congratulations to all who were involved and nominated in this wonderful event and thank you for letting Learning Pool be a part of Norfolk County Council’s continued success.

The post Norfolk’s stars shine bright appeared first on Learning Pool.

Jay Hounsell from Herts FRS

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) needed to give its 1,000 firefighters quick and easy access to risk-critical training – without burning through their budget.

Challenges with classroom training 

Jay Hounsell, HFRS Station Manager, found that classroom training was sometimes difficult to run in this environment so using Learning Pool gives HFRS firefighters tailored training online at a time that suits them and their daily routine.

“E-learning fits into the Personal Development Plan of every Hertfordshire firefighter”, explained Jay.

Savings realised with online assessments

By adopting Learning Pool’s Dynamic Learning Environment, the lengthy and costly process of assessments being ‘marked’ by instructors has been removed and learners can receive their marks instantly upon course completion

Using Learning Pool’s platform, HFRS hosts a total 66 assessments that have facilitated over 6,000 online completions by their firefighters. Over £7,100 has been saved in the Crew Commander Assessment—a saving of over £224 per firefighter in this one assessment.

Evident business results

By providing images, demonstration videos and audio in the training Jay is bringing the learning to life and simulating real situations that firefighters will have to deal with. Learning Pool enables HFRS to:

• Save time by delivering the training more quickly than he could with a traditional classroom approach

• Save money by eliminating the need for assessor marking, booking training rooms, and taking firefighters out of work during their shifts

• Achieve consistency by delivering the same training and assessment to everyone who takes the course

• Ensure compliance by reporting in real time as firefighters complete the learning

• Make the learning more accessible to his audience in and around demanding shifts

• Update the learning easily and cost effectively as new equipment is used and legislation changes

HFRS are conducting their life saving work in a challenging financial climate and are including Learning Pool in their plan to deliver savings.

Free guest access for 7 days

You can request guest access to our Fire Service e-learning modules here or call 0207 101 9383 to find out more.

The post Battling blazes with Learning Pool’s risk-critical e-learning appeared first on Learning Pool.

From 1st April 2013 local authorities will be responsible for public health

A new era for local government is on the way. In just two weeks, for the first time since the 1970s, local authorities will once more be responsible for public health – but are you ready?

The implementation of the Health & Social Care Act 2012 will require the largest ever transition programme in the history of the NHS.

Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts will be abolished from 1st April 2013 and new statutory organisations at national, regional and local levels will be responsible for improving health outcomes. 

We can help make sure that you are ready

To help prepare for this transfer of public health responsibilities back to councils, we’ve designed a Health Commissioning module covering all you need to know about the changes. 

We’ve also highlighted key considerations, including how the health and care system will be modernised, the structural changes taking place and who will be the key players in the new system. 

Access the Health Commissioning training now

Learning Pool customers can access the Health Commissioning module free here.

If you’re not a customer, you can preview our content free for seven days or contact us on 0207 101 9383.

The post Are you prepared for Public Health? appeared first on Learning Pool.

However they weren’t changing by eliminating training in order to save money, which is something many organisations have had to do. Instead they were looking at new ways to meet staff learning and development needs by turning to learning online.

Classroom training absolutely has its place for some topics and some groups of learners, but there are people who view it as a way to ‘eat someone else’s biscuits and gaze out of someone else’s window all day’!

Considering new ways of learning

With reducing budgets and fewer staff, teaching based purely on this style of learning is becoming less sustainable and new ways to learn, via the web and by collaborating with others has to be considered. It does take a mind shift, but if we never looked for new ideas and never embraced change we’d never do anything.

Downloadable fact sheets on a website and social networks play their part in learning. For example TED talks, ‘Tweet Chats’ such as #lgovsm to learn from your peers or LinkedIn to join discussions with fellow professionals are very important, but a structured system of on line modules allows learning to be more organised with bundled up courses for staff and volunteers.

It also helps supervisors map learner pathways and keep track of progress with reports on line of skills development over time.

Managed e-learning has real benefits

Creating a saving of up to 80% compared with the cost of delivering classroom training isn’t the only benefit of e-learning. It also:

• gives staff and volunteers access to training whenever and wherever they have web access
• ensures knowledge delivery is consistent which can be referred back to as often as needed
• gives new staff and volunteers immediate training without having to wait for a classroom to become available or course to be run
• is a great way to modernise the way your organisation views learning and development
• saves on the cost of classroom based courses as no travel or trainer fees are needed
• eliminates staff time travelling to venues to take part in training sessions

Now charities and communities can have their own bespoke social learning platform

‘My Learning Pool Builder’ brought to you by Learning Pool does all the above. It is an affordable Learner Management System and course Authoring Tool helping you to use our existing courses and to create unlimited e-learning courses of your own.

You can track learner progress online through your themed environment and have the ability to create forums, store frequently asked questions, build wikis and blogs, run real-time chat sessions and transmit video and audio podcasts.

We have a growing number of courses written to cover the work of charities, community organisations, social care providers and housing associations.

It’s about people

People are at the heart of charities and community organisations, so being able to access affordable, relevant skills and knowledge is important to ensure their effectiveness for you and your organisation.

Providing staff and volunteers with the right learning opportunities at the right time and for the right price is important whether you are a national charity or local housing association. Learning online should now be seriously considered as a key building block that is part of a mix of on-line, face to face and social media based learning.

If your staff skills development is blended this way it can really help your charity save both staff time and reduce the cost on your training budget.

Cost of investment

Whatever the size of your charity or network of organisations there is a Learning Pool system to meet your needs. The ‘My Learning Pool Builder’ package gives unlimited access for 200 staff & volunteers to 40 courses and our course Authoring Tool as often as required and costs £2000 per year.  A system providing unlimited access for 350 learners to 60 courses would cost from £3500 per year. For larger charities and networks of organisations we also provide other enhanced packages.

Free guest access for 7 days

To find out more about how we can help you make the most of your training budget and to arrange a free trial guest access, please see here, contact me on 0207 101 9383, email paulw@learningpool.com or find me on Twitter @watfordgap.

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Add / Edit Certificates

As part of your DLE build, Learning Pool will provide branded certificates in both portrait and landscape format. These will be set up as templates that you can choose as part of the border image selection.  The certificate will dynamically pull in the name of the individual and the name of the course.

To create a new certificate, ensure you have turned editing on and then select Certificate from the activities list.

To edit an existing certificate, turn editing on and then click the edit setting icon next to the certificate on the course page:

Common Module Settings

These may vary according to advanced options and site settings. Furthermore, we applied default settings when we created your DLE so most of the common module settings do not need to be adjusted. We have indicated which settings will need to be adjusted when adding certificates by highlighting the title in Red. The remaining fields are for information purposes.

General

Certificate Name – This is the title of the link that the learner will see within the certificate section of your course.

Introduction – This is not a mandatory field. This text will be displayed to learners when they open the Certificate activity. An Introduction should be descriptive and indicate to the learner the circumstances or requirements surrounding the award of the Certificate.

To read the rest of this user guide please click here and login with your Learning Pool details.

Where can I read more user guides?

User guides will be covered in future blogs so keep your eyes open or better still, subscribe to the blog so that you never miss an entry.

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