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Posts Tagged ‘employees’

Train to gain celebrates two years of success as 100,000th company signs up

Monday, October 13th, 2008

UK – 8th October, 2008 – Home improvement retailer B&Q has become the 100,000th company to sign up to Train to Gain, as the flagship service marks its second year of helping to boost the nation’s skills.

Employer representatives joined Ministers in calling on even more employers to take advantage of the training service, which helps firms get the best from their staff by identifying and helping meet skills needs. 78 per cent of employers say that they would recommend Train to Gain to other employers.

Since its launch in 2006, Train to Gain has helped over 570,000 employees in England get training, and over 291,000 learners have achieved a qualification. An evaluation published this year revealed that some 43 per cent of people who had completed their training reported having received a pay rise, and 30 per cent reported having had promotion. Funding for Train to Gain will increase from £520 million in 2007-08 to over £1 billion by 2010-11.

Lord Young, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said:

“Successful employers see up-skilling the workforce as one of the most powerful things they can do to drive their businesses forward. Employers who have invested in the skills of their people in the past will be better placed to respond to the economic challenges, and they will also be better placed to take advantage of the opportunities in the next period of growth.

“B&Q has helped to mark a milestone for this service. Only two years in, a hundred thousand businesses have benefited from Train to Gain. Now more than ever, employers need to ensure they are getting the best from their staff by taking advantage of the range of training and funding opportunities available through Train to Gain.”

Martyn Philips, HR Director, B&Q said:

“Good skills at all levels are essential to our business if we are to continue to thrive in an exceptionally competitive market and we currently invest a lot of time and effort in ensuring our staff receive the training they need in order to be the best at their job. Train to Gain means we can now do this even better than before and helps us to really identify our employees’ individual needs. Over the next 12 months we anticipate around 35 per cent of our non-management population will be awarded the NVQ Retails Skills Level 2. In addition we will be launching an apprenticeship programme early next year.”

Miles Templeman, Director General, Institute of Directors (IoD) said:

“Skills and training have never been more important to UK businesses. In the ever-intensifying heat of global competition, skills are a critical factor in determining business success. IoD members are fully committed to this agenda – over 90 per cent provide training for their employees. Services like Train to Gain will help to maintain this encouraging trend. It has made a very positive start and there is clearly considerable potential to build on this foundation by continuing to raise its profile in the business community. It is there, after all, for employers to take advantage of.”

Richard Thorold, principal at Gateshead College, said:

“In the past two years since Train to Gain was introduced, as one of the North East’s leading training providers we have met with more than 116 employers. Train to Gain has turned out to be the success we hoped it would be and employers share our view; feedback from the businesses we’ve worked with has been very positive, with many of them reporting an increase in productivity, profits or efficiency as a result of our training.

“Train to Gain has enabled us to use our expert knowledge to develop bespoke training packages that identify skills gaps, build confidence, motivate teams and deliver immediate results.”

A spokesperson for the British Chamber of Commerce said:

“Businesses’ ability to grow and succeed is dependent on its staff. Professional development – both in terms of skills levels and management capabilities – is crucial, and business is committed to providing employees with the training they need. Train to Gain is a tangible embodiment of partnership between employers and the Government to training, and one which we hope to progress as Train to Gain evolves as a service to business.”

Frances O’Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary said:

“Where employers and unions work together Train to Gain produces great results both for employers and workers. Union Learning Reps know that access to learning changes lives and are keen for their employers to sign up to Train to Gain”.

John Vigar, Continuous Improvement and Business Coordination Manager, Lotus Group, commented:

“It’s great to see what an improvement the LSC initiatives like Train to Gain has made to our business’ performance and to the staff themselves. We have been able to further improve our performance measures as well as provide worthy recognition of our employees’ efforts.”

Through Train to Gain, the London-based construction firm FM Conway Ltd has trained 250 of its employees in a range of qualifications including Operatives and Masons through to Plant Operators. One employee, Sharon Field, completed a range of training starting at A-level equivalent, progressing through to postgraduate degree equivalent in Management. This helped her earn a promotion to director level.

Sharon Field said: “Getting the training to improve my skills has renewed my self-confidence. I’m sure that it will strengthen my ability to support the company in its future growth. Training has also improved the performance and loyalty of my other colleagues – ultimately benefiting our company’s bottom-line.”

Employers wanting more information on Train to Gain can either call 0800 015 55 45 or visit traintogain.gov.uk.

E-learning helps USA retailers dump classrooms for the anywhere, anytime Internet

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

By Elizabeth Gardner

USA – 1st March, 2008 – Walk into a City Furniture store in Florida on a slow morning and you’re likely to find a store associate at his computer. It may look like he’s web surfing, but he’s probably brushing up on his knowledge of couch construction or crib safety standards using the retailer’s e-learning system. For the past year, the 15-store chain has been moving its employee training away from classrooms and paper manuals and onto the Internet.

With stores all over south Florida, City Furniture’s 1,100 employees are far flung. “Imagine how challenging it is to get people to come an hour north, or two hours south, or an hour west, for a full-day training session,” says Janet Wincko, director of recruiting and learning. “Every moment they’re driving here and sitting in a class, they’re not selling.” And for employees in the 24/7 distribution center, scheduling classroom training to fit everyone’s odd hours is an additional challenge.

With e-learning, employees can complete little chunks of training; anything from five minutes for a quick briefing on a new product to a 20-minute module on store procedures, whenever they have a spare moment. Their reward is anything from lavish praise to bonuses or promotions. City Furniture’s reward is more training completed at less expense and potentially lower employee turnover and higher sales.

Internet-based e-learning is transforming how stores train their employees, whether it’s how to fold a sweater, how to deal with an angry customer or how to work the point-of-sale system. And sometimes that point-of-sale screen carries the lesson of the day.

“First-tier retailers: those with more than $2 billion in annual sales, all have embraced e-learning”, says Sunita Gupta, executive vice president at the LakeWest Group, a retail consulting firm. It recently completed a survey of 100 top retailers, and more than 70% said better training of store personnel was their top priority.

“Among second tier retailers: those with $500 million to $2 billion in sales, adoption of e-learning varies, and it’s most often used to introduce new technologies or programs”, Gupta adds.

Because e-learning systems are often available as a hosted solution and companies can pay per user, retailers of any size can potentially benefit, says Don Cook, senior vice president of marketing at Learn.com Inc., which includes about 30 retailers, including City Furniture, among its 500 e-learning clients. “We target the mid-market, between 10,000 and 30,000 employees is our sweet spot, but our biggest growth area is companies with less than 1,000,” he says. “Small companies should take training seriously. When you have three stores, it’s easier to develop a training system than if you wait until you have 50 or 100.”

Computer-based training has been around since all screens were black with green letters. The rise of the commercial Internet has made networked computers ubiquitous and inexpensive, giving retailers the ability to easily link trainees with centralized training. And the evolution of Internet technology has spawned a toolbox of presentation techniques as useful for developing training materials as they are for creating flashy web sites. Course developers can choose online video, Internet gaming techniques and other tools that appeal to the young people who form the backbone of many retailers’ sales forces. And those forces can take their training at any Internet-connected computer whenever it’s convenient, whether during a lull at the store or at home in their jammies.

“Retailers realize that e-learning offers a better toolset than traditional training,” Gupta says. “It’s interactive. They can add remedial sections if someone is taking longer than usual to understand something. They can be creative with learning protocols. And they can test as they go to gauge a person’s progress.”

Last year, Hudson’s Bay Co., one of Canada’s largest retailers with more than 580 locations and 50,000 to 70,000 employees depending on the season, realized a two-fold increase in the number of online training courses completed by employees, says Jason Hubbard, senior manager of e-learning and virtual classroom.

His in-house staff of five has produced dozens of e-learning courses over the past four years, not only on specific products and store procedures but also on personal growth topics like dealing with stress and improving language skills. Each course takes about three weeks to create and 15 to 20 minutes for a learner to complete. Hudson’s Bay employees completed more than 160,000 courses in 2007.

And often they revisit those courses for a refresher. “Any trainer will tell you that when someone gets training for a whole day, they’re overwhelmed and don’t remember everything they’ve learned,” Hubbard says. “With this system, you can go online to review specific things. If I do a spreadsheet once a month and I’ve forgotten how to do a PivotTable, I can use the Excel course as a reference tool.”

The courses run on a learning management system from GeoLearning Inc. GeoLearning hosts the system, which provides a platform not only for delivering the courses but for tracking participation and assessing the overall “skill health” of individual employees. The learning management system can serve as a general employee development tool for human resources departments, says Will Hipwell, GeoLearning’s senior vice president of product development.

E-learning can help geographically dispersed organizations develop a common corporate identity, says Angela Vazquez, director of instructional design at AMC Theatres, which operates 300 movie theaters throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company has been using e-learning for about four years. Its system provides courses for about 2,700 employees, including line managers at theaters. Vazquez plans to roll out courses this year for the 20,000 crew-level employees, the ones who pop the popcorn and clean between the seats.

“Having a centralized training function at the home office really helps us standardize and share our culture with remote locations,” Vazquez says. Each course uses the same branded template to give a consistent look and feel.

Face to face?

However, some subjects are still best taught in person, especially if they involve role-playing or lots of personal interaction, says Hudson’s Bay’s Hubbard. But even then, e-learning can streamline the process.

“A class that might have run a full day before can now run half a day because you can play around with the material a little bit online before the course and do follow-up online,” he says. City Furniture, Hudson’s Bay and AMC all use some classroom training in addition to e-learning for a blended approach.

Costs for e-learning vary widely, and the return on investment is sometimes difficult to identify, especially in the first few years when a company is incurring substantial expenses to set up a system and develop courses.

When City Furniture’s Janet Wincko was selling management on e-learning, she stayed away from squishy projections on increased sales or reduced turnover and stuck to the obvious. “Paying a dollar to an instructional designer is comparable to paying a dollar to an instructor,” she says. “But I have to pay the instructor every time he teaches a class, and I only have to pay the designer once.”

For Hudson’s Bay, direct return on its overall e-learning investment isn’t a primary concern, Hubbard says. Sales and management staff have to be trained one way or another, and his most important metric is successful course completions (defined as not only being exposed to the course, but passing the post-course test with an 80% score or better). Nonetheless, he can point to cases where introducing a course on a specific product: for example, digital cameras has resulted in increased sales. “Associates are much more likely to sell something when they’re knowledgeable about the product.”

In general, benefits from e-learning are significant, especially when viewed enterprisewide, some experts say.

“It’s hard to measure what you get back from having sales associates who can actually assist customers,” says LakeWest Group’s Gupta. “But many corporate initiatives fail because the execution doesn’t happen at the store level.”

Source: InternetRetailer.com

Elizabeth Gardner is a Riverside, Ill.-based freelance business writer.

Learn Skills aims to have a comprehensive range of essential skills and compliance training for the Retail Sector available soon, for both individuals and large groups of employees and learners.

Openness and learning in today’s world

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

In an open world as ours, interactive communication technologies generate an impact which has an influence on both individual learners and the organisations administrating learning processes.

This new issue of eLearning Papers aims to contribute to the debate highlighting several articles which address the openness and changing world of learning as well as the pervasive nature of some related public policies.

Richard Straub argues that the idea of “openness” is emerging as a dominant attribute of key developments in our current economic and social fabric. Open systems are like living organisms with significant elements of self-organisation. But now, says Richard Straub, we have the necessary infrastructure and tools to operate in new ways in open systems. These new ways have a clear impact on business, employees, learners and innovation, and they require changes in our individual behaviours and institutional adjustments.

In this changing process, Web 2.0 has a significant role. Antonio Bartolomé offers a clear frame around the concept of “Web 2.0: ideas, technologies and implications for learning.” The article argues that Web 2.0 resources seem to have little impact on the structure and conception of the old learning paradigms on which today’s curricula are built. So, where are the new paradigms? The author says it is too early to speak of a new paradigm, but there are some elements that do not fit easily in the old eLearning models.

What about the changes at eLearning institutions due to Web.2.0? Juan Freire analyses this in the article “Universities and Web.2.0: Institutional challenges.” He describes a list of bottlenecks which constrain the institutional adoption of Web 2.0 when universities and their managers assume an active role to adapt to the new reality. The article concludes pointing out a set of elements for a Web 2.0 adoption in universities.

“Openness” is also associated with values such as tolerance, individual freedom, lifelong learning, intercultural cooperation and innovation. In the interview with Anna Kirah we appreciate her vision of innovative thinking and education. The first question invites us to read the rest: How did an anthropologist end up in teaching person-centred and innovative thinking to business managers?

We experience every day what openness means and the benefits it may offer. The article submitted by Aina Chabert and Monica Turrini describes an intergenerational learning experience and shows us an example of enhancing democratic values in the open world. The digital literacy and eInclusion of older citizens can be promoted with a help of “digital facilitators” and experiential learning, providing the elderly learners with real life experiences when learning to use ICT.

Source: elearningpapers

Learn Skills announces content partnership with nursing content factory MedSenses

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
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Courseware BY nurses FOR nurses

Ireland – 6th October, 2008 – Learn Skills is pleased to announce its latest content partnership with MedSenses, an elite nursing content factory based in Canada, focused on building courseware BY nurses FOR nurses.

MedSenses, having researched maximum learner retention strategies, add custom design elements such as 3-D animations, medical illustrations, case scenarios, and clinical expertise – making all of their courses come alive with color and interactivity. Learn Skills through its partnership with MedSenses is pleased to offer one-stop shopping for any healthcare-related corporation in meeting the emerging need for high quality, relevant, and cost-effective training.

Learn Skills can now offer a variety of titles in the following sectors: Medical-Surgical, Cardiac, Critical Care, Compliance, Pediatrics, Newborn, Neonatal, Emergency, Ground Transport, and Flight Transport, offering a curriculum of over 400 contact hours through our Learn Skills LMS.  Healthcare organizations can now offer a high quality, cost-effective solution for their continuing-education programs – all while offering their nursing staff their annual CE credits!

Whether you are an individual nurse looking to upskill or a group of employees spread across numerous location, we have a solution for you and also you need to is Contact Us about your individual requirements.

Skills Challenge Facing The Irish Economy

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

Ireland – 15th May, 2008 – The skills challenge facing the Irish economy was the subject of a major seminar organised jointly by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), and held in Dublin on May 15.

The ‘Learning at Work’ seminar was chaired by NCPP director Lucy Fallon-Byrne and was addressed by Minister for Lifelong Learning Seán Haughey, Leo Casey of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching and Prof Chip Bruce, National College of Ireland.

Four national initiatives, designed to promote and encourage learning at work, were showcased also at the seminar, providing the 100-plus delegates with real-life examples of innovative responses to the future skills challenge.

Among the issues discussed at the seminar were:

  • The role of workplace learning in driving and growing the Irish economy;
  • The opportunities for, and obstacles to, workplace learning that exist in Ireland today;
  • Effective ways of engaging employers and employees to ensure Ireland is equipped for the future skills challenge.

National College of Ireland president Paul Mooney said the message was simple:

“For Ireland Inc. to succeed, the barriers to workplace learning must be identified and systematically removed. To survive and prosper in a tougher global environment, we need to collectively up our game to out-think the competition.

“The highest performing companies of the future are the ones that are becoming engaged in workplace learning initiatives today. The time is now and there is zero room for complacency on this. The future is decided by those who sense change and actually start to do something to respond to this. For everyone else, the time bomb is ticking.”

A new DVD was launched by Minister Haughey. Produced by NCPP, the DVD profiles the practical experiences of five Irish public and private-sector organisations that have recognised and embraced workplace learning as an enabler of change. Their stories illustrate the value of promoting human talent and creativity in the workplace, and make a powerful business case for lifelong learning and workplace training and development.  Upskilling is now a necessity.

Copies of the DVD are available (free of charge) on request from the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.  Simply drop an email to Conor (conor@ncpp.ie) with your contact details, and he’ll post them out to you as soon as possible.

Source: Education MATTERS

Skills Lacking in UK Financial Services Sector

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

UK – 9th May, 2008 – The skills shortage in financial services has worsened, according to the Chartered Insurance Institute’s (CII) second annual skills survey.  Three quarters of the 3,511 CII members polled reported a shortage of technical skills, a 5% increase on last year’s survey.

Four out of five firms have said that the problem of recruiting skilled staff has become part of their boardroom agenda.  This increase of 20% on last year shows that more firms are looking to tackle the problem.

The education system took the brunt of the blame for the lack of trained people, with 57% of members saying that the education system had failed to meet the needs of the industry.  Just 3% described basic levels of education as ‘more than adequate’ and said they felt 61% of graduates struggled with basic literacy and numeracy.  The number of firms that believe their employees need higher qualifications has risen 14% from last year to 73%.

Lord Hunt, the CII president, said that the results of the survey served as a ‘wake up call’ and that advisers, professional bodies, the Financial Services Skills Council and the government needed to work together to solve the industry’s problems.

‘In this period of economic instability it is vital that we do not take our eye off the skills issue, tempting though that may be.  Cuts to training budgets in order to make a quick saving will in the end prove to be a false economy,’ he said.

‘The UK financial services industry is world renowned for its commitment to improving the skill levels of its staff.  Yet we cannot be complacent and must continue to commit time and resources to training and development if we are to remain competitive in the face of intense global competition.’

“It for reason like those concern outlined below that Learn Skills intends to offer a range of industry relevant and industry specific courses for the Financial Services Industry”, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, who spend eight years working in this sector and saw first had the damage that can be done by undertraining workforce.

Source: Citywire

Why Develop Soft Skills?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Studies by Stanford Research Institute and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation among Fortune 500 CEOs found that 75% of long term job success depended on people skills and only 25% on technical skills.

This is true at other levels as well. For effective performance in the workplace, companies need their employees to have not only domain knowledge, technical and analytical skills, but also the skills to deal with the external world of clients, customers, vendors, the government and public; and to work in a collaborative manner with their colleagues.

The annual rankings of MBA colleges often place communication and interpersonal skills as the most critical skills needed for success in the corporate world.

Noted academic Prof. Henry Mintzberg while speaking on the importance of soft skills for MBAs, refers to the crucial “soft” skills – leadership, teamwork, communication, and the ability to think “outside the box” of a discipline – that separate the best from the rest in the management world.”

Companies are finding that they have to promote people faster than ever before to meet their growth needs.  At the same time, they are finding that the candidates do not have the necessary skills to make the transition from a technical or functional specialist to a team leader, supervisor or manager.  Companies in the IT, BPO, KPO, Biotech, and Pharmaceuticals industries have found that their people need soft skills to work effectively in cross-functional or project teams, local teams or global teams.

Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance training company,  can offer a tailored soft-skills program to benefit companies and address these issues and you can contact us for further information by clicking here.

Impact of e-Learning Companies

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

E-learning companies are changing the face of how businesses train their staff.  In this world of people using the Internet on a daily basis, e-learning companies offer a smart solution to an age-old problem of keeping employees educated and updated on the latest trends.

Companies have long battled with the high costs of training their employees, but e-learning companies are offering an affordable solution to this problem.  In the past there were limited choices for companies to keep their employees trained.  A business would either employ a large training department, which costs a great deal of money, or they would be forced to send their employees to outside training events which was also very expensive.

The only other option for business was really no option at all, that is to not give proper and up to date training to their employees.  Businesses understand that not providing their employees with continuing education results in giving their competitors and edge over them.  E-learning companies have developed an affordable way to keep employees trained and educated on the best methods that are used in various industries.

Smart companies are looking for ways to automate their training of employees and the most sensible method is to employ e-learning companies. E-learning companies provide a suite of diverse catalog courses, content management, reliable reporting, online authoring, ease of use, and scalability that can be adjusted as the company grows and changes.

E-learning allows both large and small companies the ability to give their employees the latest and greatest training available.  With the flexibility that e-learning companies provides to their customers the training programs can be adjusted to fit the needs of any company.  Whether you have a work force of fifty or five hundred, e-learning companies have the solution that you are looking for.

Another great benefit of utilizing e-learning companies is that you can control the scheduling of the training sessions much easier.  Instead of taking many employees away from work at one time to do training in a classroom setting, you can utilize the Internet and allow each individual employee to take training courses at the most efficient time possible.  Businesses can even offer training to their employees from their home if the need arises.

There are multiple e-learning companies offering services to businesses and choosing the right one is critically important. Not only must a business consider the cost of purchase, but a business must also consider the return on investment and the amount of time it takes to achieve that return on investment. With e-learning companies such as Learn Skills, you can actually have your system up and running in a matter of days, not weeks like competitors.

Cost is always a factor when choosing which of the elearning companies to go with. When you go with Learn Skills you will be getting one of the most affordable training options for your employees. You will also be receiving a great deal of empowerment since you are able to custom tailor the programs to fit the specific needs of your company.

E-learning companies give you and your business the ability to stay ahead of your competitors and to develop your employees.  E-learning companies are direction that forward thinking businesses are going for their entire employee training needs.  With the convenience and ease of use, e-learning companies are able to meet the needs of their customer in a way never before imagined.

Check out elearning companies such as Learn Skills today and get started training your employees on the latest skills that they need to help your business succeed.

When Should a Company Consider Using e-Learning?

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

Most companies need to provide some sort of training or instruction to their employees, customers and suppliers.  This is especially true for technology-based organisations.  Typically these companies provide needed training by sending people to colleges, holding in-house training classes, or providing manuals and self-study guides.  In some situations it is advantageous for them to use e-Learning instead of the traditional training.

“Companies need to be aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of e-Learning”, according to Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance training company.  “e-Learning needs to be understood for employers to maximise the benefits associated with this training.”

e-Learning, has many advantages over traditional classroom training for the employees in a company, customers using a product, or students in school. These advantages include:

  • Better than reading the manual – more interactive and engaging
  • Cost-effective – up to 60% more cost effective than traditional training
  • Practical – where employees are based countrywide or globally
  • Standardized learning – more consistent delivery of training

There are some drawbacks on using eLearning:

  • Need access to computer – at home or at work
  • Some need access to Internet and broadband
  • Must know who to use computer – user must be somewhat computer literate
  • Personnel resistance – phobias concerning using computers and tecnology
  • Must be well-done – else it’s like being thought by a poor teacher

Businesses make most sound decisions based on potential return-on-investment (ROI). It is assumed that the company has already determined that training their personnel and/or customers is a value-added activity.   Now, the question is whether or not e-Learning is the best route to take.

Criteria for deciding on using eLearning include:

  • Cost and practicality of sending learners to class
  • Availability of computers and literacy of learners
  • Development cost versus number being trained

Weighing these issues, an effective and informed decision can be made.  Companies should consider using eLearning when it is cost effective and practical and when they want standardized training.  PCs must be available, students must not resist using the PCs, and the e-Learning material must be informative and engaging to provide the best results.

Reference: School of Champions website, article by Ron Curtis (revised 4 April 2004)

How is eLearning relevant for an Irish SME?

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Ireland – 15th September 2003 – A recent Chambers of Commerce of Ireland (CCI) survey found Irish SME’s demonstrated a significant lack of understanding of what e-Learning is about.

“This report, “E-Learning and SMEs: awareness and usge”, was written by Mori for the CCI all the way back in 2003 and is still relevant today”, according to Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance training company. The survey found that of the 681 respondents with Internet access, only 12% used eLearning on a regular basis. This is an interesting revelation, given that Ireland has won recognition on an international stage for its e-Learning materials and businesses

However the confusion is hardly surprising in the light of the low-profile that those involved in the industry keep, in terms of marketing to SMEs ; does the market know what eLearning is and how it can be applied in an SME context? Much of the vast publicity given to this topic has related either to Irish companies primarily on an international scale to multi-national/government clients e.g. Electric Paper etc.

As the owner of one Irish SME puts it “I have never been approached by an eLearning company selling their services. This is despite the fact that we are an extremely internet-friendly business and regularly send members of staff on courses.”

As any business manager of an SME will know, having key members of staff (and they’re all key in a small business!) away from the office can put a major strain on the company, yet in the case of the above SME, an e-Learning option was never put on the horizon – either by the SME or by eLearning suppliers.

The benefits are potentially huge. Some of the relevant potential benefits for an SME include;

  • Reduced training costs; the cost per course should (in theory at least!), be lower than conventional training costs however the real saving may be in related expenses e.g. travel/accommodation etc.
  • Reduced absence of key staff; as employees will not have to travel or leave the workplace, access at critical moments can be facilitated (although obviously this needs to be controlled closely).
  • Improved training through shared learning online; as remote training can facilitate large numbers, the pooling of experiences and expertise can be beneficial.
  • Standardised training across location; the training given in each location will be consistent and progress can be monitored.
  • eWorking can be facilitated; eLearning can be undertaken at a different location e.g. from home, where appropriate.

The primary challenge facing eLearning companies selling into Irish SME’s is the need for clear messaging; what eLearning programmes are out there; how will they benefit the company?

This article was taken from Issue 93, 15th September 2003, e-Business Live, news provided by Enterprise Ireland.

Almost five years on and not a whole lot has changed, mainly the names and composition of Irish e-Learning companies. Learn Skills will aim to deliver e-Learning to the Irish SMEs in a format and way that can maximise results attained and provide SME employee and managers with the skills and training necessary to build a sustainable enterprise.

Five years from now when you think of e-Learning for SMEs you will only think of one Irish e-Learning company and that’s Learn Skills.

If you would like to learn more about how Learn Skills can benefit you and your company please don’t hesitate to contact us and we can tailor a training program just for you. To contact us simply click here.