The British Institute for Learning & Development (The BILD) announces a formal partnership agreement with The Training Foundation, owner of the Training Accreditation Programme (TAP®). The parties will collaborate on a range of initiatives aimed at enhancing the professional skills and status of L&D practitioners on a global basis.
Sally Taylor, Head of Client Training at BT Expedite says: 'When we display a slide that says our trainers have a TAP qualification, we're demonstrating to our clients that they are in safe hands. TAP provides a rigorous structure for course design and endorsement of high standards of training delivery, which gives clients and our staff the confidence that we know what we are doing.'
Another major UK learning provider has announced a policy commitment to the TAP® Learning System, the UK’s leading training skills certification programme, administered by The Training Foundation. Under the requirements of the TAP® Partners programme, organisations commit to utilise the services of TAP-qualified learning and development specialists.
Moorfields, the oldest Eye Hospital in the world, is internationally renowned for its ophthalmic treatment, cutting edge research and medical training. Sustaining its world leading reputation depends on recruiting, training and developing staff of the highest calibre - not just those administering the treatment but all the non-clinical staff responsible for managing the whole patient experience from first appointment to discharge.
The 150th organisation has announced a policy commitment to the TAP® Learning System, the UK’s de facto standard for training skills certification administered by The Training Foundation. Under the requirements of the TAP® Partners programme, organisations commit to solely utilise the services of TAP qualified learning and development specialists.
As one of the world’s largest payment-services companies TSYS enables hundreds of millions of consumers globally to navigate their lives with confidence and convenience every day. The US arm of Client Training is based out of Columbus, Georgia, whilst the European arm of Client Training is part of the Product and Knowledge division and is based in York, England.
Since its founders started leasing out rolling stock almost 150 years ago Lombard, a leading asset finance specialist and part of The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group, have been helping businesses to obtain the vehicles, vessels, aircraft, machinery or technology they need. In the competitive finance arena, where customer loyalty is vital and much harder to come by than in the banking world, attracting, developing and retaining the highest calibre of staff is a top priority. Until the latter part of 2006 investment in learning and development (L&D) had been steady but unspectacular. Having disbanded the training function for a while, the business decided it needed to up its L&D game to achieve ambitious business targets and a new small team was formed in the autumn of 2006 to drive the L&D agenda forward.
Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is one of only six mental health trusts in the country to have achieved an 'excellent' rating for the quality of the mental health and learning disability services it provides to people in Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham. In the fast changing mental health care environment, skilled and accurate use of clinical records systems is central to maintaining the highest standards of patient care and clinical practice. Like most community and mental health trusts in London, Oxleas uses the RiO IT system for recording, managing and retrieving patient records. This new system allows the Trust to drive forward a standardised, faster, safer approach to all aspects of patient care from referrals through to discharges and communication between teams. The Training Foundation's TAP Learning System is playing a vital role in supporting the Trust's aim to provide the best mental health and learning disability services in the country.
Part of the 15th largest company in the world, AXA Sun Life provides pensions, financial planning and investment solutions and advice to millions of individuals and businesses through Britannia and Birmingham Midshires. In the fiercely competitive, tightly regulated financial services sector, it is essential that all customer facing staff are trained to sell the right product at the right time in a way that is fair to all customers, whether individuals or companies. This responsibility falls to Regulated Sales Training Manager Paul Ingleby and his team of four trainers, who operate out of AXA's Coventry-based head office.
The University of Oxford lays claim to be the oldest university in the English speaking world, attracting over 18,000 students from more than 130 countries and employing over 8,500 university staff. In an environment where the mission is to provide exceptional education to the very best of the world's students and to attract, develop and retain the highest calibre of academic staff it is not surprising that similarly high aspirations apply to the delivery of essential business support systems and services.
The integration of the former North Glamorgan and Pontypridd & Rhondda NHS Trusts in April 2008 to form Cwm Taf NHS Trust brought together a full spectrum of healthcare services with the objective of providing quality, patient focused healthcare to around 330,000 people across both regions. From a training and educational perspective this means ensuring that staff have the right skills in the right place at the right time. The merger presented a number of challenges to Helen Thomas, who heads up the new Trust's Corporate Training Department. Not only did she have the cultural issue of amalgamating two training teams from the former Trusts, but also the task of ensuring a consistent, high quality
approach to the design, delivery, accreditation and evaluation of all corporate training programmes.
Recent investments in the development of learner support skills are contributing to higher learner completion and achievement rates within the Torch Hub network of learning centres.
When Chantal Brookes, a trainer from the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, was awarded a TAP (R) Certificate in Training Delivery Skills on 25 April, she became the 1,000th person working for the English NHS to have achieved a qualification within the Trainer Assessment Programme since its launch in 1998. No other employer worldwide has 1,000 in-house trainers externally certified to the same standard.
The new FSSC Recognised Trainer Scheme is designed to recognise the capabilities of individual trainers. This recognition will be personal and will attach to the individual, not the employer.
Kate Marsden of Trent Strategic Health Authority has highlighted the proactive role that the SHA plays in funding the development of IT training skills. She feels this role is crucial in order to address the training challenges posed by programmes being delivered by the new Department of Health agency NHS Connecting for Health.
Leeds City Council is the second largest Metropolitan District Council in the UK, employing approximately 32,000 people, about 10,000 of which are computer users. IT Training Manager Pat McConnell has been explaining how long term investments in improved learning facilitation skills have fulfilled two of the core values of Leeds City Council by valuing colleagues and putting customers first.
Force Training Manager Alison Coupland has been explaining how Lincolnshire Police have addressed their requirement for enhanced and refreshed skills in training design and learning facilitation.
Gill Honey, IT Training Manager at News International has been outlining the range of ways in which structured training skills development has helped her department to deliver a greater return of investment in both Trainers and Training Facilities over the last six years.
Richard Malam,Training Manager with Centrica Learning and Development explains his uncompromising approach to the development and certification of training skills.
Tesco Academy Director Nicola Steele explains why over 140 Tesco personnel have attended courses leading to TAP® certification over the last 3 years and sets out some of the benefits that the initiative has generated for staff, for Tesco and for the customer.
Jo O'Connell, Training Manager for visual analysis software specialist i2, explains how new methods have led to improved course materials and even helped her to create a more cohesive training team.
As the UK's number one vehicle glass repair and replacement specialist, Autoglass is committed to protecting the safety of motorists by delivering the highest standards of service. -Technical training manager Steve Sinclair-Day has been explaining how the development of professional training skills has helped Autoglass to achieve this.
A thirst for a more learner-centred approach to training design and development has led the Rugby Football Union (RFU) to seek out fresh methodologies.
The Training Development Manager for one of the UK's most experienced suppliers of integrated local government solutions explains how they have improved the effectiveness and consistency of their customer training through investments in trainer skills.
Sarah Walker, Head of Training Services for Northgate HR explains why ongoing investment in the development of trainer skills is a key element in their business strategy.
Aviation Training International Limited (ATIL) delivers a Training Service for the Apache Attack Helicopter to the British Army as a Public Finance Initiative. The organisation trains Aircrew, Ground crew and Maintenance Technicians using a combination of Instructor led training and advanced synthetic devices such as Full Mission Simulators and Part Task Trainers. At the outset ATIL employed instructors originally trained by the UK Armed Services. However it soon became clear to Mike Crabbe, the Maintenance Training manager, that the teaching techniques the instructors required and the assessment strategy in use did not give his instructors the best skill-base for the training tools procured for this project.
Almost 50% of all NHS Trusts in England are now licensed to use the innovative online training course entitled 'MRSA - You can make a difference' which was only formally launched on 14th July 2004.
The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority has become the first SHA to enter a license agreement for the new online training course, ‘MRSA – you can make a difference’, formally launched by The Training Foundation two weeks ago.
The Commissioners of Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise today announced that The Training Foundation has been awarded a Framework Agreement contract to provide e-Learning services. These services will also be made available to all other government departments.
A virtual classroom (VC) system is a learning environment where a course leader and participants in different locations interact with one another, much as they would in a physical classroom, but remotely via web technology. The unique demands of this environment place a great deal of stress on course leaders and structured skills development is usually needed before they feel truly comfortable in this role. With this in mind The Training Foundation has developed a specialist certificated course entitled The Virtual Trainer, delivered entirely on-line under the auspices of the Certified e-Learning Professional (CeLP) programme.
Gareth Harris who works for the Chelsea Building Society recently became the first person in the UK to scoop a European Diploma in the field of e-Learning.
Centra Software has announced that The Training Foundation has selected their virtual classroom application to enhance the Certified eLearning Professional Programme(CeLP).
Over the course of the last three years a quiet revolution in the development and certification of training delivery skills has been taking place within the National Health Service. Gary Turnbull of Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Trust recently completed the three-day TAP Delivery Skills Refresher (DSR) programme operated by The Training Foundation, thereby becoming the 500th NHS trainer to be awarded a certificate within the Trainer Assessment Programme (TAP) since the turn of the millennium.
The Training Foundation was formed in 1998 with the objective of empowering everyone involved in training and developing others.