HIT Training, apprenticeship provider for hospitality, hotel and catering on joins the mobile learner assessment revolution
HIT Training, the UK’s biggest, provider of hospitality, hotel and catering apprenticeships, has taken its team of 400+ assessors mobile. Using Tribal’s ePortfolio solution, e-track, HIT are quickly taking full advantage of its key features including mobile evidence capture, real-time reporting and safe, secure access. Rapid roll-out, increased learner engagement rates and assessors working smarter are all beginning to help HIT achieve their ambitious growth plans.
In Spring 2014 HIT Training made the decision to move away from its existing ePortfolio system in order to pursue ambitious growth plans. e-track’s ability to integrate with HIT’s learner management system and the additional functionality it offers surrounding assessment, were seen as critical to the decision to adopt the new technology. After a successful 3 month pilot, e-track is being rolled-out across the business to great effect.
An engaging pilot
Part of the success of the pilot was down to e-track integrating with HIT’s learner management system, Maytas. This sharing of information across the two systems gave HIT the ability to easily highlight where processes were not necessarily being followed by staff involved in the transition from the legacy system to e-track and corrective action could be taken early to keep the project on plan. So, things like document uploads not taking place, which ordinarily would have impacted on audit scores, were picked up early on and quickly rectified by the QA team.
This in turn affected the learner engagement rate which was over 70% in the first month alone. In this way, HIT’s teams from very early on were able to take full advantage of e-track’s key features including mobile evidence capture, real-time reporting and safe, secure access.
Rapid roll-out
Wishing for the benefits to be quickly realised across the business, the national roll-out of e-track through 22 launches has been rapid, with HIT’s East of England operations implementing in early November, followed by half of their London region the week after. HIT’s 400-strong assessor team and over 8,000+ learner-base are all scheduled to be on e-track by March 2015.
The speed of implementation is helped by e-track’s user-friendly interface for all stakeholders. Assessors are trained in just two days and then spend two days converting all their learners. Plans are in place for other parts of the business to follow suit.
Mobile assessment
One particular area has made a big difference already; mobile assessment enables HIT’s assessors to work smarter and e-track’s app has had an instant impact on how they work, enabling them to complete entire visits offline and then quickly, easily and reliably sync with the online version once they have an internet connection.
HIT’s Head of ICT, Rob Pearce commented “Everyone has been so positive about it; where people normally might be nervous about a new system, I think they have quickly realised e-track isn’t just about putting a paper-based system online; it gives them a different and better way of working that makes everything easier.”
He adds, “In particular, people are really engaging with the mobile app. They love the fact they don’t have to carry round all their files everywhere, and in turn our Quality Assurance people don’t have to sort and check paper files when they come in.”
Higher engagement, higher standards
Rob also anticipates a positive effect on learner engagement and leaver rates as e-track is rolled out giving Quality Managers and assessors greater insight into learner journeys. And for their learners, e-track provides an interface that encourages greater communication between learners and assessors, which in turn helps improve motivation and engagement levels.
Gemma Horton, Quality Manager at HIT, is already seeing the results of this improved visibility, identifying learners that have re-engaged having seen for themselves visualised reports on their progress against plan. She also cites the paperless, 24 hour access to progress information being of great benefit. “Spotting operational issues before they have chance to escalate will also improve the quality of provision.”
There are further benefits cites Gemma, “Our Quality Assessors have doubled the time they can spend out of the office with learners, assessors and employers, improving relationships, standards and the performance of the business.”
HIT Training has ambitious growth plans and e-track is seen as key to their realisation.