Carillion, a leading integrated support services company, has introduced 53 eLearning courses from interactive training specialist Engage in Learning, to equip 9,000 of its UK staff with the soft skills and personal development they need to do their jobs.
Covering communication skills, personal effectiveness, influencing, leadership and teamwork, coaching, customer service and managing high performance, the new eLearning courses were introduced after Carillion had undertaken a nine-month, in-depth evaluation.
“When we were looking for a cost-efficient way to develop the soft skills of our employees, the obvious answer was to grow our eLearning capability,” said Nick Chammings, E-Learning Business Partner at Carillion. “We’re committed to sustainability, and reducing our carbon footprint, so we didn’t want people having to travel across the country for classroom training.”
The new eLearning courses feature practical tips and techniques, interactive exercises and video clips.
“Engage in Learning’s courses combine interactivity, humour and storytelling to create engaging and memorable learning,” said Nick Chammings. “They’re easy to use, the instructional design is very strong and they can make a practical difference to performance. Also, the founders of Engage in Learning really understand eLearning, having been in the industry from the very beginning, and they also appreciate the challenges that an organisation like ours faces. To be able to tap into their expertise has been invaluable.”
Many of Engage in Learning’s courses have a complementary, interactive eBook, which summarises the eLearning content and enables learners to create their own notes and action plans. Designed to help learners transfer their skills and knowledge to the workplace, the eBooks can be read on smartphones and tablet computers.
Carillion identifies employee training needs through one-to-one discussions, and annual appraisals, and it encourages each employee to create their own personal development plan.
“Our people have a responsibility for their own development,” said Nick Chammings. “They can access the Engage in Learning courses to meet their needs at their own pace, wherever and whenever is most convenient for them. We’ll also recommend specific courses to support certain strategic business objectives. We can even create our own blended learning programmes, with very little additional effort on our part, by combining specific course content and eBook materials with webinars.”
Carillion will monitor the use of the eLearning courses through its learning management system, which tracks all training undertaken and provides detailed management information.
