BUPA benefits from e-learning
An e-learning programme, developed specially for BUPA by the global e-learning producer Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) has reduced training time by 40 per cent, reduced travel costs significantly and is proving so popular with BUPA staff that only one person has requested the classroom-delivered training alternative to the e-learning programme since that programme was introduced in June.
An e-learning programme, developed specially for BUPA by the global e-learning producer Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) has reduced training time by 40 per cent, reduced travel costs significantly and is proving so popular with BUPA staff that only one person has requested the classroom-delivered training alternative to the e-learning programme since that programme was introduced in June.
The TIS-developed programme teaches BUPA staff how to operate their Blackberry PDAs efficiently and effectively. Since its introduction in June this year, it has reduced the training time for this from two and half hours in a classroom to just one and half hours of e-learning - with consequent reductions in training-related travel times, which averaged four hours per trainee.
Tiina Paju-Pomfret, manager of BUPA's Business Technology Training (BTT) department, explained: "BUPA staff who spend time travelling and need to be contactable via email can receive a Blackberry PDA. Of course, all those who have a Blackberry need to be trained in how to get the best value from its many functions.
"Our first solution to this need was to set up a series of two and a half hour classroom-delivered training sessions. However, it proved difficult to get people, who were spending much of their working life travelling, together at a mutually convenient time and place for training.
"Fortunately, the introduction of a learning management system (LMS) pilot which embraces all of BUPA's business units - enabling the monitoring and tracking of a wide range of training programmes - gave us the opportunity to develop an e-learning course to replace the instructor-led Blackberry training programme," she said.
"Using the LMS, we can check that the training has been done - and the trainee's skills are not only assessed objectively but also recorded. The learners are happy as they can take the course at a time most convenient for them and receive their new Blackberry faster."
Since introducing the e-learning programme - specifically developed for BUPA by global e-learning producer, Tata interactive Systems (TIS) - BUPA noticed an immediate improvement in skills transfer and a reduction in training costs.
Paju-Pomfret explained: "The e-learning programme lopped an hour off the training time taken to achieve competence and it saved, on average, one and half hours travelling time per trainee. So, the e-learning programme not only reduced the time taken to train staff by 40 per cent but also resulted in clear cost savings."
BUPA had worked with TIS before - notably on a specially designed and produced e-learning product for its Care Services business unit - so it knew TIS's capabilities, quality of work and track record.
"We have received a great deal of highly positive feedback about the e-learning course from those who have taken it and, as an organisation, we are beginning to reap the benefits of the programme through improved efficiency in our communications," she continued.
The e-learning programme has the added advantage of providing easily accessible refresher training at any time for a Blackberry user who wants to check on any aspect of operating a Blackberry.
"Since June, we've been allocating a day a month in our training programme in order to run an instructor-led course in using a Blackberry," said Paju-Pomfret. "However, since the introduction of the e-learning programme, only one person has asked to attend the course. Everyone else in BUPA prefers the e-learning course."
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