Tesco Academy Delivers Great Results
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.
Tesco was founded in 1924. Over the past 79 years the company has grown and developed as the retailing market has changed, responding to new opportunities and implementing many innovations. In the last seven years alone Tesco plc has moved from being the number three UK retailer to being one of the top three international retailers in the world with 2,318 stores and 326,000 people.
Tesco Academy sets the standards for training design and delivery within the business and the brand is recognised as a kite mark for great training throughout the group. The organisation takes great pride in giving people the opportunity to get on through Tesco Academy training programmes.
In the early summer of 2002 a team from Tesco Academy carried out a comprehensive review of existing policy in relation to training skills development. A decision was taken to implement a new approach to trainer development and training skills certification. It was regarded as very important that this new approach incorporated the very latest thinking and reflected modern adult learning principles.
Tesco Academy Director Nicola Steele takes up the story: “We wanted to work in partnership with a like-minded organisation that had a proven track record in trainer development but was flexible and pragmatic enough to adapt to Tesco needs.”
After extensive research and investigations in both the UK and the USA, Tesco Academy approached The Training Foundation for their advice.
Following an initial consultancy assignment a tailored trainer development and certification scheme was devised within the framework of the Trainer Assessment Programme (TAP®). The Training Foundation was then retained to deliver a programme of courses within the Academy portfolio.
These courses were designed to meet the needs of those responsible for training design and for training delivery within the Academy and across the business. Certification is jointly provided by The Training Foundation and by Tesco Academy.
Nicola Steele has been delighted by the results. “Feedback from the training has been very good from the outset. Our people feel confident that they can design and deliver effective training interventions that meet business objectives, increase knowledge and develop skill. They also find that the learning design and delivery skills they learn are easy to put into practice.”
Over the last 3 years over 140 Tesco training and line management personnel involved in up-skilling projects have attended training delivery and training design courses leading to TAP® certification. These personnel were drawn from locations ranging from Eastern Europe to the North of Scotland.
Steele feels that participation in the Trainer Assessment Programme has brought significant benefits: “The skills provided by The Training Foundation have helped us create great training programmes that are directly linked to business needs. The Tesco Academy brand now acts as a guarantee to our people that the training they will receive will be of a consistently high quality.”
“We have significantly increased the number of people able to design and deliver training internally and reduced our external training costs, which means it is simpler for our staff, cheaper for Tesco and better for customers.”
“A TAP® certificate is a widely recognised qualification that is associated with high quality training. We will continue to work with The Training Foundation to run our training delivery and training design programmes.”