Recipe for e-learning success
Offering a variety of courses, the Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy is the latest ‘dish of the day’ from online training pioneer Virtual College.
A new e-learning menu is being served up to the food, drink and hospitality sectors.
Offering a variety of courses, it comes courtesy of the newly established Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy and is the latest ‘dish of the day’ from online training pioneer Virtual College, based in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.
The new e-academy has been launched as a standalone division of Virtual College in direct response to the runaway success of its Food Safety & Hygiene Level 2 certification online course, which has been completed by almost 34,000 e-learners in the catering industry nationally since its launch in October, 2005.
Lesley Ord, operations director at Virtual College, explained: “There is a substantial and continuing education and training requirement for those operating within the food, drink and hospitality sectors, which can often be compounded by challenges relating to shift working and seasonal employment.
“Through the Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy, we have created an innovative and extremely flexible solution to enhance the learning process for both individuals and organisations by opening up access to a range of e-learning resources via our purpose-built Learning Management System, known as E>nable.
“Geographical restrictions are removed and learners can access their training at a pace, place and time to suit them. E-learning continues to prove an alternative and increasingly popular route to traditional face-to-face delivery.”
The Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy has recruited industry specialists as founding partners to deliver professional training expertise. They are:
Food specialist - Verner Wheelock, chairman of Verner Wheelock Associates, one of the UK’s leading training providers for the food sector. Since 1990, the business, based near Skipton in North Yorkshire, has worked for numerous blue chip organisations, also contributing to government policy.
Drink specialist - Dr Rosemarie Pearson, principal founder of Sudbury, Suffolk-based Dialog Training in 1989, who has worked with a wide range of businesses, charities and local authorities, among them Arla Foods, Redbridge Borough Council, Nestle Water, the Royal British Legion, CocaCola Enterprises, Co-op Supermarkets and Anglia Crown Catering.
Hospitality specialist - Tim Sayers, who runs Develop to Grow in North Scarle, Lincolnshire. For more than 30 years, the company has been providing business development advice centred on customer service excellence to business start-ups, small to medium size enterprises and multi-national organisations. Tim is also marketing and selling courses on behalf of the Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy.
It is currently offering a starter suite of five e-learning modules - Food Hygiene, Customer Care, Fire Safety, Manual Handling, and Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
Membership of the e-Academy is available to both individuals and groups, with a number of launch incentives in place.
Individuals who have already bought Virtual College’s food safety & hygiene e-module qualify for three year’s free membership, along with a discount deal on all other e-modules, plus access to regular e-bulletins and special offers.
Group membership is open to organisations or businesses that have a number of people to train. It, too, provides access to the starter suite of e-modules, with group members also receiving two free places on one of the academy's e-learning adoption workshops, a monthly best practice e-bulletin, along with a further 20% discount on all other e-modules.
The launch of the new Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy is already creating significant levels of interest among a number of high profile organisations who have tapped into food hygiene and safety training offered by Virtual College.
Molson Coors has to date trained almost 1,000 people at its three breweries in Burton, Tadcaster and Alton, while City Inns has also followed the e-learning path for some 150 staff members.
Full details of the new Food, Drink & Hospitality e-Academy can be accessed at www.fdhea.co.uk or by calling 01943 605976, email [email protected]