The success of a business, by and large, lies in refreshing and improving the skills of its staff. This begins with the onboarding of new staff members and should be a continuous process to build the skillset and expertise within the organisation. Corporate training is therefore a vital component for both large corporates and for small and medium businesses across all sectors including, for example: manufacturing, engineering, financial services, hospitality, retail, and medical. Our advanced digital learning platforms have assisted various companies in meeting their corporate training objectives in a cost-effective and time-saving manner. We build lasting relationships with our clients who enjoy the reliability, flexibility and stability of our training applications. We work with our clients in a diverse range of corporate training programs including the following:

• Induction/onboarding of new staff members.
• Workplace skills development.
• Management development programmes (MDP).
• Product knowledge for new launches and refresher training.
• Soft skills such as customer service and communication.
• Process management checklists.
• Systems and software training, for instance systems for product ordering, reservations, loyalty points and others.

In addition to assisting our clients with their corporate training programs our platforms enable them to conduct skills gap analyses prior to training and trainee evaluations after training. Compliance and management process checklists, hosted on VirtualAssessor, will also indicate areas in which training is required.

Training challenges in hospitality

The corporate training department in a large international hotel group faces many challenges. Learners are regionally distributed; work different shifts (both day and night for some work roles); and may also be located in different time zones. Furthermore, learners may have different levels of IT access that need to be accommodated. Using the Eduflex platforms and a blended learning approach enables Learning and Development (L&D) practitioners to overcome these obstacles in the delivery of training. Corporate training with the Eduflex platforms facilitates the tailoring of programs for different types of training, ranging from entry level to management development, and allows learners to study according to their personal learning style and at times that suit their shift-work schedules.

Saving time in retail

The retail sector experiences a higher churn of employees than many other sectors and is also very sensitive to seasonal shifts in workforce (for example at Christmas). This together with the fact that new products are constantly being launched means that the training journey in retail is very time sensitive.

With the Eduflex system, the duration of corporate training programmes can be minimised. The VirtualAssessor platform replaces the time-consuming task of marking worksheets and assessments with automated marking. The duration of one qualification programme at a client in the retail industry was reduced from 19 months to 15 months simply as a result of utilising VirtualAssessor and eliminating manual marking.

Off-site training is particularly difficult in the retail sector, making mobile learning very desirable, especially if a personal device such as a phone can be used when a PC is not available in the store.

Practical training and assessment in the engineering sector

Corporate training in the hands-on world of engineering and manufacturing also benefits from the Eduflex platforms. Marks for practical and on-the-job assessments are recorded in VirtualAssessor thus providing a complete record of a learner’s progress – for practical as well as theoretical activities. VirtualAssessor can issue attendance certificates for practical and online workshops in addition to competence certificates for online assessments.

Salespeople need training “on the go”

A major challenge in training sales teams is that they are on the move.  Thus, it is important to use a mobile learning platform that keeps salespeople informed and assessed while they are on the go; salespeople can engage in continuous learning at times that suit them between appointments. The detailed reports from VirtualAssessor enable businesses to constantly evaluate the knowledge and success of their sales team and incentivise them with certificates of competence. The submission of voice and video clips to VirtualAssessor enables assessment of sales pitches even when team members are dispersed geographically.

Monitoring compliance in the financial sector

In addition to providing an ideal platform for knowledge tests and assessments in the financial services sector, VirtualAssessor also provides a compliance checking function, enabling brokers and financial advisors to indicate online that they have satisfied certain conditions required for statutory compliance, for example in respect of the FICA criteria.

Matric maths – response analysis uncovers specific problems

Analysis of the responses to a grade 9 maths quiz on VirtualAssessor revealed a pattern in which most learners selected the same incorrect answer. Further investigation showed that the educators themselves had been taught this topic incorrectly. An intervention was made that corrected the knowledge of both the educators and learners.

Induction
Workplace Skills
Management development programmes
Product knowledge
Soft skills
Process management
Systems and software training
Trainee evaluation
Skills gap analysis
Compliance