Me Learning is to continue to provide digital training services to thousands of learners in councils and partner organisations across Greater Manchester, under a new four-year arrangement.
Ten councils– 9 of the 10 authorities making up the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council – will continue to rely on Me Learning for the technology required to access online training. This also includes access to Me Learning’s extensive library of training content, developed specifically for, and with, local government using subject matter experts. Learners will access an integrated system which updates training records automatically and is used for booking face-to-face courses.
The contract, starting in April 2020, builds on a successful four-year partnership between GMCA and Me Learning, which has helped the authorities better understand how they can streamline the way their employees learn.
Under the contract, Me Learning will provide:
- The technology required to enable council employees and those working with partner organisations such as schools, the NHS and voluntary sector to complete hundreds of thousands of online training courses, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.
- A range of 150 online training courses – some specific designed for professional groups such as training on social care case management, as well as more generic training which is relevant for all employees such as GDPR and Information Governance.
- An integrated online booking system for face-to-face training which also accurately captures information for training records.
Over the past three-and-a-half years, GMCA users have completed a quarter of a million digital training courses from Me Learning. If the equivalent training had been delivered on a face-to-face basis, this would have required approximately 17,000 courses at an additional cost of approximately £12million.
Nick Richards, CEO at Me Learning says:
“By really embracing all that digital learning can offer in a highly collaborative way, the GMCA and Blackburn and Darwen authorities have been able to train more employees for less, to do their jobs well and to serve their local communities.”
“By sharing costs, each authority is able to access a state-of-the-art learning platform and sector-specific courses at a fraction of the price available on an individual basis. But what really makes their training budgets stretch so far is their willingness to move to a more modern approach. Our solution provides an engaging and consistent experience for all learners and at the same time minimises the time user need to spend away from business as usual activities while training.
“We are really pleased that the GMCA has recognised the considerable contribution we have made to help them meet the training needs of their employees and partners and we very much look forward to working with them on leg two of the journey over the next four years.”
The contract manager for Greater Manchester Combined Authorities, Catherine Pearson says,
“We have always been delighted with the responsive approach by the help desk and account managers on the Me Learning team. With their help, we have revolutionised training across our authorities by finding new ways to up skill our employees and partners more effectively using digital rather than traditional techniques.”
Note to editors
- The contract between Me Learning and the GMCA is for four years in total (two years, with an option to extend for a further two years). It includes provision of the services to nine out of the ten local authorities in the GMCA area, plus Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council in neighbouring Lancashire.
- To calculate the £12million cost of training 250,000 people on 17,000 face-to-face courses, we have assumed each course would have 15 attendees and costs would include room hire and trainer costs.
For further enquiries, contact Me Learning at enquiries@melearning.co.uk or 01273 499 100.
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