Epic help National Construction College develop staff with e-Learning

Epic are delighted to announce they are working in collaboration with the National Construction College (NCC) on a new online learning facility for employees, designed to help them with their professional development.

The new service will provide online learning in a number of key areas including: customer service, training and facilitation, leadership and management, health and safety and Microsoft Office. As well as a large number of ‘off-the-shelf’ e-learning courses supplied to NCC by Epic, the solution also includes Epic’s Arena learning portal, which will be NCC branded and hosted by Epic. This enables users to access the e-learning courses via a secure username and password from a specific url address.

Epic has trained a small number of NCC staff to be administrators of Arena, which enables them to register new users, upload new courses and capture information for management reports. These administrators are supported by a dedicated support specialist from Epic Service Desk for the duration of the project.

NCC Standards Manager, Jan Coates, said: ‘The aim of the new e-learning facility is to upskill our staff in the most efficient and cost effective way possible. Our employees are located all over the country so, by adopting this just-in-time approach to training, people no longer have to waste time travelling to a central destination to receive training in one of the chosen subjects.

‘It’s also going to be a really useful tool when introducing new starters to the college, in terms of health and safety and effective induction training. The new service also offers us the ability to develop our own programmes and learning, which means we can make training specific to the construction industry. Epic have been able to provide a tailored solution to meet our current needs, and as a leader in their field have the capability and flexibility to help provide solutions for the future. From the moment we started working with EPIC they have provided a high quality service, sound advice and a fast technical service.”

Epic Account Manager, Jo Jackson, said: ‘We are delighted to be working with the National Construction College and ConstructionSkills on such an exciting project. This bespoke solution incorporates a number of Epic’s services, including content, web design services, hosting and support and is the perfect way to support NCC.’

The programme will be available to all location-based and remote user staff throughout the National Construction College and its parent organisation ConstructionSkills, the Sector Skills Council for construction.

Prior to the launch, the college held an open day at its site in Bircham Newton, enabling people to familiarise themselves with the facility and to trial a number of the training packages available. During the first eight months, in which the service will be run as a pilot, 500 courses will be available, each ranging from 45 minutes to eight hours so they can be completed in one session or over a period of time.

Once the eight month pilot is complete, the college hopes to expand these online services to its industry customers so classroom-based learning can be combined with e-learning.

As the direct training division of ConstructionSkills, the National Construction College is the largest provider of construction training in Europe, offering both young apprentices and adult students a wide range of specialist courses.  The college’s campus in Bircham Newton, Norfolk, is one of five sites in the country, which, along with 60 other locations and through internet based learning, provides training for more than 35,000 people each year. 

Notes to editors

Epic is a leader in the innovative use of digital media for learning and communications. It creates tailored solutions specific to the needs of clients and end-users that help organisations improve their performance. Epic’s many, loyal clients cover a broad spread of industries across both public and private sectors, with particular strengths in Government, Defence, Education, Finance, Retail and Telecommunications.

The company has won numerous awards over its two decades of existence, and is highly respected for its work in fostering understanding of this emerging area of practice. A wealth of free resources is available on its website at www.epic.co.uk, including the new Epic Blog.

For further information, please contact:

Ericka Newton

Marketing Manager

Epic

25 Old Steine

Brighton

BN1 1NH

Email: marketing@epic.co.uk