Epic wins WOLCE Bespoke Product of the Year Award

L to R: Steve Rayson (Epic), Karen Velasco (Forum for Training in Technology), Derek Reid (DWP), Will Carling

Epic Group plc, the UK's leading e-learning company, has won the award for Bespoke Product of the Year at the 2002 WOLCE e-learning awards. The winning programme is 'Missing Instruments of Payment' (IoPs), an interview simulator for front line staff created on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The purpose of the training was to improve the interviewing skills of front line staff dealing with customers claiming to have lost or not received social security payments. Sensitive, focused interviewing is required to arrive at the truth in such cases, and the skills of these staff can have an important impact in lowering levels of benefit fraud, which costs the taxpayer something like £100m per year.

Missing IoPs uses live action video to portray eight 'virtual' customers played by actors, representing a range of ages and character types from both sexes. Learners progress through a realistic interview situation, choosing the questions to ask at each stage of the interview. They are able to experience instantly the effects of any given question on the interviewee and to see the outcome that results from choosing any particular path or approach.

The programme has been enthusiastically received by customer-facing staff, with 'cries of recognition' greeting the highly realistic scenarios portrayed within the programme. It was very quickly recognised as a valuable learning aid for front line staff and went straight from the pilot phase into full roll-out.

Derek Reid, DWP E-Learning Programme Manager, said: 'This first class programme was an excellent example of a good Private / Public Sector Partnership initiative. The Department competitively tendered the work and provided the essential field subject matter expertise supplemented by some experienced central training design staff. Epic Group provided excellent technical and creative skills and implemented a project methodology that delivered to very tight timescales. It resulted in a product that the joint team can be rightly proud of.'

Donald Clark, CEO of Epic Group plc said: 'Some of the best e-learning is coming from government commissions. This is a high-quality, high-value simulation that shows how e-learning can be used for complex soft skills.'

The award adds to a string of high-profile wins recognising Epic's highly innovative and creative work in recent times. These include a prestigious Brandon Hall award for excellence in e-learning and the Award for Lifetime Achievement in e-learning conferred by WOLCE on Epic's CEO Donald Clark.

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