| With many thousands of students and a broad range of learning requirements, the BBC needs an effective system to manage the training activities. Around 100,000 records including BBC employees past and present, freelance and contract personnel and people from the broadcasting industry throughout the world are registered on the Corporation's training database - and there is an active student population of around 20,000 at any one time.
For ten years the BBC's system of choice for managing this has been the Registrar training administration system. From next year it plans to invest in the next generation of training management systems.
The BBC uses Registrar to bring together the work of its five main training centres in the UK. The system controls the training needed to improve the skills of the diverse roles represented in a leading broadcasting organisation - everything from administration functions to news reporting and management to IT support.
The Matchett Group advises the BBC on the best solution for its training management needs. It installed the Registrar software, merged the database from each training centre into one and assisted with the integration of the Registrar system with the Corporation's own intranet training site, Learn.gateway, providing a seamless one-stop solution for BBC learners. Now the organisation has a single training database which records the training history of every member of staff.
The BBC has decided that from 2004 it will invest in the next generation of Registrar and has selected the classroom edition of the Pathlore learning management system (LMS CE).
The Pathlore LMS CE will enable full browser access to training administration functionality. This is expected to significantly reduce IT support required as it will not be necessary to download programmes to individual user workstations - access to the system will be available from any computer terminal with a browser. The system's concepts and curriculum function will enable groups of people to access learning programmes. Managers will be able to check course availability, confirm course bookings and register new staff on learning programmes - all in real time.
Anne Harwood, the BBC's Course Administration Manager, said: "Registrar has proved to be a highly effective training administration system for over a decade at the BBC. Now, LMS CE will give staff access to the training system, not just from their own workstation, but from anywhere in the BBC and facilitate the development of learning journeys to support the aims and values of the BBC."
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