NETg, a Thomson Learning company, has announced its
three-year strategic partnership with British Airways, to supply e-Learning
services including over 500 courses spanning IT and business and
professional development skills. In a drive to introduce higher quality,
more cost-effective training, British Airways corporate training department,
which is branded LearnBA, has implemented a global e-Learning solution,
which will be used alongside existing classroom-based training. More than
50,000 British Airways’ employees, from pilots to baggage handlers, now have
access to NETg’s courses, delivered predominantly on the company Intranet
and via Open Learning Centres.
“As a leading airline, training and development is a critical part of our
business strategy to ensure our staff can always provide the highest level
of customer service,” commented Elaine Wilson, eLearning Manager British
Airways. “However with a global workforce who work irregular hours, are
often on the move, and differ greatly in culture and ways of working,
providing consistent and successful training is a continuous challenge. NETg
’s e-Learning presents the perfect solution offering our staff a fantastic
range of courses to choose from and more importantly access whenever they
choose. NETg’s solution also allows for some autonomy over their own
training path for self-directed learning.”
British Airways’ employees have access to a huge range of NETg’s IT
professional, desktop skills and business and professional development
skills, including Microsoft Office 2000, negotiating, coaching, project
management and leadership skills. British Airways has also developed its own
customised content, which is used alongside NETg’s e-Learning, including
courses on dangerous goods (teaching staff to recognise dangerous and
hazardous goods) and on the Amadeus reservation and sales system. eLearning
was developed to support the roll-out of this; the largest IT project
British Airways has undertaken in over 30 years that was delivered to
operational, sales and reservation staff. With the implementation of NETg’s
learner management system, SkillVantage Manager (internally renamed
learnonline), British Airways is able to easily administer the courses and
oversee usage.
“e-Learning, as a single-delivery option, has always provided significant
benefits as a stand-alone learning method, and as our recent research has
shown its effectiveness can be further increased when made part of a
blended programme ,” said Nige Howarth, International Vice President of
Marketing, NETg. “British Airways understands, as we do, that by viewing
learning as a strategic issue, and making it part of the evolving fabric of
the business, it will unlock the potential of all its employees. We’re
looking forward to helping British Airways enjoy the benefits that will
follow.”
e-Learning is one of the central components of NETg’s comprehensive learning
offering, that encompasses everything from e-learning products, tools and
services, IT certification solutions, books, instructor-led materials and
online textbooks (e-Books). NETg’s approach prescribes a ‘blend’ of learning
that matches the individuals needs with personal learning styles. The
advantages offered by a blended programme are already recognised by British
Airways and the company plans to explore the possibility of future
collaborations with NETg.
British Airways faced several technical challenges when implementing its
global e-Learning programme. With a highly mobile workforce, 70% of the
learning audience do not have regular access to PCs and a significant number
of staff do not have access to the British Airways intranet. There is also
a high level of disparity between the network capabilities of different
regions both in the UK and overseas. To overcome this problem, British
Airways worked closely with NETg to define which courses could be accessed
where (i.e. over the corporate intranet, via any of British Airways 30 Open
Learning Centres). In this way, British Airways can be sure that its
network does not get overloaded and staff who cannot access certain courses
on the intranet know they still have access to these courses via the
learning centres. For staff who do not have access to the intranet or
learning centres, CD-ROMs are made available.
|