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Thomson NETg provides e-learning for ASDA employees

Thomson NETg has announced that it is working ASDA to provide ASDA's staff with e-learning courses in business and professional development and IT skills.

As part of ASDA’s overall blended learning programme, Thomson NETg is supplying over 300 e-learning courses, which are accessible to over 1,800 employees at ASDA’s headquarters in Leeds via the company’s intranet.

"As a leading retailer we need to ensure our employees have the skills at hand to provide excellent customer service and to be able to adapt quickly to the constant changes taking place in our industry,"commented Maggie Kotek, People Development Manager at ASDA.

"With increasing time constraints on busy employees and with diverse job roles to cater for, classroom-based training is not always the most effective medium for transferring skills.

"Partnering with Thomson NETg was an obvious choice for us because of the depth and breadth of its course content, the flexibility of the courses, and the company’s commitment to making our learning programme work.

"Although we will continue to use classroom-based learning, the Thomson NETg courses will ensure our colleagues have immediate access to highly personalised learning in an impressive range of subjects."

The Thomson NETg courses include business and professional development skills such as strategic decision-making and communication, IT end-user skills ranging from Microsoft Office courses to the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) course, and IT professional skills such as Java.

The Thomson NETg learning management tool has also been implemented to measure and track usage of the learning. In the last two months over 400 users have signed up to take a training course, with nearly 1000 courses being accessed. The most popular course has been Excel 2002 Fundamentals.

In order that all skill requirements are covered, the ASDA training team has worked hand-in-hand with project members from each area of the business throughout implementation.

"Part of our learning programme’s success is due to involving every area of our business so that learning is tightly linked to organisational goals and employee requirements," commented Maggie Kotek. "Throughout the process, Thomson NETg has worked very closely with us and has played an invaluable role in helping us to create a learning programme that is targeted to our business needs."

With Thomson NETg’s help, an internal marketing programme with the theme ‘Professionalism with Fun’ has been implemented to raise awareness of the learning programme and to educate staff on the long term benefits of training.

"Thomson NETg’s expertise and partnership approach have been critical in helping us to develop a marketing strategy and ensure that our learning programme delivers fast, tangible results," commented Maggie Kotek. "The Thomson NETg team has greatly impressed me with its continuous communication, support and advice, and commitment to helping us make the programme work."

Marketing activities include regular communications that encourage the use of the new courseware, evaluation forms on the company intranet to provide an open forum for feedback, course completion certificates, departmental ‘super users’, and ‘late lunch’ company-wide presentations on learning, delivered in a comedy sketch style.

"Thomson NETg believes very strongly that a blended learning solution that offers a range of flexible learning options can significantly enhance learning retention and workplace performance,"said Laura Kelly, International Marketing Manager at Thomson NETg.

"We also understand that internal marketing is essential to ensure employees are aware of the learning opportunities available to them. This is why following the implementation of tailored learning, we continue to work alongside our customers to develop a marketing strategy to drive usage and ultimately business performance. ASDA is a fantastic example of what can be achieved from investing in people and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the company and helping them stay successful."

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