Frequently Asked Questions

We don’t have any Internet access on our sites

You still have several options. Your employee or subcontractor can undertake the course in offices that have internet access, or even at their home. The course can be done on a smartphone, (although if it is a very small screen it can need good eyesight!), or you can tether the tether the telephone’s wi-fi to a laptop or tablet. The price of broadband on site is very cheap now and there are short-term contracts available, but if you really don’t want to have broadband on site then you can use one of the many ‘mobile Wi-Fi dongles that are available from £10 a month, have operatives come into the office to do the courses, (still less time that attending a classroom course), or even pay them a small amount (£5 or so) to do the training at home (this means no site downtime).

Our operatives aren’t IT proficient. Won’t the system be difficult to use?

The system is designed to be extremely user-friendly and what we say is that, if they can use a smart phone, they can do the course! If they can enter a simple log-in, then once they start, all the instructions are given. Learners watch a series of short videos, answer a question after each and then a ten-question test, so the amount of IT knowledge required is very basic.

We have always used face to face training and we don’t want to change

Change is inevitable and with the industry being ‘busy’ and always looking at the need to control overheads, site down-time is probably one of the main costs when taking someone off site to undertake training. Classroom training is more expensive than e-learning and there is virtually no way that you can check whether a person has the required knowledge of the subject. The use of e-learning is growing fast and if you don’t adopt it now, you will probably do so at some point in the future.

Will our Clients, Main Contractors and CHAS accept e-Learning?

Obviously, this a question for each Client or Main Contractor but, in our experience, we have never had any query raised as to the authenticity of our e-learning by anybody. In addition, almost all our courses are IOSH, CEIH or RoSPA Approved and so there is really no question on those.

We only do training as and when required,

These days, Clients, Main Contractors, CHAS etc are insisting more and more on having a ‘competent’ workforce and training forms a large part of this. They are more likely to deal with contractors who can show a proactive approach to training and with e-Learning, this can be done because of the vast cost saving that it has against classroom courses.

How long do I get to do the training?

As long as you want! Unlike many other providers who put a limit on their courses, once assigned, there is no expiry date on ours.

How many courses should I buy?

Again, unlike many other providers, we don’t ask you to commit your order to ‘particular’ subjects. With us you purchase ‘credits’ and they can be used on any of the 40+ courses that we offer. The advantage of this is that you never get left with unused courses that are wasted and then must order more of another subject that you need. How many you purchase is up to you (although there is a minimum order of 5 credits) but the more that you buy, the cheaper the cost – and with no expiry on them, it makes sense to buy a larger amo8unt than you want immediately, to gain better prices.

How is it all administered?

If you purchase under 20 courses, or a number where they are all going to be used for specific subjects almost immediately, then we can do the administration. If you want more than this we set you up with your own Learning Management System(LMS) which will allow you to input the details of your learners, assign courses to them, send e-mails from the system, track their progress, print Certificates and create reports. Once set up, all you have to do is order more credits when you want them, and they will just be added to your account. Unlike some other providers, we do not charge to set you up with and for you to use your own your own LMS but there is a small charge if you want your own branding on it, as opposed to just your organisation’s name.

There will be a lack of control as we won’t know whether operatives are doing courses when they should

The LMS behind the courses, allows the Administrator to see whether and when a course has started, how long the person has taken on each course and a lot of other data. The Administrator can also have an email when the course has been finished. Additionally, we can set the system up to send them a reminder if they haven’t started a course and even a ‘congratulations’ when they finish! You won’t get that type of detail when they are off site at a training course and taking no interest at all in the subject!