Making Digital Learning a Key Strategy Post Lockdown

To roll out this strategy, we have introduced a web-based application that offers a virtual training environment to deliver safety training while reducing footfall at our facilities in Aberdeen and Teesside.

The existing training portfolio has been assessed and those courses with elements that can be delivered digitally have been identified. On their return to work, all UK staff and assessors undertook  professional development in preparation for launching the new suite of digital and blended learning courses where they have been trained in the use of the application and to adapt their skills and behaviours to facilitate training & assessment in a digital learning environment.

Competence Services Manager, Karen Bellu said, “We are committed to maintaining our staff competencies at the cutting edge of modern delivery and assessment methodologies and practices, ensuring that we continue to provide high quality service provision to our clients and customers whether we are training face-to-face or online. Training in a virtual classroom raises a number of new challenges for our instructors, not just in the use of the platform itself.  Our staff have been trained to manage group engagement and delegate-to-delegate interaction, to guide users through technology concerns and to handle external distractions and more.”

Through this new technology, we plan to deliver a mix of digital and blended learning.  Where courses have essential practical elements, such as offshore survival training, delegates will be required to attend a training centre. Classroom elements of these courses can be delivered digitally or face-to-face and our staff will discuss the best option with delegates and their employers prior to course commencement. Theoretical courses can be delivered entirely via the virtual classroom.

RelyOn Nutec UK Commercial Director Iain Taylor said, “Our business will not be the same after this pandemic and whilst we believe there will be a demand for our services, our skills and expertise long into the future, it will be a different type of demand. We expect the requirement for digital learning platforms to become commonplace in training even after the threat of COVID-19 departs.  It offers a new flexibility to both us and our customers and reduces some of the logistical challenges associated with training.

“We were well placed to move quickly to digital technologies, following our acquisition of elearning business Cresent in 2019 and the subsequent creation of RelyOn Nutec Digital. We already had the knowledge, expertise and capabilities in house to lead the way in the digitalisation of training for energy. Our team have efficiently and effectively taken the necessary steps to implement the new web-based platform and we have successfully used it for a number of courses including OPITO MIST training and SQA L&D9DI Internal Verifier. It was very well received by both clients and staff and we look forward to rolling it out to further courses and customers over the coming weeks.”