BEST LEARNING / PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
Boarding Schools’ Association – BSA Group training and development programme
The training and development programme delivered by BSA Group offers a comprehensive package of learning across boarding, safeguarding, inclusion and health education. Having evolved significantly as a group over the past two years to extend its focus beyond only the boarding sector, its training programme has grown to include more events covering a much broader range of subjects. Having proved successful since moving online, the majority of BSA’s training continues to be delivered virtually, with just a handful of face-to-face events now taking place each year.
Training available from the group is offered through a selection of webinars, day seminars, conferences or accredited training courses, while bespoke training can also be offered to suit individual customer needs. BSA’s suite of professional practice certificate courses, designed to meet the practical needs of boarding staff, are especially popular and provide an internationally-recognised qualification in boarding education, while an extensive library of resources documenting best practice in all areas of boarding, safeguarding, inclusion and health education is also available for members to draw on at any time.
The group’s training and development programme is constantly growing, with further exciting new additions planned to be launched in September 2022.
Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys – Introduction to Trade Mark Administration and Formalities Course
The Introduction to Trade Mark Administration and Formalities Course is CITMA’s first online course available on-demand to provide new recruits and those unfamiliar with trade mark formalities a grounding in key aspects of trade mark work. The interactive course takes participants through a series of activities and scenarios that bring the world of trade marks to life. This has supported firms’ in training new formalities colleagues and provided an early interaction with CITMA to those who took the course.
Through offering this interactive online course, we are alleviating the pressure on our senior CITMA Paralegal and Chartered Trade Mark Attorney members to continuously train new staff as well as provide an entry level introduction to those who wish to learn more about trade mark administration. The trade mark formalities part of our profession has become ever more important over the past decade. This is the next step in recognising and raising the already high standards in this part of the profession.
Event Supplier and Services Association – ESSA Accreditation
ESSA is a trade body representing the very best contractors and suppliers of goods and services to the UK’s thriving events industry. ESSA’s sole ambition is to create an association of industry leaders who drive best practice and excellence in the focus areas of health and safety and sustainability through the provision of tools and training to achieve this.
This gold standard of excellence prompted a need for suppliers to have clarity on what they are working towards in terms of a clearly defined industry benchmark. After significant research and consultation, ESSA’s solution was the creation of The ESSA Accreditation: a health and safety quality assurance programme with measurable touchpoints which are scalable.
Launched in December 2019, it is the first of its kind and remains the ONLY annually appraised, third party, independently audited accreditation in the events industry for the supply sector. It’s launch marked the beginning of a continually evolving journey towards providing members with tangible benchmarks and awards in areas that are of utmost importance and relevance.
The Accreditation scheme underpins ESSA’s drive and commitment towards raising industry standards and achieving recognition for the valuable contribution our members make to the business events sector and wider economy.
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales – ICAEW’s anti-money laundering educational initiative
ICAEW has invested significant resources in a concerted effort to improve the awareness of chartered accountants and their firms of the importance of complying with the AML regulations in order to play our part in the crucial fight against economic crime.
The objective of this programme was to improve chartered accountants’ ability to identify possible money laundering red flags, to underline the importance of carrying out adequate due diligence on the source of wealth of new clients and to highlight the statutory requirement to submit suspicious activity reports if there is a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity.
The learning materials which have been made available to members have been developed in many different formats to match the different preferences of members on absorbing new information, ranging from animations to newsletters to short ‘talking heads’ videos to live webinars and, most recently, to the creation of our first AML drama film, All Too Familiar (www.icaew.com/alltoofamiliar). The latter, created in conjunction with HMRC, has been endorsed by the Home Secretary and HM Treasury and has already been streamed over 7,000 times in the few weeks since launch.
Institute of Employability Professionals – IEP Accredited Learning
IEP have launched new learning and qualifications at Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 to ensure we had a robust professional learning pathway for learners at all levels of their career and to attract new talent into the employability sector All of our learning is designed to provide Employability Practitioners with the necessary skills and competence to equip people with the skills, knowledge and resources that they need to improve their employability opportunities that will lead them into fulfilling jobs Since the introduction of our new learning programme our membership network has grown by over 50% and we currently have over 7400 learners out of 11400 members undertaking our different qualifications All our learning has been developed in association with expert partners who have specialist knowledge of specific jobseeker cohorts and who are supporting their own employees through the learning programmes We continually develop new specialist learning opportunities in addition to our core qualifications to ensure our members are equipped with essential and necessary knowledge and skills to support specific jobseeker cohorts such as people with neurodiversity or the Over 50s.
National Residential Landlords Association – NRLA Training Academy
The National Residential Landlords Association is the UK’s largest membership organisation for private residential landlords, supporting more than 95,000 members and associates. We provide expertise, support and resources and represent members at the highest level, recognising the contribution landlords make in the provision of safe, legal and secure homes.
The NRLA Training Academy is an integral part of our offer. From new landlords starting out in the business to seasoned investors keen to expand their knowledge, the NRLA Training Academy offers something for everyone, with a range of 40 affordable courses that can save landlords thousands of pounds.
In response to the Covid-19 Pandemic the NRLA expanded its training offer from predominantly face to face learning pre-pandemic to multi-platform offerings including eLearning, eClassroom and webinars. In all 4,361 landlords and agents attended eClassroom courses by the end of 2021, with 6,521 undertaking eLearning courses and 45,300 attending NRLA webinars.
Responding to customer need and demand the NRLA has also worked with Ascentis, the awarding body, to develop and deliver an OfQUAL regulated L3 Award and Certificate in Managing Property and Residential Lettings.
Pensions Management Institute – PMI Academy
No one ever said on leaving school ‘have you considered a career in pensions?’ For us to be able to understand that then we needed to understand what we needed to do to answer it.
The PMI reformed their approach to what a career in Pensions could look like, provided a structured career path to Senior Management because of it and offered a route into Fellowship with the PMI that previously did not exist.
It has to some degree started with a bottom-up approach of future proofing the needs of the sector via its membership, whether that be actual or potential. It offers a route that will allow potential members to learn about pensions, before getting a career in pensions until they are ready to draw their own pension. It offers existing members kudos through engagement with the PMI and it is offering this route for the price of taking an exam and becoming a member – everything else has a USP called ‘free’.
This approach to learning and development from the PMI benefits the sector as much as it benefits society in general by qualifying and certificating people in what is currently the most important sector in the economy.
Thinkbox – TV Masters
Thinkbox’s TV Masters is the world’s first comprehensive TV advertising educational series.
It answered calls from senior leaders in the media and marketing industries to address a knowledge gap that had opened up about TV advertising, especially among younger staff.
It is upskilling the marketing industry en masse and for free, and has been a runaway success, smashing its targets. In 2021, it educated 6,118 people from every corner of the marketing industry and from every level. 97% of graduates recommend it and, crucially, 70% say they’re more likely to use TV advertising in the future.
So, although TV Masters is barely out of its packaging, it is already a valuable resource for the marketing industry, meeting distinct and pressing needs. And it is working its magic for the future of TV investment.
