Training 2000

Training 2000 Designs Its Classroom Blueprint Around Promethean Technology

UK Provider of Work-Based Learning Transforms Its Teaching Methods and Internal Culture by Adopting Promethean Education Solutions

The Challenge

• Increase the quality and consistency of classroom training
• Reduce teachers’ workload by standardising lesson plans and training techniques

The Solution

• Create a “blueprint” for all Training 2000 classrooms, based on Promethean Activboard technology and the Activstudio lesson development system.

The Impact

• Consistently high quality of training across the organisation; Training 2000’s student pass rates are well above the national average
• Reduced preparation time for teachers, giving them more time to concentrate on effective delivery of the material to students
• Student complaints reduced to insignificant levels
• A successful cultural shift among the teaching staff, who are now pushing the continued use of embedded learning technologies in their curriculums

About Training 2000

 For nearly 50 years, Training 2000 Ltd. has delivered work-based training to employees of companies across the UK and beyond. Based in Blackburn, England, Training 2000 is the largest privately run work-based training provider in Northwest England, specialising in automotive, engineering, business and healthcare training. The company has grown to become one of the top 25 providers of training and development services in the UK, and has strong links with blue chip companies such as Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Leyland Trucks and Capita, as well as with overseas clients in China, India and Saudi Arabia.

A registered charity and not-for-profit organisation, Training 2000 has established partnerships with the Learning and Skills Council, local authorities, health care trusts, the Connexions Service, schools and colleges, working collaboratively to provide the best services for its customers. Each year, it delivers educational services to over 1,300 companies and 2,500 learners.

Background

Over the past five years there has been a significant focus by the UK government on pressuring all post-16 educational institutions to improve the quality of their teaching, and vocational training organisations like Training 2000 were no exception. At the time, Training 2000 subcontracted nearly all of its courses to colleges and other external trainers, which made it difficult to identify problem areas and ensure students were receiving a consistent level of training. According to Michael Hunt, director of programmes at Training 2000, many classes were oversized and under-provisioned, and contract teachers were reluctant to be observed or share their lesson plans in advance with Training 2000.  Even more worrying was the fact that students frequently complained that lessons weren’t starting on time and weren’t well organised. The students simply weren’t learning!

What was at stake, the Training 2000 board knew, was the reputation of the organisation and even its public funding. The only way forward was to build upon the small amount of high quality delivery it already delivered and establish a uniformly high level of training across all its programmes.

Around the same time, Hunt was pursuing an NVQ level-5 certification in management, and for his dissertation decided to investigate what the optimal classroom should contain. Hunt’s research led him to the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) and other embedded learning technology (ELT) advisory groups.  He visited schools and colleges, and spoke with other educators to learn about their teaching methods and classroom infrastructure. And he visited some of the nationally funded City Learning Centres, just opening at the time, which were using Promethean interactive whiteboard technology.

Hunt presented the results of the research to the Training 2000 senior management team, of which Hunt is a member, and the group settled on a new “classroom blueprint”.  This blueprint, still in use today, defined the future of Training 2000’s approach to teaching, and has been supported by Centre of excellence (CoVE) funding by the Learning and Skills Council.

“The blueprint defines not only what is in the classroom, but the resources available to the teacher and the way the lessons are delivered,” Hunt says. “We’ve developed our own intranet which all of our staff use to access and store lesson plans, teaching materials, student handouts and so on. This material is available from any classroom. The difference from the manual methods we used previously is phenomenal.”

Selection

The Training 2000 managers recognised the sea change in education that ELT has enabled, and the organisation’s transformation from outsourcing instruction to employing more than 300 ELT-savvy staff has been nothing short of remarkable.

 In selecting Promethean products as its ELT platform, Training 2000 needed to be convinced of a high cost-benefit to using them. Training 2000 had seen Promethean technology at work in schools and community learning centres, and saw the potential to develop its own model for work-based learning.

Today, following the blueprint, all Training 2000 classrooms are fully equipped with Promethean Activboards, together with Activote student-response systems and Activeslate tablets. All of the coursework is developed using Activstudio software. Teachers also use Activpanel, enabling flipcharts used in the classroom to be displayed in the workshop environment on a 20 foot screen. Video cameras are also used to film students in the workshop, offering instant playback that can be used to instruct the entire class. Every room also has a laser colour printer allowing staff to produce original quality documents without any wasted time or materials.

 “Activote systems cut down the marking times for staff tremendously, which allows them more time to spend with the learners, making sure they’ve understood the lessons,” Hunt says. “This also reduces the pressure and workload for staff and makes them better at what they do.  The benefits of the add-ons - the Activote system and Activstudio - clearly tipped the balance for us, Prometheans active range is the best!”

The durability of the Promethean hardware was also an important factor.  Because Training 2000 students are predominantly 16-18 year old mechanics and engineers, the hardware needed to hold up under relatively rough treatment and in workshop environments.

Adoption

Training 2000’s shift to a Promethean-based learning environment was, naturally, a long-term transition.  Although there was little resistance from the board, from the funding agency or from the students, many of whom had already been exposed to ELT in school, the hard work of adopting the technology was encouraging the teachers to learn how to use the new system.

About three months into the transition, Hunt noticed that the few remaining paper flipcharts and overhead projectors were being moved from classroom to classroom — clearly there were some teachers clinging to these old-order teaching tools. So over one weekend he simply had all of them removed.

“People think they have good IT skills when they are able to use a spreadsheet programme and a word processor,” Hunt says. “But it’s another thing to build a lesson using unfamiliar software, even with a user-friendly tool like Activstudio.”

Over time, most teachers have become adept at developing their own flipcharts using Activstudio. In addition, Training 2000 employs two people who are dedicated to resource development. Teachers go to them with ideas, diagrams and lesson content, and the development team makes the flipcharts come to life.

Now we’re at the point where our staff sees the benefits of this technology and is actively looking for new ways to take advantage of it. They’ve acknowledged the benefits and, they’re pushing it themselves.

Results

The investment in Promethean learning technologies has significantly contributed to Training 2000 surpassing the targets set by the Learning and Skills Council. Today, Training 2000’s student pass rates are well above the national average. In the automotive sector, for example, the national framework achievement rate is 39 per cent, whereas Training 2000’s is 76 per cent.

Michael Yerbury, an automotive tutor, says “The learners respect the fact that lessons are interactive and that they feel like they participate in the activities. Using our electronic systems, my preparation and marking time has been significantly reduced, allowing me more time to spend with my learners, making sure they really understand the lesson”.

Teacher oversight and consistency has improved as well. The centralisation of all course content on Training 2000 servers ensures that all teachers are using the same material to deliver a specific lesson or course. Hunt notes that he can remotely verify that teachers are using the material by accessing the resource index to see how classes are progressing through the coursework. This, in addition to teacher observations, gives Hunt a very good base assessment of a teacher’s command of the course material and the overall quality of the programme. Student complaints have decreased to an insignificant level compared with the numbers in previous years.

In recognition of its dedication to training excellence, Training 2000 has recently been awarded a prestigious Centre of the Year award from the Institute of the Motor Industry, largely due to its use of interactive whiteboards.

Training 2000 has also entered into a strategic partnership with Promethean, acting as a test bed for new product development, and evaluating new products and systems. Training 2000 is the first work-based learning facility to become a Promethean ‘Centre of Excellence’.

“This journey has been far more than a procurement exercise to equip our classrooms - it has been a cultural shift,” Hunt says. “We want to use this technology to its full capability, and make sure that as the technology changes we’re able to keep moving with it.”