Learnscape platform offers online training

"Many companies have a lot of training material but not enough people to deliver it," says McDermott. "Putting your material online means you can reach more people with fewer resources - and managing your training programme becomes dramatically easier."

Training administration is one of the most time-consuming and frustrating elements of the typical HR department's job. "Keeping track of who has done what course, whose certifications are about to expire and who is progressing as they should towards a certificate can be a nightmare, especially when you are chasing paper registers that some people always forget to sign."

Offers a better oversight of training

McDermott says that because Learnscape is based on a single central database, managing trainees and drawing reports is a simple matter. "You get much better oversight of training, with real-time reporting and statistics, and doing a skills audit is a simple matter of generating a report."

There is a learning advantage along with the administrative advantages, she adds. "Most people prefer to work at their own pace, which is only possible with this kind of centralised online system. While they are going through a training module learners can stop, start, replay something they are unsure of and make notes as they go along."

There are advantages for trainers as well. It's easy to upload course notes, but also pictures and sound, and trainers can record a voice-over narration for their slides to give a much richer, more interactive experience. Multiple-choice assessments and evaluations are equally easy to create with built-in functionality, giving learners instant feedback on their progress.