ISS Mediclean

How QA provided ISS Mediclean staff with the skills they need to use Microsoft Office and feel comfortable using PCs.

The challenge

ISS Mediclean needed to bring their IT end users up to a consistent level of skill when using business applications. These users needed to be given a good basic grounding in using the Microsoft Office applications. There was also an identified need for basic PC Skills to be addressed in a formal, classroom environment.

Other skills were needed depending on the job role and individual skills.  Those delegates who required training beyond basics would either attend public schedule courses or a closed course at either an ISS Mediclean site or a QA training centre.

There were up to 700 personnel to be trained in the solution, with an anticipated average of 3 courses per individual. QA were initially to be responsible for project administration, making sure that the training schedule continued to meet ISS Mediclean’s requirements in terms of availability.

The solution

Beginning in March 2008, the first part of the IT training project included support to help ISS Mediclean identify the right people for the courses. An initial pilot was conducted with 20 people selected to participate in the online TNA (Training Needs Analysis) assessments.  These individuals were cross-referenced to a number of different job roles, where the required skill levels had already been determined by ISS Mediclean.

All 12 online assessments in the Microsoft Office 2003 suite were available to the pilot candidates.

Following the pilot phase the skills assessments were then made available to the remaining IT user base (nearly 700 people). Based on the results of their assessments, staff members were then booked on basic courses starting with a one day ‘PC Basics’ course. Course volumes and delivery locations were identified as part of this analysis phase. QA worked with the ISS Mediclean IT Training Manager to identify the locations and associated logistics of the required events.

QA developed a programme of Microsoft Office courses covering:

• PC Basics (1 course level)
• Outlook 2003 (3 course levels)
• Word (3 course levels)
• Excel (3 course levels)
• PowerPoint (2 course levels)

Based on QA’s public schedule courses, but tailored to the ISS Mediclean’s requirements, these have been delivered since June 2008 at a range of QA centres across the UK, and also on site at ISS locations in Coventry and Woking. The QA booking Portal was used for administration, with a schedule of events created on the QA system and the ISS Mediclean IT Training Manager is now able to manage and organise the schedule and attendees through the Portal.

Ongoing benefit is gained from the TNA, as all new IT users are normally assessed once they have joined the company, and the appropriate training provided, so the skills level in the business is kept at a consistent level.