8 February 2012

QA has been recognised both its innovation and people at the Learning & Performance Institute’s Annual Learning Awards

The awards are a benchmark for excellence throughout the learning industry and recognise achievements and innovation across the profession. QA, one of the UK's largest business learning providers, scooped the coveted 'Apprenticeship programme of the Year" award which recognised the value that the scheme brings to both employers and young jobseekers. QA also achieved two finalist positions in the online learning categories.

William Macpherson, CEO of QA commented: "The awards demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing world-class services for our customers across the UK. I am particularly pleased to see our staff honoured for the tremendous effort they have put into developing our apprenticeship, eLearning and Virtual Learning programmes. Innovation is at the heart of everything we do to ensure that businesses and individuals get the most out of their training experience with us and we are delighted that the awards have recognised this."

QA's success in achieving the Gold Award for 'Apprenticeship Programme of the Year' is particularly timely as it coincides with National Apprenticeship Week (6-10th Feb) which is seeing organisations across England celebrate the value that apprenticeships bring to businesses and young people.

The winning programme, from QA Apprenticeships, was launched as part of Microsoft's Britain Works campaign and is the first Microsoft Partner Apprenticeship available for young people looking for a role in IT support.

The work-based apprenticeships have significantly evolved since they were introduced by QA four years ago. Today's programmes provide young people with qualifications that employers want, from key partners such as Microsoft and Oracle, as well as support and training on softer skills. Employers benefit from being able to bring new IT talent into their business while receiving expert training and recruitment support from QA throughout the programme.
QA Apprenticeships currently has 450 apprentices in work and plans to place a further 600 into organisations, over the next year, helping businesses fill their IT skills gap and giving young people the chance they need to start a lifelong career path.


Individual awards:

In addition to winning the Apprenticeship Programme of the Year Award, two members of the QA team were honoured for their achievements in the learning and development profession.

Vaishali Singh won a Silver Award in Instructional Designer of the Year category, recognising the significant investment in expertise we are making in virtual learning. The judges noted that transferring existing content into a virtual delivery environment can be a real challenge, but Vaishali's commitment to quality in the skills transfer process ensured that she was able to create an outstanding learner experience for QA's clients taking the PRINCE2® Foundation and Practitioner  and ITIL® Foundation virtual courses.

QA's significant investment in virtual and online learning was also acknowledged in the Live Online Learning Facilitator of the Year, which saw Andy Gilbert from QA compete as a finalist. Andy has been delivering virtual courses in Service Management for the last twelve months and he consistently receives outstanding delegate feedback due to his engaging and innovative approach to making virtual courses highly enjoyable and effective.