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.