Inspirational charities win top eLearning Awards

Nov. 15, 2012 - PRLog -- The winners of the Charity Learning Awards 2012

Winner - Best means of engaging your audience: Addaction
Commendation: Barnardo’s
Winner: Best overall online programme: The Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Commendation: The National Autistic Society
Winner: Getting started, or restarted on your eLearning journey: Blue Cross
Winner: Getting started, or restarted on your eLearning journey (Small Charity Award): The Aldingbourne Trust
Commendation: Addaction

The winners of the Charity Learning Awards 2012 are celebrating their well deserved success, after being presented with their accolades at the Charity Learning Conference, 14 November, London. Judges commented on the exceptionally high standard of submissions this year, with clear markers of success.

Winner: Best overall online programme: Royal National Lifeboat Institution

•Since the RNLI was founded in 1824 its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved at least 139,000 lives. Volunteers make up 95% of the charity, including 4,600 volunteer lifeboat crew members and 3,000 volunteer shore crew. Additionally, tens of thousands of other dedicated volunteers raise funds and awareness, give safety advice, and help in its museums, shops and offices.
•Creating a new RNLI Learning Zone was a huge technical challenge. A ‘one stop shop’ was designed to develop and deliver eLearning for three diverse groups - crew, volunteers and staff – working from many locations. Take-up has been hugely successful.
•Judges commented on the RNLI Award:  “I loved that they took on a really technically difficult project only to make life easier for their learners.  Learning Zone will bring learning closer to home and give wider access to staff outside of an office environment.” “It’s great to see clear alignment with talent strategies and personal development plans, so that learning is relevant, in context and easy to access. Take up comparisons are phenomenal.”
•Martin Baker, founder and CEO of The Charity Learning Consortium commented: “RNLI is a highly regarded and long standing member of the Consortium, and its L&D team has worked tirelessly on the impressive new Learning Zone. I know that at times it has been a painful journey, but the charity has never lost sight of why they had taken the project on – to give learners greater access to, and real involvement with, their own continuing professional development. The results speak for themselves. It’s a fantastic personal achievement for John Le Rossignol, the Learning Resources Manager. This is a thoroughly well deserved award, and a shining example for others to follow.”
•For more information about the RNLI go to www.rnli.org/

Winner: Best means of engaging your audience: Addaction

Addaction is one of the UK’s largest specialist drug and alcohol treatment charities, working from more than 100 locations across the country, with 1,200 members of staff. A new blended approach to L&D, including eLearning, was launched within the organisation last year.
Addaction wowed the judges with its well designed eLearning, impressive take-up and ROI, creating a great example for other organisations wanting to do ‘more for less’ to follow. A wide range of multi-media is used to market eLearning to staff, who are becoming proactive in their engagement.  It’s ROI statistics are particularly impressive.
The charity – which had the foresight to recruit its own eLearning developer, realising the cost benefits involved – has a trailblazing attitude, with plans to market eLearning outside of the organisation, focusing on its specialist knowledge of drug and alcohol awareness. This is a unique way of raising revenue for the charity.
Martin Baker, founder and CEO of The Charity Learning Consortium, commented: “This is an amazing example of how great planning and communication has made a real difference to the introduction of mandatory eLearning. This aspect of Addaction’s thinking is particularly impressive. Because the L&D team sought buy in and involvement right from the start, they took staff with them on their eLearning journey, creating bespoke modules that exactly fit their needs, with a multi media approach to ongoing communication with their audience. This approach is a real credit to the charity, and the L&D team in particular, and is a great example for other organisations to follow – not just in the third sector. This was a very well deserved award.”
For more information about Addaction go to www.addaction.org.uk/

Winner: Getting started, or restarted on your eLearning journey: Blue Cross

Blue Cross, the well known charity dedicated to helping sick, injured and homeless pets, took time to carefully plan and implement eLearning as part of a new L&D policy, learning lessons from other charities along the way. Its attention to detail was well worth it, winning a Charity Learning Award 2012 in recognition of its impressive eLearning planning and delivery.
Martin Baker, founder and CEO of The Charity Learning Consortium said: “We know that our members find the case study presentations and networking at our regular meetings invaluable, but it’s great to have this confirmed. Collaboration really is at the heart of the Consortium, and Blue Cross is a great example of how having a supportive community behind you contributes to the success of any project.
“Blue Cross worked long and hard on implementing eLearning – they really wanted to get it right from the start – and I’m delighted to see their hard work and dedication rewarded. It’s another great case study to feed back to other members of the Consortium, and I’m sure that Blue Cross will go on to inspire other members in turn by its example. ”
Blue Cross runs four animal hospitals and 12 rehoming centres across the UK, which provides treatment and seek happy homes for thousands of cats, dogs, small pets and horses every year. For more information about Blue Cross go to http://www.bluecross.org.uk/

Winner: Getting started, or restarted on your eLearning journey (Small Charity): The Aldingbourne Trust

At The Aldingbourne Trust, a small, innovative charity supporting adults with learning difficulties, eLearning isn’t just saving valuable charity resources, it’s also directly helping to engage and retain staff. Declaring the Trust a winner of a top Charity Learning Award 2012, judges said they were particularly impressed with the impact of eLearning on staff motivation.
•The Aldingbourne Trust supports adults with learning disabilities across West Sussex to develop independence. With just 220 staff, with additional support from 70 volunteers, the charity values inventive and creative thinking, as it helps it to come up with alternative, sometimes radical, new directions for its clients.
•A learning library, where all courses can be accessed by all staff and volunteers, was launched in 2011. It’s been an unqualified success – helping to engage and retain staff, whilst saving valuable charity resources.
•Judges comments: “I loved the idea of using eLearning to retain good staff.”          
“I liked the lessons learned - particularly ‘rewarding engagement’ - not everyone gets this! It was good to see evidence at different levels, specific understanding of delivery costs and also impact on staff motivation.”
•The Aldingbourne Trust is a charity based in West Sussex that develops the potential in people with learning difficulties.  They provide opportunities for people aged from 18 years to develop a choice of skills leading to greater independence and, wherever possible, useful employment in the local community.  For more information about the Aldingbourne Trust, visit www.aldingbournetrust.co.uk

Information about further Awards winners, namely The Children’s Society, TACT and Cats Protection, is contained in a separate press release.