With Ashleigh Whittle, Surpass Training Manager
As the needs of the Surpass Community have evolved, so has the Surpass Team, one example being the growth of the dedicated Training and Test Conversion Team, led by Ashleigh Whittle.
The team of Surpass experts are solely focussed on delivering two of the organisation’s key services in getting customers up and running with Surpass: The Surpass Training Service, to equip new or existing users with the knowledge and skills they need to use Surpass to its full potential, and the Surpass Test Conversion Service, where in-house experts create content in Surpass for the customer after detailed analysis and consultation. The two services work well side-by-side under the expertise of this team who have a wealth of experience of working with the Surpass Community and gaining an understanding of client-specific requirements in Surpass. The team has already delivered several successful test conversion projects with the community. One of these projects was with Surpass Community member, Ascentis, who utilised the service to get several qualifications up and running in Surpass, including their newly launched Essential Digital Skills qualification.
Training has of course had to adapt in recent times. The team has worked hard to create interactive virtual training courses to ensure the community can still receive the training required to get their qualifications underway in Surpass, and make the most of everything the technology has to offer – right from the basics to new and advanced functionality.
The team has most recently introduced a virtual training course for SecureMarker, which previously only in-person resources were available for. The modular course is roles-based, giving a more true-to-life training experience of how users will interact with the product. As with all Surpass virtual training, a blended learning approach has been taken, with the team making the most of screen time with trainees, then having a range of tasks and activities to be completed in trainees’ own time.
Whilst switching to entirely virtual training has required the team to adapt and provides a different experience to the traditional in-person sessions delivered before the pandemic, Ashleigh is excited about the advantages of virtual training and the potential it has:
“[Virtual training] was definitely strange at first, it’s a different skillset, but I actually think it’s better because it’s a short bitesize amount of contact you’re having with trainees. It is intense, you’ve got to keep them engaged…but then they’ve got to apply what they’ve learnt to the product in their own time, and have more space for activities, that you wouldn’t have in an ordinary training day…you can fit the training course around their working time. In the same day, we’ve been able to train people in the Philippines, in America, and ordinarily we’d have flown to those places, so all of these barriers are getting broken down. I have a feeling that this method of training will continue even if we start going back to the office.”
Ashleigh Whittle, Surpass
The team have certainly demonstrated a proactive and innovative approach to training during these challenging times, and have been able to continue their fantastic working in supporting the community with their use of Surpass, both through training and test conversion services. Watch Ashleigh talk more about the team in this short update:
If you’d like more information about how the team could support you in using Surpass, contact us today.
