February 25, 2005 -- Rather than taking the option to use its existing learning management system (LMS) Atkins elected to reduce its in-house support costs by having the courses - from SkillSoft - delivered via the supplier’s in-built learning management platform (SkillPort). As well as hosting the generic e-learning content, SkillPort will run an online mentoring service; provide pre and post assessment and test preps; facilitate the in-house creation of Atkins-specific e-learning; and enable access to content provided by specialist external suppliers such as Blue Slate.
“ We are confident that we have made a wise choice – we have seen usage rates rocket; we get excellent support; and we can quickly upload new courses to meet the ever changing needs of the busines... ”
“We opted for SkillSoft because they demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs and took time to get to know our business,” said Barry Smith, Service Delivery Manager at Atkins. “The pre-sales support that we received was of a very high standard and gave us confidence in their ability to deliver.
“The SkillPort product meets all of our requirements to deliver top quality training, globally, at a time that fits into our employees’ workloads. Our staff can access the system from the office, on the road or even from home.
“We are confident that we have made a wise choice – we have seen usage rates rocket; we get excellent support; and we can quickly upload new courses to meet the ever changing needs of the business.”
One of the biggest benefits for Atkins is the ability they now have to build their own in-house content using SkillSoft’s Course Customisation Toolkit (CCT). The CCT is proving to be a hugely cost-effective way for the company’s own training experts to respond immediately to the strategic needs of the business by creating company-specific e-learning content. This is being used to develop e-learning to deal with industry compliance issues and Health & Safety as well as to address the specific needs of a division or even a particular project.
Typically, Atkins can now build a bespoke course from scratch and make it available online within less than five days.
Approximately 160 SkillSoft courses have already been made available to 10,000 UK employees. The early feedback from users is so encouraging that Atkins is now looking at adding generic business skills content and rolling the e-learning out to Hong Kong, the Middle East and the US.
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About Atkins – www.atkinsglobal.com
Atkins plans, designs and enables the delivery of complex infrastructure and buildings for clients in the public and private sectors across the world. Atkins is the largest multi-disciplinary consultancy in Europe; the largest engineering consultancy in the UK; and the seventh largest design firm in the world.
About SkillSoft – www.skillsoft.com
SkillSoft is a leading provider of comprehensive e-learning content and technology products for business and IT professionals within the Global 2000. SkillSoft’s multi-modal learning solutions support and enhance the speed and effectiveness of both formal and informal learning processes and integrate SkillSoft's in-depth content resources, learning management platform, virtual classroom technology and support services.
