ThirdForce, the UK’s leading e-learning provider, now acts as the preferred supplier of U-skills to one of the most respected care home companies in the UK, Barchester Healthcare.
ThirdForce will support the 15,000 strong workforce with Skills for Life e-learning to enhance Barchester’s quality provision of care and customer service.
Training and development is a key component to the success of the Barchester business; a group that currently cares for over 10,000 residents in 170 different locations across the UK.
Terry Tucker, Barchester’s director of learning, development and hospitality said:
“What attracted us to working with ThirdForce for Skills for Life provision were the benefits of the Learning Support Manager service. The face-to-face teaching will provide additional personal support to the engaging e-learning resources. In addition to this we have always enjoyed a strong working relationship with ThirdForce and we’re happy to build upon this by working together on Skills for Life delivery.”
The U-skills blended solution offers the scalability and accessibility of engaging e-learning resources combined with the face-to-face follow up learner support from the ThirdForce team of Learning Support Managers (LSM’s).
ThirdForce has formed a close partnership with Barchester over a number of years including working with them to deliver Foundation Food Safety and Health and Safety mandatory training.
The most recent contract; U-skills, is an important extension to the breadth of that relationship.
Research has previously shown that many healthcare companies spend a considerable amount more on recruitment than investing in staff learning and development.
Average staff turnover with healthcare companies is 44 per cent; within Barchester it is less than 20 per cent. This indicates the benefits of a training and development programme which is integral to everything rather than something happening in isolation.
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ThirdForce sales director, Janet Garcia, commented:
“Barchester is a company which recognises the benefits of investing in its people and has always been the first to explore new ways of engaging staff with learning. Our e-learning is already well embedded into the organisation so it feels like a natural progression that we would also provide U-skills training. We look forward to a bright future with Barchester and we are confident of achieving real success together.”
