Business and financial advisers Grant Thornton is currently piloting a
blended training programme, provided by Balance Learning.
Four trainers and four team leaders are in the final stages of ‘Leadership
and Teamwork’, a blended programme showing how facilitation skills can improve
teamwork and enhance business performance.
"We were keen to pilot a dedicated resource to test whether blended
learning could provide effective and efficient training while reducing the
duration of face-to-face training," said Sue Cohen, senior training
manager at Grant Thornton. "The main benefit is that the e-learning
ensures the delegates reach a certain level of knowledge before they come to a
workshop," she said.
The pilot group is now engaged in the final part of the programme, which
involves action-based learning activities designed to help the group transfer
the learning back to the workplace.
"The pilot group preferred the blended approach to either pure
e-learning or face-to-face training," Cohen said. "The process has
raised cultural issues for Grant Thornton, which need to be overcome – notably,
how we create a conducive environment for delegates to access e-learning at
their desks."
