Mobile phone retailer invests in training to get to top
Mobile phone retailer Phones 4u is spending 10m sending its 3,500 workers on a week-long training course, in the latest move to try to topple number one rival Carphone Warehouse.
Phones 4u owner John Caudwell admitted the investment will cost his business 50,000 working days while up to 100 staff-a-day are training. But he said training was the main factor which would set Phones 4u apart from its competitors.
“In the market we are in we all have the same products, the same tariffs,” he said. “The one thing we can differentiate ourselves on is on quality of service. It is a drain on resources, but it is about what we are trying to achieve. It is about building a business which has something to differentiate us from the rest.”
Leadership scheme to make IT central to learning
A programme to help teachers use IT in all areas of education is to be extended following a successful test run.
The Strategic Leadership of ICT for Secondary School Teams scheme encourages teachers to use information and communications technology as part of their lesson plans across the full range of subjects.
It is to be made available across the country from this autumn after a pilot project was fully subscribed, according to its organisers, the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and government education technology body Becta.
Tony Richardson, director of online learning at NCSL, said: “The key to making IT central to teaching and learning in secondary schools is to ensure the whole school is committed to IT and this is a key leadership issue.”
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