Gaining valuable insight through the RoSPA Qualifications Awards

Company: Kallidus Limited.
 
Achievement: Highly Commended in the First Class E-Learning Large Provider of the Year category at the RoSPA Qualification Awards 2024.

We talked to Jackie Finlay, Head of Off the Shelf Learning at Kallidus, about the company's experience of the Awards and using RoSPA Qualifications’ Course Assurance Service:

Please can you give us a quick overview of your organisation and its relationship with RoSPA Qualifications?
 
“Kallidus Off-the Shelf Learning operates in the UK and North America, offering a constantly expanding library of 280+ short e-learning courses for organisations. Our experience goes back 20 years to our roots as Engage in Learning before being acquired by Kallidus, the HR tech provider, in early 2020.
 
“We’ve been using RoSPA Qualifications’ course assurance service for our health and safety courses for a long time, and it is highly valued by our customers and by us as a company. Compliance is extremely important to us and to have the approval of RoSPA shows customers that we value it and are good at it.
 
“2024 was the second time we’ve entered the RoSPA Qualification Awards – we came second in our category last year and second this year, so we're trying to work out what we can do to get to win next year! But we were really, really pleased to do so well.”
 
What motivated your organisation to enter the RoSPA Qualification Awards?
 
“Firstly, we really wanted to get recognition for the quality of our compliance from an expert in health and safety. We also really value the wide range of competitors that took part and, as it was free to apply, there was no barrier to entry.”
 
How was the ceremony aboard HMS Belfast?
 
“We really enjoyed it. It's really interesting to go somewhere different and it's a nice treat for our team.  We really enjoyed last year's ceremony at the House of Lords. That was fabulous.”
 
So, what are the benefits of entering the Qualifications Awards?
 
“The main benefit is that we're able to tell our customers that we were Highly Commended and show them how good the training is.
 
“It’s really motivational for the whole team as well – a boost to the whole company, plus being able to bring people on a day out. It helps them to see the value in the process.
 
“The Awards enable us to meet other people from different companies in the same industry and find out what they do and what challenges they've had because you don’t really get the chance to do that usually.
 
“It’s also really good in building our relationship with the people at RoSPA, which I think is a real positive because we work so much with you, and it helps us understand you better and improve going forward.”
 
How has your organisation developed and maintained high standards for e-learning, delivery and content?
 
“The accuracy of the content and keeping up with legislation is vital. We've also worked really hard on accessibility, so making sure that any learner, whatever their access needs, can use the e-learning, which is so important when it's health and safety. Everyone needs to be able to be safe at work. More than 100 of our courses are AA accessible (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Standards), which includes ease of interaction use with screen readers, subtitles, colour clarity, alt text, image labels and much more. We aim to make all content AA accessible in the next two years.
 
“Making sure the e-learning is available across any device is really important because more people are now learning on mobile and tablet. It needs to be readable.”
 
“We prioritise high levels of interactivity and scenario-led learning to support improved knowledge retention and long-term behaviour change. Our courses reflect the diversity of our learners in terms of race, gender, ability, and neurodiversity.” 
 
What advice would you give to other organisations aiming to achieve similar recognition and excellence in a learning provision?
 
“I would say it's really worth entering these awards, even if you don't think you've completed everything you want to do with your e-learning, it gives a real sense of what others are doing and where you might need to improve.
 
“Excellence in e-learning is about an awful lot of things. It’s not just about the facts that you include, it's about the learners who are going to be using that content, it's about how they like to learn, it’s about the devices that they use to learn, how they work, when they can absorb the learning most effectively and the culture of the organisation. So, there's a lot of thinking that needs to go into it but then also you need to be distinctive. Everybody at that Awards ceremony had something particular that they were doing that no one else was doing, it gives you a real insight.”
 
 
August 2024.
 

Interested in RoSPA Qualifications?

Find out more about RoSPA Qualifications, including the benefits of getting your training independently verified through the Course Assurance service, or becoming a RoSPA Qualifications Centre and delivering RoSPA-levelled qualifications.

Find out more at: www.rospa.com/health-and-safety-qualifications