Unleashing the Power of Digital Learning
30th June 2020
A recruitment and training company has today outlined how it transformed its training model in a matter of weeks and transitioned online as a result of the impact of Covid-19. WorkJuggle is a digital recruitment platform but it also delivers training for clients under the WorkJuggle name across a host of management competencies.
Founder Ciara Garvan (pictured), is speaking at a free online event held today (June 30) to help companies who have had to transition some of their business online as a result of Covid-19. More than 600 people are registered for ‘Unleash the Power of Digital Learning’ which is being run by The Learnovate Centre in Trinity College Dublin in partnership with Enterprise Ireland. The Learnovate Centre is a global research centre in learning technologies.
Speaking at the event, Ciara Garvan said the company had to invest in new technology and upgrade broadband in employees’ homes to ensure high-quality training could be provided online. She said: “We will continue to deliver all our training virtually until at least the end of 2020. We will then form an opinion once we see how the wider Covid-19 situation has changed. However, I do believe that we will be moving to a more blended approach to training in the future. It gives more people across the country the ability to attend training and it does give us a greater capacity to scale up quicker. A lot is now possible.”
When Covid-19 restrictions first came into effect, WorkJuggle had just won a tender for Women ReBOOT, an initiative by Technology Ireland Software Skillnet to help women who are thinking of returning to the tech workplace.
“It involved 10 days of face-to-face training and workshops with 24 women and we just presumed it would be cancelled. When the organisers said they wanted to do it virtually, we had to act fast. During the month of May, we delivered the full programme of Women ReBOOT, which included 10 full days of training as well as some coaching sessions before and afterwards. The next programme is starting online tomorrow (Wednesday),” says Ciara.
“We had to ensure that every session was innovative and engaging and we didn’t lose people to Zoon fatigue. We were so lucky with the participants. They were fully engaged and we had no issues with attendance. We got fantastic feedback from them as they could see how much design work and planning went into all the sessions.”
WorkJuggle, which was founded by Ciara Garvan in 2016, is based at the Dogpatch Labs in Dublin and has a team of highly-skilled recruiters and trainers. Today’s webinar was aimed at Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Office clients that have recently transitioned their training, consultancy, education or technical sales tips delivery from a personal to an online delivery model.
Nessa McEniff, Learnovate Director, said: “SMEs are undergoing rapid digital transformation of their services to ensure business continuity at this time of uncertainty about the trajectory of Covid-19. Our learning expert, Janet Benson, presented at the webinar on how companies can ensure engagement and collaboration with their learners and customers and how to take advantage of opportunities to innovate, analyse and scale digital learning to a global audience.”
Fergus McMahon, Manager of Exporter Development for Enterprise Ireland, presented on the next steps for manufacturers, exporters, SMEs and micro-businesses to apply for government support. He also pointed attendees to Enterprise Ireland’s portal www.eilearn.ie where CEOs and senior management can access a range of programmes and tools to transform their businesses. He said: “We organised this webinar with Learnovate to meet the needs of Enterprise Ireland and Local Enterprise Office clients who we know need support to rapidly move face-to-face training, education and consultancy online. SMEs can get help with developing these new digital products, processes and services by applying for Enterprise Ireland’s innovation voucher scheme. Innovation vouchers open up the expertise and experience of higher education institutions and research centres like Learnovate in Trinity College Dublin to SMEs.”
To find out more about ‘Unleashlearning’ visit here >>
