City & Guilds recognises that creating a new generation of vocational learners to help revive the UK economy, requires working closely with training providers and customers who have intimate knowledge of local learning needs. In 2010-11, City & Guilds developed exciting new ways of engaging with centres to help them deliver learning solutions.
WorldSkills is the world’s largest vocational competition. City & Guilds was a Premier Sponsor of the event, held in London in 2011, which gave employers the opportunity to engage with learners of all ages.
WorldSkills London brought together the cream of vocational learners from around the world, with competitors testing their mettle against their peers in 46 skill areas ranging from garden design to beauty therapy and aircraft maintenance. Over 900 competitors were assessed by a similar number of experts from around the world. WorldSkills has evolved to become
far more than a skills contest; it provides a showcase of career opportunities, with employers large and small showing off their skills, apprenticeships and other training pathways. City & Guilds also gave attendees the chance to try their hand at virtual DJ skills, with staff volunteering to help answer questions from the show’s 200,000 visitors. One of the main attractions was Hello Future, which offers practical advice and information for young people. Feedback on the service from careers advisors at WorldSkills was overwhelmingly positive, and the 14 to 19-year-olds who tried it were interested to discover the different opportunities available through a City & Guilds qualification. Through WorldSkills, City & Guilds placed itself centre stage in global skills provision.
Assessment revolution
As part of its long-term goal to improve learner performance and centre efficiency, City & Guilds invested in a new e-assessment platform, ensuring that customers were supported throughout the technological migration.
City & Guilds introduced e-volve – a new online assessment tool in 2011, to replace its GOLA platform and give customers uninterrupted access to leading-edge e-assessment. John Yates, City & Guilds Director
of Product Development, explains the importance of e-volve: ‘The service gives customers the benefits of automatic updates and improved results reporting, and in time will also provide an industry-leading range of assessment types and flexible and diverse question options for learners.’ After investing in the platform, City & Guilds supported its customers to migrate to it with face-to-face events, webinars and detailed reference guides. By the end of September 2011, 83% of City & Guilds customers had successfully migrated to e-volve. ‘The transition process was made much easier by the e-volve team,’ said Exam Manager Amanda Cavanagh. ‘This meant none of our students were adversely affected during the changeover and the familiarisation package has proven invaluable.’
Good relations City & Guilds’ customer relations team answered 198,482 calls in 2010-11, an increase of 13% on 2009-10, and answered 127,391 queries, a 14% increase on 2009-10