From little acorns…


When Andrew Willison planted Nimble’s simple LMS into his company’s culture, sustained growth bloomed


F


orest Holidays is part owned by the Forestry Commission, with log cabins in 10 locations across the UK set exclusively within


Forestry Commission land. The company has grown to almost 600 cabins in stunning locations, as well as almost 600 team members. When Andrew Willison, Forest Holidays’ national health and safety coordinator, decided to use e-learning as part of the company’s training policy, he didn’t initially choose Nimble. Instead, he went with “a much more complex and detailed system”. But, as the old adage goes, as you sow, so shall you reap, and Andrew soon realised his mistake. “I did have experience of Nimble, and when I found the other system was far too complex and overkill for what we needed, I decided to adopt Nimble as our e-learning platform.” The sowing of seeds analogy


is relevant, not just because the company’s mission is to connect


people and local communities with Britain’s forests, but also because its story is about the organic growth of an e-learning culture within the organisation. The little acorns they planted when they moved from “paper- based training and informal roleplay with the odd bit of ‘read and sign’” have already formed healthy green shoots. Andrew readily admits that planting the seeds of his training vision wasn’t easy. For a start, each of the company’s 10 locations had previously operated semi-independently. Standardising training into a cohesive programme


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