Discovery Health employees have unanimously chosen NETg`s technology based training (TBT) computer skills course over traditional lecture courses. Their feedback indicated that they learned far more than they would have in an instructor-led course.
Discovery Health, one of South Africa`s leading medical aid operators, acquired NETg from ADvTECH Skills, a division of JSE-listed ADvTECH. "The overwhelming positive response to the six week pilot course was the single greatest reason we decided to go for the NETg option," comments Dale Solomon, senior training officer at Discovery.
"The attendees agreed that the main attraction of the self-paced, self-motivated course - at our dedicated training centre in Johannesburg - was that the level of training intensity was in their hands," Solomon continues.
The TBT delivery method means that as students are taught a specific application, they are able to immediately engage in practical implementation exercises, instead of taking down theoretical notes which they try to implement later.
Discovery Health purchased twelve Microsoft courses, including an HTML coding course and the European Computer Drivers License (ECDL) course, made up of seven self-contained modules.
"We have always incorporated technology into our enterprise-wide training initiatives, but prior to the NETg purchase, all the training was external and we had no control over the content," says Solomon. As a result, Discovery Health decided to bring its IT training in-house, with the first step being an evaluation of the products available. "ADvTECH Skills` service combined with NETg`s offering was exactly what we were looking for," Solomon says.
The full rollout of the training course to the 1600 Johannesburg-based employees is scheduled for November and Discovery intends to rollout to an additional 300 employees countrywide via the company intranet in the new year. Even though some parts of the course are not directly job-related, Discovery Health nonetheless decided to acquire all the modules, viewing it as part of the company`s social responsibility to allow staff to upgrade their skills. The training centre is available to staff after hours for this purpose.
Before Discovery Health moved to the TBT methodology, they felt they were getting inconsistent training levels at different institutions, says Gillian Turner, corporate account executive at ADvTECH Skills. "By bringing it in-house, they are able to ensure their own training levels are consistent throughout all levels of the organisation. The pilot project consisted of basic and advanced Excel courses run over a six week period" says Turner.
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