The National College

“Staff have availability at different times in the day, depending on their working arrangements, and whether they’re part time or full time. It’s really important for staff to have that flexibility to be able to undertake the training whenever they want to, which is what the platform offers.”

“For insurance purposes, for example, we all need to complete data protection training, as cyber security is such a hot topic. Asking all staff to complete training at the beginning of the year means we’re all well prepared for any challenges that we may face as an organisation.”

“With The National College, staff can direct their own learning journey. At the same time, our central team can coordinate high-quality compliance training for the whole group, while our school leaders have the autonomy to roll out courses.”

“The dashboard is invaluable as it enables our central team and school leaders to instantly see when training has taken place. If there’s a high level of engagement, that's reassuring. If it’s not as high as we’d like to see, we know immediately to take action. It’s a very useful tool to help us ensure completion of compliance training, and gives the central team reassurance, when we come out and visit schools, that everything is up to date.”

“Some staff undertake safeguarding training at induction meetings, but hundreds of staff complete it online. All our training records are in one place on one system, which means we can track completion and gather information quickly and effectively.”

“As with any procurement exercise, we looked at a range of CPD providers, and we found the National College offered a great range of subjects delivered in a variety of formats, such as courses, podcasts and webinars, together with resources and information for parents and training for governors. That breadth of training and accessibility were really important to us.”

“We recognised that Core Membership could provide access the all the online compliance training that we need to deliver, plus a real breadth of professional development opportunities for all staff.”

“It feels like it’s saved hundreds if not thousands of hours across our teams, particularly the administration teams. You don’t know when you’re going to be asked for a report or certificate, but with the platform, you can produce it in a timely manner.”

“I found the whole implementation process very supportive. Although the platform could be used off-the-shelf, it can be customised, and I think I’ve asked for everything to be customised! That was one of the important reasons we chose it.”

“To be able to get this information out to the parents is really helpful. So, we’re seeing really good engagement from these stakeholders as well.”

“Just having policies that are ready made, that we can edit to fit our particular circumstances, has been really helpful.”

“The National College’s CPD helps us get teachers up to speed with different types of SEND and understand how we can best support them.”

“Being proactive leads to better professional development outcomes across our setting.”

“In this way, we empower new staff to address some of the classroom difficulties they’re experiencing, without having to struggle through or wait for somebody to be available to support them.”

“Using The National College has meant that we’re much more consistent in terms of the CPD we offer.”

“Our leaders have found that they’ve been able to get much more done within their working day by having access to the different tools available to them.”

“The platform has massively freed up our time to work on school development initiatives. We've had a lot of positive feedback on the CPD, with teachers, particularly our locally hired teachers, feeling much more supported and happier at work.”

“We took out Essentials Membership because it allowed us to bring our CPD and compliance documentation into one place. It offers us much more than compliance, really. As well as policies, the resources include really helpful things like job description templates and draft interview questions.”

“We’re in the process of changing our whole appraisal system, which includes setting the 10 CPD hours as an appraisal target. Once it’s in place, our system will include links to CPD available on the platform. Staff have some freedom of choice on training, and there’s no cap on the amount of CPD they can do.”

“The first year we used National College, we let staff choose what they wanted to learn which meant that some did much more than others. Last year, we set statutory training, which staff have to complete, plus 10 hours of CPD reflecting our school development priorities and individual staff preferences.”

“We decided to consolidate our training and took a lot of time to look at different CPD providers. We didn't rush into a decision straight away because we wanted to make sure it would benefit our whole workforce, including office staff, site managers, support workers, teachers and the leadership team. Not every provider offered opportunities for all, but in our opinion, The National College had the most comprehensive content.”

“The platform’s tracking system logs individual CPD hours completed, so we can send a report to staff, commending those who’ve exceeded targets and giving a gentle nudge where necessary, without naming names.”

“The platform has saved leaders a lot of time on sourcing and planning CPD... It's brought the school together, because we are on a split site, but we're all doing the same compliance training, and it also supports collaboration.”

“Staff can add in-house or other external CPD to the list of completed CPD on the platform and so build a complete CPD portfolio on one hub.”

“As we increase teacher engagement with the platform, so we can really unleash the potential of The National College, and the return on investment becomes immense. With so much learning available, staff only need to log into one location, rather than multiple platforms. As the platform automatically tracks progress, this makes reporting and evaluation so much easier.”