Gareth English describes his psychology consultancy as ‘small… but with global reach’. It’s quite a boast for a company comprised of just eleven people, but when you check their website, you find those people work in America, Australia, the UK, and their clients really are all over the world!
The consultancy originally only offered classroom-based training. Delivering their content online wasn’t something they’d envisaged at the start. As Gareth says, ‘If I’m honest, I was a little cynical that elearning could replace face-to-face training.’
That’s not surprising. Gareth is founder of a psychology consultancy, ‘one that helps people to understand themselves and their customers better’. It’s training which relies on interaction, advice from experts and one-to-one support – yet elearning has helped to provide these ingredients.
He describes their main product, Type Pro as ‘a state-of-the-art, unique approach to training people to become excellent Personality Type professionals. Its blended learning approach includes a variety of interactive sessions which help people to understand their own Personality Type as well as to practice Type exploration with others.’
So why the move away from traditional classroom-based training? Gareth says it’s down to two factors: ‘Two of the eternal challenges for a small consultancy are reach and capacity.’
- Elearning allows us to reach customers all over the world, without the need to set up subsidiary offices, or to spend great amounts of time travelling the world.
- It’s given us the capacity to have customers working through programmes without being in the room with them. This means that we can have more customers without the need to expand our team.
This message is reinforced by Procter and Gamble, who use Type Pro. HR Capability Manager Barb Miller is quoted on their website as saying, ‘The Type Pro Virtual Certification is a breakthrough in the industry, utilising a blended learning approach which maximises learning transfer and global reach. With this approach we are able to increase the capability within our Company seamlessly, without travel and schedule restrictions.’
But what led to Gareth’s conversion to elearning? He provided three factors. ‘For me Nimble made this transition possible with speed, interactivity and scalability’. He illustrated it like this:
- It is so quick to create a programme compared with other platforms. I can prototype something, play around with it, test it and get feedback in a few hours. This encourages greater experimentation.
- Interactivity can arise out of instructional videos. I believe that learning is greatly deepened and accelerated this way.
- Being able to quickly and easily create quality interactive learning experiences means I’ve relied on elearning to deliver the kind of learning our clients want us to provide which increases the volume of training we offer.
The last year has seen Gareth set up and progress his Type Pro courses and Nimble has helped in this crucial stage of his business development. According to Gareth, ‘that support goes from the small to the large. Whether it’s Laura helping with a small but important customisation, or Wendy helping me to look at how to meet the needs of a customer over the next 18 month, Nimble has helped us add value to our customers by its flexibility; this allows us to compete with much larger players.’
What advice does Gareth have for others who are setting off on similar journeys? ‘Exactly what we’d advise our learners to do: a bit of learning by doing and a bit of learning by reflecting. So don’t be afraid to make something and see how it looks. And don’t be afraid to make a plan for the whole learning journey that you’re trying to create!’
With this innovative approach to elearning, it’s not surprising Gareth won a Nimble Award at the Nimble Community Day in September 2017. Nimble are looking forward to seeing his business achieve even greater success in 2018 – and you can guarantee Nimble will be there to offer whatever support he needs.
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