Oracle to host ESR e-learning workshops
- 6 May 2008
Oracle has announced it is to hold a series of free workshops on its Oracle Learning Management product, which is available through the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).
Oracle Learning Management (OLM) is a component of the ESR which enables users to manage, record and report on the training and development of their employees in real time. Employees are able to search a catalogue of class-based learning opportunities and enrol online for courses using the system
Already used by 62 NHS organisations, with a further 80 in the process of implementation, Oracle and ESR are hosting a series of events with each of the 10 SHA’s throughout England over the next two months.
These workshops will guide organisations through the component, as well as provide further information on the National Learning Management System (NLMS) project, an extension of the OLM product, designed to develop e-learning capability.
NLMS is a joint initiative between the Department of Health, NHS Connecting for Health, eLearning for Healthcare, the NHS Core Learning Unit and the NHS ESR project. It is being piloted in 18 sites in June, with national roll-out scheduled for the autumn.
Flora Goldhill, director of workforce capacity, analysis and HR at the Department of Health, said: “These events are an ideal opportunity for key workforce leaders within the NHS to gain, at first hand, a thorough understanding of how ESR, OLM and now the NLMS project, will revolutionalise [sic] the way the NHS manages its workforce’s ongoing learning and development.
“For some time now the NHS has been in need of a consistent, integrated and innovative approach to staff training. It is imperative that we encourage all NHS organisations to drive this agenda, to improve the education offered to our staff using 21st century technology, which will ultimately benefit our patients.”
OLM currently has a component embedded in the ESR which enables employees to search an NHS catalogue of learning opportunities and enrol online. Every competency they achieve is automatically logged onto their ESR record.
Managers are then able to review competencies across their team and identify skill gaps or development needs and use the information to plan future requirements, and can obtain reports about training availability and attendance. Formal learning paths, linked to national and local competency frameworks, can also be established.
The aim of the workshops is to get more NHS organisations in England using this service, before the NLMS is made available in the autumn offering e-learning instead of classroom-based learning.
Oracle’s director of healthcare business development, Jeremy Nettle, told E-Health Insider: “The OLM currently meets the strategy requirements of the NHS Litigation Authority, and enables trusts to monitor progress of staff members in terms of performance development.
“With our work on the NLMS these organisations will also benefit from access to standardised learning content for use across the NHS. We hope to see these events boosting interest and helping managers understand the new e-learning programmes available throughout the English NHS.”
An ESR spokesperson added: “The events will increase awareness of the advantages of the OLM product among key NHS HR/workforce development staff and further clarify the implementation process.
“Above all, they will increase understanding of ESR’s contribution to achieving the NHS workforce agenda and how using its full functionality, will benefit NHS organisations now, and in the future.”
Links
