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Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

Bolton Metro enjoys flagship status within local government for its visionary Organisational Development team that has been responsible for all training and development within Bolton Metro for many years.

KnowledgePool provides Bolton MBC with an outsourced learning service as part of the Fujitsu Services 7 year contract for an IT Managed Service.

Through the provision of learning services, a core part of the Fujitsu IT Managed Services, KnowledgePool provides:

• A training manager, Maria Lee, who is based on the Bolton MBC site who acts as a point of contact for all training related enquiries. She is responsible for identifying training needs, providing advice and guidance and delivering the training along with a Fujitsu colleague.
• Classroom-based training in Microsoft end user applications
• A new online 'Learning Zone' which provides thousands of staff across the Borough with access to online interactive learning content via the Bolton Metro Intranet.
• Live online tutor support for many of the courses through KnowledgePool's 24x7 LiveMentor service - this is particularly suited to shift workers who require learning outside of the normal working day.
• PCs for use in the training environment; maintenance of equipment and software
• Ad-hoc training consultancy as required for both IT and non-IT training issues
• Liaison with Bolton Metro IT to ensure that training meets the changing needs of desk-top users.
• Continuous service reviews with the Bolton Metro Organisational Development team to identify improvements and further develop the learning services offered.

The team is proud of the success they have achieved. Chris Hyams at Bolton Metro explains; "We have always recognised the link between equipping our staff with the right skills to do their jobs efficiently and an effective service. This has never been more important as we make more and more of our services available online. The disparate divisions that make up the council all have different requirements and cultures and customer care is vitally important to us in each. It is our role to ensure that each member of staff has the ability to maximise the benefits of technology as it is rolled out and that they are able to assist the community as services go online." "KnowledgePool's outsourced learning service enables us to provide the best possible development programmes for our staff. This frees up the team's time to concentrate on the bigger picture which in turn enables us to provide a more comprehensive service to our internal and external customers."