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Case studies
The Retail Academy has worked with various organisations to create quality retail training. Below are some examples of our most recent work.
In 2007, Foundation Degree Forward, the UK government agency for Foundation Degrees, awarded the Retail Academy, MyKnowledgeMap, University of the Arts London and Manchester Metropolitan University the contract to design and build the e-learning for the Foundation Degree in Retail.
The first group of students to undertake the Foundation Degree were 40 Tesco employees looking to develop careers in retail management. Using the e-portfolio system, tutors keep in touch with their students and assess their work despite being in different locations.
The Foundation Degree in Retail has now been rolled out on a national scale and can be tailored to suit all retailers. It has been taken up by other prestigious clients, including Booths supermarket, who are putting members of their store management team through the degree using Manchester Metropolitan University.
The Retail Academy, MyKnowledgeMap, and EIfEL were asked by the European Initiative for the Promotion of Informal Learning (EIPIL-PAN) to provide the e-portfolio to help implement a single framework to accredit informal learning in the retail and IT sectors. We developed an e-portfolio which extended validation and accreditation methodologies developed previously by EIPIL-PAN and incorporated managerial competencies as well as those of other workers.
The European Initiative for the Promotion of Informal Learning (EIPIL-PAN) seeks to help employers recognise the value of informal learning in the workplace and develop a framework by which it can be accredited.
In April 2008, the Retail Academy launched a contextualised version of Retail Detail for Jet petrol forecourt retailers.
The customised Retail Detail package features a specific petrol forecourt training module as part of the Jet Franchise Loyalty Programme.
Since it began, the service has proven very popular among Jet forecourt retailers.
The Retail Academy is customising all seven Retail Principles courses for the Photo Marketing Association (PMA). PMA represents 20,000 members in 100-plus countries and helps the worldwide photo imaging community achieve business success and adapt to new technologies.
The Retail Principles are bite-sized e-learning courses. The new versions of the courses are tailored specifically to the needs of photographic retailers.
So far, the Retail Academy has developed an online Visual Merchandising course and, more recently, the Customer Service course.
The Retail Academy, the Learning Shop at Bluewater shopping centre, North West Kent College (a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Retail) and MyKnowledgeMap, launched a unique retail-based BTEC Level 3 award in 2008.
The BTEC award is part of the South East England Development Agency’s Training Pools project. This qualification includes one mandatory unit, and an optional two further units from a possible five, creating five ten-hour units.