Automate Bidding

With plant closures, layoffs and entire industries shrinking or relocating, one of the most important tools available to governments is the retraining of the displaced workforce to acquire fundamental skills needed in industry sectors that remain healthy. A perfect example of this was the retraining of thousands of manufacturing laborers in the 80s to give them computer and data processing skills. Experience has shown the most economical and effective method for delivering large scale training to the people who need it is through an LMS, or Learning Management System; many corporations choose this technology to train their own staff, so it's little wonder that it suits the needs of social agencies charged with providing career retraining.

There is a number of Learning management systems providers in the US, but before signing on to implement a solution, it's important to understand what your requirements are. The agency I work for chose a product from www.trainingforce.com, a company with 15 years of experience with LMS systems.  This particular Learning Management System was flexible enough to meet our needs with features our mandate required, implementation was straightforward and they offered a flexible pricing model so we were able to order a system that fit within our budget constraints as well. As a public entity, we had to adhere to a highly defined contractual bidding process that included reviewing proposals from other Learning management systems providers, so we were quite satisfied that we'd chosen the best LMS solution at the end of the day.

Our clients are fairly evenly split between those who show up at our office to receive training onsite, and those who have computer access from home. It's not quite so simple as that, though; with varying access to transportation, odd hours of availability because some of them have picked up casual part-time work and the whole issue of daycare, one of the core strengths of a Learning Management System, 'the anytime, anywhere' aspect, is crucial to success. The LMS that we chose simplifies the process from start to finish, allowing our clients to register for courses online without having to drive in to our office to do so. We are able to distribute our e-learning material to the students, track their progress and even administer tests in a manner that gives students maximum flexibility while allowing us to retain administrative control and accurately track results.

In the end, we feel that our clients -our students- benefit greatly from the use of LMS technology. While a typical classroom with a dedicated teacher may remain the educational ideal, this does little good if students can't regularly attend classes or there are hundreds of students for one teacher.