Kent Fire & Rescue Service benefits from Tata Interactive Systems and Solutions Training partnership

Kent Fire & Rescue Service has become the first emergency service in the country to adopt the health and safety e-learning materials produced by a partnership between the global e-learning producer, Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), and health and safety management specialists, Solutions Training & Advisory Ltd.

Solutions Training and TIS are producing a series of e-learning materials covering safety issues for ‘first response units’, including fire and ambulance services. These e-learning materials are intended for firefighters, ambulance crews and so on, rather than senior management.

Kent Fire & Rescue Service’s Group Manager Training & Development, Peter Stanley, said: "The manual handling course produced by Solutions Training and TIS is absolutely excellent and is of a very high quality. It is up to date, allows access to our 2,000 staff and represents best value."

Alan Samuel, TIS’s head of operations in the UK, commented: "We’re delighted that Kent Fire & Rescue Service has reacted both promptly and positively to these e-learning materials. These materials provide valuable input on health and safety matters for professionals in the emergency services, which can be studied whenever convenient."

This is Solutions Training’s first venture into developing and delivering bespoke e-learning. Its founder and managing director, Paul Meek, said: "We help clients protect their staff and management in the workforce, building the skills and knowledge of their people to manage risk. We’re delighted to be able to add TIS’s experience and expertise to that formula, to provide extra, e-learning based benefits for our customers."

While Solutions Training supplies the subject mater expertise for the programmes, TIS designs, develops, produces and hosts the e-learning materials.

Meek explained: "At Solutions Training, we offer of a combination of instructor-led training and e-learning courses designed to help trainees’ legal and regulatory compliance responsibilities and, most importantly, protect and manage the risks within the workplace.

"As Kent Fire & Rescue Service has shown, there is a real need for the sort of programmes that we are producing with TIS – especially because the learners tend to work shifts, which can make it difficult for them to attend ’traditional’ classroom-based training courses," he added. "Having a wealth of vital information available to them in e-learning form means that learners can access these materials at any convenient time – perhaps during a quiet period at work.

"The key benefit of having these programmes is that they deliver up-to-date vital safety information to front line professionals at their work bases – which will not only help these professionals to perform their duties but will also help them to keep the rest of us safe!"

End

Notes for editors

Tata Interactive Systems will be exhibiting (stand number 38) at this year’s Learning Technologies event, at Olympia, London, on 31st January and 1st February. In particular, the stand focuses on simulations and safety.


About Solutions Training & Advisory Limited

Founded by Paul Meek in 1992 and based in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, Solutions Training & Advisory Limited specialises in training and consultancy in health and safety risk management in the workplace. To date, its:
• classroom training has been received by over 40,000 people,
• video resource pack has been received by over 50,000 people and
• e-learning platform has been used by over 5m people.

Moreover, over 85 per cent of the UK’s ambulance services use Solutions Training; over 100 local authorities have used its service and its courses are rigorously assessed and endorsed by seven Accreditation Bodies.

Solutions Training & Advisory Limited focuses on changing attitudes, behaviours, knowledge and skills to manage and reduce risk in clients’ workplaces.

It specialises in catering for the learning needs of those in the emergency services; transport; health; local authorities; charities, and commercial operations. It provides:
• Moving and handling programmes, accredited with EdExcel / BTEC awards
• Conflict Management programmes, accredited by EDEXCEL
• First Aid training, approved by the Health and Safety Executive
• 30 e-learning courses, many of which are accredited by the Royal Institute of Public Health

About Tata Interactive Systems (TIS)

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global leader in e-learning, is a part of the $22bn Tata Group. Truly international, TIS has a presence across the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East, Japan, India, and mainland Europe. TIS offers corporations, universities, schools, publishers, and government institutions a diversified and innovative bouquet of learning and training solutions including Simulation-based Learning Objects (SimBLs™), Story-based Learning Objects (StoBLs™), courseware and curriculum design, special-needs education, assessments, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, along with other corporate training and consultancy services. Our multi-disciplinary expertise and 16 years’ experience across domains helps us design e-learning programmes that are unique to clients’ requirements and specifically crafted to boost knowledge retention and application.

Apart from holding ISO 9001 certification, TIS is the only e-learning organisation in the world to be assessed at Level 5 in both the SEI-CMM and P-CMM frameworks. TIS’s quest for excellence is reflected in numerous prestigious industry awards, including a Silver Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award 2005 and 2004, APEX Award of Excellence in 2005 and 2006, BETT Awards in 2004 and 2006, and two Business World–NID Design Excellence awards.

For more information log on to www.tatainteractive.com

About the Tata Group

The Tata Group, established in 1904 by the great visionary Jamsetji Tata, is one of India’s largest and most trusted business houses. The group pioneered the industrial revolution in India by founding the first steel plant, power plant and chain of luxury hotels, to name but a few.

The Group employs more than 220,000 people in 93 companies across diversified industry sectors including steel, automobiles, cement, telecom and IT. Generating revenues to the tune of $22 billion per year – some three per cent of India’s total GDP – it is recognised as a leader in several industry segments such as such as steel, power, software exports and chemicals. It is also the parent company to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Asia’s largest software producer.

For more information, log on to www.tata.com

Further information from:
Alan Samuel, Tata Interactive Systems, 020 7235 8281, www.tatainteractive.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, 01727 860405, www.boblittlepr.com