Success Story

Internet Exchange

• Delivering ITQ to the Small Business
• An Overwhelming Response from SMEs
• Designed to Fit Individual Business Requirements
• The ITQ in Practice
• Tailor-made for the SME
• About Internet Exchange

Delivering ITQ to the Small Business

Internet Exchange provides a range of training courses specifically tailored for the small business sector. They work closely with the London Development Agency to deliver training programmes for clients that can be conducted within the workplace or at any of its 19 training centres located throughout London and in Bristol.

Working with awarding body, the British Computer Society, Internet Exchange was an early participant in the pilot for ITQ to the SME (Small/Medium Enterprise) sector. It is currently providing ITQ assessment and training support to fifty students, from eleven different companies, across several industry sectors including manufacturing, retail, public services and design.  

An Overwhelming Response from SMEs

Project manager at Internet Exchange, Nishma Shah, was confident that ITQ would appeal to small businesses but did not anticipate how great the initial response would be. After creating awareness of the new qualification, via a press release issued on smallbusiness.co.uk, the company was flooded with requests for more information and applications for the new course. After instantly filling its pilot places, Internet Exchange now has a number of interested businesses wanting to offer the qualification to their employees.

“We think ITQ captured the attention of SMEs for a number of reasons.” commented Shah. “Firstly, small businesses tend to have more stringent cost and time constraints when it comes to choosing the right training compared to larger organisations. They often can’t afford to have too much of their staff time tied up in training and they have to be very selective in what they chose from a budget perspective and ensure it delivers return. The ITQ offers a flexible and highly tailored learning programme so they could see how it could be applied to meet specific training requirements without heavily impacting on staff working time. Also, the ITQ could be used just as effectively to train one individual as it could a whole workforce, an important consideration for companies that have a small number of employees.”

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Designed to Fit Individual Business Requirements

The ITQ offers employers a high degree of flexibility in the development of training packages. Designed around a range of optional modules – from basic to advanced – the qualification can meet any variety of IT training demands, whether the objective is to improve generic computer skills, such as using Powerpoint for presentations or Excel for spreadsheets, or to develop specific user skills around specialist software or a company’s bespoke IT systems.

The ITQ is also the first IT qualification that takes into account any existing IT knowledge an employee may have. This might include specific software accreditations or simply skills that have been acquired through informal learning or have been self-taught. This knowledge is assessed at the beginning of the assessment process and certified by Internet Exchange, which helps determine which skill areas require development or further improvement. Using the ability to integrate existing qualifications, such as ECDL, into ITQ’s framework, Internet Exchange is able to work with employers to ensure that any previous achievements are credited as points that count towards the final qualification.

“The ability to certify existing skills has elicited a great response from all of our students. Many employees recognise that they have basic skills but don’t necessarily have anything that quantifies this to employers,” commented Shah. “Now they can include what they know as part of the ITQ.”

“Employers have also seen much value from the ITQ’s detailed assessment process, as it enables them to clearly identify training requirements. The flexibility of the modules within the ITQ have allowed us to easily develop customised training programmes, that focus on developing individual IT user needs that meet specific business objectives. Also, because training can be conducted in the workplace our clients’ staff do not have to work out of the office and can be available at all times if needed.

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The ITQ in Practice

Internet Exchange has already used the ITQ to meet a variety of training requirements for its small business clients.

“The initial results from our pilot courses show just how effective the ITQ is for small businesses. Employees are finding that they are more productive in their jobs which of course delivers return for the employer,” adds Shah. “This really reflects the practical nature of ITQ, it doesn’t just assess what you know, but it focuses on what’s really important to the employers: actual IT abilities. The organisations working with the ITQ have varied training requirements but the qualification has been able to meet all of their needs.”

“For example, we are working with a library which is using ITQ to get all of its career advisers to the same IT skill level, we have a client who has just started a new business and is looking to broaden his IT knowledge, another client is a interior design company that has staff proficient in Mac and Quark Express but wants to develop its staff’s ‘Office’ skills.

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Tailor-made for the SME

“The ITQ qualification definitely fills a gap in IT user training and is proving to offer great opportunities for the SME. Not only is it accessible for all types of business, it is also a qualification that will enable many small businesses to quickly and easily address their IT user skill shortages, enabling them to be more productive and efficient,” concludes Shah.

About Internet Exchange

Internet Exchange Training Centres is one of the UKs leading training providers and has been delivering IT and Skills for Life training and certification for a decade. The company offers a choice of training through its Public Library and High Street training centres, over the web or on location at client offices.

The company has delivered many of the government’s key programmes such as New Deal, Learndirect, UK Online, ILAs, Work based training for Adults and ICT for Employability. IE have worked with the DFES, DTI, DCMS, London Development Agency and several LSCs to deliver training to specific target groups.

Internet Exchange is currently working with such organisations as Microsoft, British Computer Society and E Skills to work on developing and delivering standards for both individuals and businesses.

Internet Exchange has invested in opening new centres and regional teams to deliver the governments vision nationally

For further information, please visit
www.internet-exchange.co.uk

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Last modified: 16 Jun 2007