The Linking feature – How does it work?
The linking feature is one of the most valuable features of the CourseSight system, not just because it is unique, but also because it allows the system to work for everyone.
The linking feature allows connections to be made between industry bodies, training providers and companies.
Once the links are in place, this enables private or preferential interactions between the linked parties.
Industry Bodies are able to:
- Flag providers as approved
- Create approved templates which can be shared with groups of linked training providers or individual linked training providers
- Flag and share data with members
- Track industry booking and course supply trends.
Training Providers are able to:
- Create closed communities to only allow their supply chain to view or book courses
- Offer discounts to groups of linked companies or individual linked companies
- Create private training instances which only one linked company can book
- Offer pay on account privileges to selected linked companies.
Companies are able to:
- View and book private courses
- View and use automatically applied discounts
- Access Training Provider closed communities.
The feature can be used in many different ways and many of our users are already taking advantage of the benefits:
Lantra – Industry Body
The Health and Safety Passport system, launched November 2017, introduced an industry-wide common health and safety induction (Highways Common Induction) and is a significant step toward the vision of ‘One Industry One Card’ for Highways England’s workforce to gain access to work on Highways England sites.
Lantra has been using CourseSight to guide web users to approved providers delivering approved content, including approved Highways Common Induction, giving employers confidence to book online straightaway with a provider they can trust. They have done this through using the linking feature to flag Lantra providers as ‘Approved by Lantra’ and also by allowing the providers who are approved to list Highways Common Induction to access the approved Highways Common Induction template.
Use of the linking feature has also given rise to an integration between these two systems - CourseSight and Highways England Passport - which allows Highways Common Induction course achievements, that are recorded by approved providers in CourseSight, to be transferred directly onto the Passport smartcard of the individual. This means anyone who completes the course with an approved provider can gain access to sites that require Highways Common Induction using their Passport card straightaway.
This new seamless process will reduce administration for training providers, reduce waiting time for companies and ensure quality across the industry through the Lantra provider approval process. On CourseSight, companies looking for training can see clearly which providers and content offer the approved Highways Common Induction programme, helping to maintain the best possible training standards whilst offering value to employers.
Transport For London – Training Provider
Transport for London manages a vast supply chain to undertake maintenance on its network. The business had identified a significant cost-saving by bringing more of its training in-house as well as ensuring a consistent standard of training provision. Key to this plan was an online training solution that would enable TfL to manage and run more training internally – cutting costs to the business and in turn for its supply chain – by reducing the administrative burden and moving from a post-course invoicing process to payment by credit card at the time of booking eliminating the need to chase for payment. Transport for London only allow a closed community within their supply chain to attend training courses with them and therefore did not want their training courses visible to the public on CourseSight.
The linking feature allows Transport for London to run a range of different training events at a variety of venues while still being able to control which courses are visible online to users. The latter is managed by controlling access for approved companies working for Transport for London using the linking function, enabling them to view relevant courses. In addition, specific courses aimed at particular companies or user groups have been restricted to only these groups for online booking. Transport for London now have an entirely closed community where they can harness the full power of CourseSight.