Zebina Campbell, Business Manager of Elmhouse Training, needed an integrated system which could take Twitter in its stride and found enrola fitted the bill.
Todays young applicants for training places are more likely to reach for their smartphones than think about sending a form in the post.
Elmhouse Training is a private training provider delivering quality training throughout the Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham borough areas. Established in 2008, they specialise in Childcare, Early Years and Teaching assistant courses. They also offer courses such as Hairdressing, Barbering, Radio Broadcasting, Nail Services and Business Administration.
In addition Elmhouse works with children’s centres and larger colleges seeking to reach students outside their catchment area, enabling their training to be delivered in communities that they wouldn’t usually have access to.
Zebina explained that Elmhouse initially tracked the learner’s journey in much the same way as other providers. “People would call in, we’d take their details down on a form and then the information would be transferred to spreadsheets. It could be frustrating because the spreadsheets weren’t always up to date as things would change so quickly. It was difficult to find out if someone had called us previously, and if they had called, who they’d spoken to. The process worked, but it was complicated and time consuming”.
At first, Zebina wasn’t sure that enrola would work for Elmhouse. “I thought of it as something more tailored to apprenticeship providers, but we don’t deal with apprentices. There are similarities, but we have very specific requirements”. It took a visit from Stevie at enrola to convince Zebina to adopt the system.
“When we saw what enrola was capable of, and how adaptable it is, we realised it was just what we needed.”
“We use it in a slightly different way to others. Firstly it’s an enrolment tool, and of course we use it to track learners’ progress. But we also use it to set up the register and to monitor our numbers for classes. We can tell straight away how many people we’ve recruited for a class; how many are actually there and the number of free spaces we’ve got left”.
The Elmhouse team realised that if enrola was integrated into their website this would give them added functionality and flexibility. “enrola did the integration for us. Now, when someone applies for a place, they actually apply via enrola on our website. Of course, lots of our applicants don’t go on the site; they send us a text or a WhatsApp message, and we can text or message a link back to them.”
The ability to respond to changing circumstances particularly impressed Zebina, as did the level of service she receives for her subscription.
“We recently asked enrola to integrate our online portfolio. Once an applicant is on the programme its integrated into a portfolio. Every step of the learner’s journey can now be tracked at the click of a mouse. It’s so much easier than spreadsheets”
Elmhouse Training works to develop partnerships with students and enable them to create their own success, which will eventually give them financial independence. The partnership with enrola gives the Elmhouse team the tools to get the job done.