Case Study:
Minibugs Nurseries
Minibugs Nurseries are a friendly and committed day nursery and preschool team who provide a happy, caring and safe environment where children are free to explore and learn through a range of experiences and activities.
Rebecca Spry, National Education, Learning and Development Manager, joined us to discuss how the nurseries have benefitted from joining The National College and gaining access to hundreds of courses, webinars and resources for all staff.
Joining The National College
Reflecting on the decision to join The National College, Rebecca said: “It was fairly clear that when people finish their qualifications, the training being offered by the local councils wasn’t quite what we were looking for. So, my role was created as the National Education, Learning and Development Manager to invest in our team and help them progress.”
“I started to look at different platforms and how we can provide our staff with high-quality training opportunities,” she said.
Rebecca highlighted the attentiveness of The National College membership team: “Laura Brothwell was great. She sent us lots of emails and we decided to see what The National College had to offer.”
“The previous platform that we were using was due for renewal, but we had some issues with the content not being up to date and referring to guidance that was no longer relevant and things like that. It was a good time to look at your platform and see what was available for our staff,” she added.
“The customer service experience has been excellent, too. Everyone seems really invested in making The National College the best that it can be. Laura, David and Darryl have been brilliant. If I have any problems with navigating the platform, I can contact Rachael and she is very responsive and proactive.”
Excellent feedback from all nursery staff
The National College delivers an unparalleled professional development experience, with a platform likened to that of global streaming brands, and deep-dive filters that make it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Rebecca said: “Since we’ve joined, the feedback that I’ve had from our staff is that they really enjoy listening to the webinars and prefer to hear people speaking, rather than having to read.”
She explained: “The training that we have completed so far is really relevant and refreshed regularly. For example, the annual safeguarding course and the food hygiene content is reviewed yearly, so that’s a big help.”
Discovering our state-of-the-art professional development platform
Rebecca revealed: “One of the big attractions of The National College for us was the fact that we could upload internal CPD. It’s fantastic to have a platform where everything is in one place. We think that will be very useful.”
Managers can track staff engagement and completion of training. This data-driven approach facilitates targeted follow-up and support for all staff members.
Rebecca said: “Our managers can see which courses have been completed and what is still outstanding. They can assign specific content to our staff depending on their roles, too.”
“It’s been really useful to create watchlists too, as we can assign mandatory content such as British values, GDPR, FGM and Prevent duty for new staff during their induction,” she commented.
“It means that I don’t need to worry about who’s completed that, as I will set the watchlist and then our managers can just monitor who has taken part and who hasn’t.”
“The biggest positive of the platform is just the variety of content, for such a range of different roles. It’s extremely user-friendly too,” she said.