When Virgin Media was formed from the 2007 merger of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile, it set about aligning learning and development with its revised business structure. XpertHR spoke to the organisation to find out how their work has paid off.
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Learning and development strategy
How Virgin Media reduced training costs and increased efficiency
Virgin Media reduced external technical training costs by 40% and cut non-technical course fees by 28% by procuring training through an outsourcing partner.

Sainsbury's invests in counter-service food colleges
Sainsbury's' state-of-the-art in-house food academies provide consistency throughout the nationwide stores in the way that food is produced and displayed, and promote greater confidence and enthusiasm among counter staff.

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Pre-retirement courses
How pre-retirement courses can ease employee departures
The abolition of the retirement age will necessitate a widespread change of attitude towards the termination of employment for older workers. We examine how pre-retirement courses can help ease the strain.

BT's pre-retirement course guides employees through pension maze
A half-day pre-retirement course offered by BT to employees from the age of 50 has helped to shift attitudes towards retirement across the workforce.

Longstanding retirement planning course brings rewards at NERC
A retirement planning course offered by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is highly valued by employees and has helped to encourage take-up of partial retirement.

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Training legislation
Study or training requests will not be extended to all employees
XpertHR outlines the latest legal position on the statutory right to make a request in relation to study or training.

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Training news
› Government shelves Time to Train Regulations for SMEs

› Business groups welcome eight-week work experience plans

› Government urges employers to take on apprentices

› KPMG to pay school leavers' tuition fees in job scheme

› Graduate recruiters demand candidates with work experience

› HR teams struggling to keep up with equality legislation

› Universal qualification plan unveiled

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Take part in XpertHR research surveys
Taking part in XpertHR Benchmarking surveys will entitle you to receive a complimentary copy of the results, providing a unique insight into what other employers are doing and saying, and what practices are proving to be the most effective.

Learning and development budgets
Take part in this research on learning and development budgets and find out the average spend in your sector, what organisations include in their budgets, and how savings can be made in learning and development without damaging results. The deadline for participation is 11 March.

Managing workplace conflict and mediation
This research will capture the informal conflict management work that is carried out by UK organisations, taking the concept of managing conflict beyond the formal discipline and grievance procedures.

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Latest from our blogs
› Top 10 HR questions - February 2011

› Taking the sting out of the employee retirement conversation

› Jennifer V Miller: If I could change one thing about HR

› Celebrating 40 years of XpertHR Benchmarking surveys

› HR wisdom - Gareth Jones on employee engagement

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Editor's message
Editor's message
REDUCING TRAINING COSTS
When Virgin Media was formed from the 2007 merger of NTL, Telewest and Virgin Mobile, it set about aligning learning and development with its revised business structure. XpertHR spoke to the organisation to find out how their work has paid off. The most striking result of their efforts to synchronise learning is the saving that it has made on external training providers by channelling all outside training requests through one outsourcing partner.

This month we also feature an article on Sainsbury's' multi-million-pound investment in six new state-of-the-art food colleges. This initiative was the result of the retailer's review of in-store food counters. The training will help ensure consistency and quality in both products and service.

On the topic of legislation, the Government has announced that the right to make a request in relation to study or training will not be extended from 6 April 2011 to employees in organisations with fewer than 250 employees. As yet, there is no news on whether or not it intends to repeal the statutory right or amend it for those employers with 250 or more employees.

Look out for the results of our research on learning and development budgets in the next XpertHR training newsletter.

Email  Charlotte Wolff
Training editor, XpertHR

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