It’s our belief at Pitman Training that businesses must move forward, innovate and change in order to survive. We are truly proud of our long heritage and know the importance of continually developing the business to keep pace with market advances and technological changes. We operate in the educational sector, which continues to see many significant changes and we fully realise that technology has played a large part in this, especially with the increasing use and presence of distance learning.
The challenge many educators have found is that it is a rare individual who can study and learn in isolation. Since the inception of online learning there have been progressive developments with a great deal of attention now being focused on student interaction – with materials, their tutors and peers. This is where Pitman Training stands out from the crowd, not only do we offer high quality and respected course content via a student friendly platform, but we also have physical locations – the Pitman Training Centre network footprint is impressive.
Our students tell us time and again that having a centre within reach is a key element they take into account when making a purchase decision. It is all well and good saying that you have student support, but if that is only ever provided online and is hundreds of miles away this can prove to be an insurmountable obstacle for some potential customers. The locations of Pitman Centres, enable our franchise partners to more effectively reach out and support students, providing easily accessible, flexible learning – either in centre, at home, work or in combination.
We have had some great examples of innovations which bring benefits for not only our students but also our franchise partners.
Our Online Learning Platform ‘Pitman Campus’:
We are currently offering our second and latest version of our online virtual learning platform to our customers. The first version was launched in 2010, and enabled us and our franchise partners to become accustomed to enabling students to learn at home and work as well as in their local Pitman Training Centre. In addition, since its initial launch, student expectations have moved on. Our latest online offering, the Pitman Campus was successfully launched in August 2016. It takes learnings from previous years feedback provided by the franchise network, and utilises the latest technology to offer a student friendly access point for all Pitman learning materials. We are rightfully proud that any given student, wherever they are in the world or whatever their circumstances, are provided with a uniform experience in terms of technology. Impacts for the franchise partner are also positive and include;
- An enhanced student experience
- Reduced software and hardware costs
- A streamlined student enrolment process
- Effective student support tools to aid ongoing mentoring of students
- Enabling the franchisee to access customers from a larger geographical area (subject to adjoining franchisees)
- Reduced property costs reductions (blended learning has been shown to reduce the premises requirements – clever use of a smaller space means costs can be reduced)
We monitor the Campus carefully, and will continue to develop this further in the future using valued franchisee and student feedback.
Customer Relationship Management System – Pitman Customer Management (PCM)
Towards the end of 2016, we invested in a modern, customised customer management system, Microsoft Dynamics – this is similarly the second form of CRM that we have had throughout the franchise network. Sales businesses require a specified process to ensure all enquiries are handled as quickly and efficiently as possible, to offer optimum sales performance. Dynamics is a market leading tool used by many businesses throughout the world. All members of the Pitman franchise network have access to this world class CRM at very competitive monthly rates, with support and training provided by Pitman Group and external specialists. We have tailored the platform to fit with the workflows that happen in centre, ensuring that use of PCM fits in with the day to day performance of the business. We provide standard reports and recommended dashboards to help franchisees stay in touch with customers whether in the office or at home, or away via mobile app access. This specialist sales tool is provided with the aim of increasing the network’s sales conversion rates and ensuring we achieve average selling prices on our training products.
In-house Pitman Training Materials
We develop over 80% of all our training materials in-house, and tens of thousands of students have successfully completed these courses. We pride ourselves in the quality of training materials, in particular the vocational focus of the courses, and the interactive methods used to maintain student attention, as well as provide them with job ready skills. We are continually testing new methods to improve the student experience, whilst always maintaining:
- The alignment of the majority of courses to relevant qualifications
- Sound principles of learning
- Techniques to keep the student engaged
Access for a student to good support and guidance when needed is a crucial part of their journey with us. Franchisees recruit for a number of roles, one of which is the supervisor role. It is worth noting that the products are so well researched, developed and tested, that supervisor and student interaction should be fairly minimal, although this can vary from student to student.
Our business continues to flourish and as technology advances at an exponential rate, Pitman Training is dedicated to preparing and enriching the experience for both our franchisees and students. There are always fantastic opportunities for Pitman Training Centres in the UK and across the world and we are seeking high calibre franchise partners to work with. If this sounds like an interesting opportunity to you or your business, please contact our franchise sales team on +44(0)1937 519551 or email franchising@pitman-training.com.