Here at Verastar, we’re passionate about offering every colleague the opportunity to learn new skills and develop their career with us.
Enabling our people to thrive is part of our DNA.
Committed to learning and development
Whether you’re just starting out in a new role or profession, or you’re a seasoned campaigner with decades of experience under your belt – if you’re not learning you’re stagnating.
In recent years we’ve invested significantly in our L&D team and in new technology to ensure we deliver on the promise of continuous development opportunities for our people.
We support colleagues to complete apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships and MBAs, as well as professional qualifications in law, finance, project management, and professional development. That’s before we mention our graduate schemes, which took on 28 new inductees in 2021 alone.
We’ve put our money where our mouth is and invested in a LinkedIn Learning licence for every one of our 1000 colleagues across the group.
Award-nominated L&D team
With all of this in mind, we’re over the moon to have had our hard work in this area recognised by the Learning Technologies Awards!
These awards are among the most independent and sought-after in the industry. They recognise businesses that demonstrate commitment, enthusiasm and passion for using technology to support learning across the globe. Finalists are selected by an independent judging panel of L&D experts.
Verastar has been nominated as a finalist in the Best Use of Blended Learning category, following the rollout of our new “blended induction” for customer service colleagues over the last year.
Our new “blended induction”
The new induction has revolutionised learning for new colleagues and now contains a blend of “experiential learning” including online content, problem-solving activities and increased hands-on practice time in a controlled environment.
The ratio of learning has flipped on its head, transitioning from an induction that was 80% tell and 20% experiential activity to now being 20% tell and 80% experiential.
The improved outcomes are already clear to see, with 60 days training time per year freed up to focus on other areas and “time to competency” for new starters significantly reduced.
We asked one of our training team how the new blended approach to learning is going. They said:
“The new blended approach encourages a more natural flow to the training, plus more conversation and questioning from the learners. As a trainer my day is now more evenly split between different types of session and the learners quickly grasp the topics we’re covering. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the new blended content approach and I’m excited about training this out more in the future.”
This hugely successful blended learning approach is now being rolled out to all learning and development across the Verastar Group and we’re so excited to see how the changes will impact other areas of the business.
The awards ceremony
Members of our hardworking L&D team are heading down to London on November 17th for the awards ceremony, and we all hope they come back with the trophy!
But win or lose, it’s great to see their fantastic work recognised with this nomination, and to see the impact it’s making every day within the Verastar Group.
Come and join us!
If you’re interested in working within a business that prioritises your personal and professional development, check out the vacancies on our careers page.
