Learning Pool’s co-founder, Mary McKenna said, "We are thrilled with the award of this contract, and our team is looking forward to becoming an external extension of UK Parliament’s own talented Learning & Development teams." Learning Pool provides online learning services and works in partnership with customers to help transform training. Uniquely, the company encourages its members to work together to create and share resources, helping realise savings of over £50 million to the public purse in the last five years.

The Government's G-Cloud framework was used for the procurement of this contract, allowing greater flexibility and reducing the timescales of the procurement process. Learning Pool will provide Parliament with a fully cloud-hosted learning-management system driven by open-source technology Totara LMS for this project. This approach reflects well on the government’s agenda to support both the SME community and to use open-source technology.

Parliament will use Learning Pool to train staff across the House of Commons and House of Lords on topics such as Fire Safety and Disability Awareness, with the launch planned for October 2013.