Developed by leading learning solutions provider Sponge, Allwyn launched the Retail Training Centre at the beginning of February to support independent store owners and their staff to be responsible National Lottery retailers with "always on" digital training that's available to them whenever suits them best - making it easier to regularly train staff in store.

As well as documents containing key information about how to sell National Lottery games responsibly, the platform features engaging training modules on "Preventing Underage Play" and "Minimising Excessive Play". Allwyn will also update it centrally with new and improved training over the coming months and years.

The training is easily accessible to all store staff: As well as being available on mobile or desktop, the Retail Training Centre has been specially developed so that its user profiles don't require the use of personal data to log in. As a result, training is more accessible to all staff - including casual and temporary employees - as there's no need to sign up. The platform instead works by only having one user profile and login per store, with sub-folders containing all the necessary training that can be assigned to each staff member.
This approach also allows Allwyn to see whether a store has completed the necessary training to ensure they're compliant with important areas such as "Underage Play", with Allwyn Retail Sales Executives able to offer additional support during store visits if needed.

Additionally, Allwyn's digital-first approach to training its retail partners has seen the company embed the use of the platform in its retailer onboarding process, making it mandatory for any new National Lottery retailer to activate their Retail Training Centre account and complete the digital training before their National Lottery equipment is installed. This ensures new retailers understand the obligations of being a responsible retailer before they even begin selling National Lottery products.

The digital nature of the platform also means new training can be issued by Allwyn network wide, or to individual stores, depending on requirements. This means Allwyn can effectively train its entire retail estate on specific areas in one go - making training quicker, easier, and more convenient, as retailers can complete the training in their own time.

The results of the platform are already compelling: since February, the platform's key assets, which include documents like a Healthy Play workbook "Operational Excellence", and "What is Challenge 25?" have been downloaded over 23,000 times, while the two training modules have been completed over 5,600 times and counting.

Mohammed Rajak from Buywell Day Today in Glasgow, said, "The new platform has really helped me train my staff by being able to download useful information and print it for them to read. We can either access the Retail Training Centre on my mobile, or use the printouts - which makes it easier. The modules are accessible within a couple of clicks, which is useful for referring back to. I feel proud knowing my staff have done the training, and we now have a certificate to prove it."

Alex Green, Allwyn's Director of Channel Operations, said, "We're delighted with the initial uptake of our new digital training platform, with thousands of retailers having already signed up to complete the training and increase their knowledge of how to sell The National Lottery responsibly. As well as a newly embedded process in place to get new retailers signed up and using the platform even before they start trading, our digital-first approach will make distributing National Lottery training simpler and more effective. We'll be able to issue new training immediately, keeping retailers completely up to date with the latest guidance and modules. We'd encourage all independent National Lottery retailers who haven't already done so to sign up and start benefiting from our fantastic new platform."

Fran Campbell, Sponge's Client Director, said, "Allwyn's primary objective for this training solution was to have a digital-first approach to their retail training: a platform that would be future-proof, convenient, and engaging for retailers and, most importantly, one that would be accessible to all store staff without any barriers. We're pleased we were able to deliver exactly this for Allwyn and their retailers with our learning platform, Spark, and are delighted it's already producing incredible results."

Independent National Lottery retailers who are eligible to use the Retail Training Centre will have received a number of welcome emails to the same email address they used to sign their National Lottery Fourth Licence contract, and they should refer to these to sign up to the new platform.