London (UK), April 2008 - Learning specialist Echelon's consulting division has switched from trains to buses in its latest signing in order to improve customer service for transport providers. The company has been appointed to undertake a Culture Change Programme for bus drivers and inspectors employed by Belfast's transport provider, Ulsterbus, in a bid to heighten recognition and loyalty for its Metro brand through an improved service offer.
The programme, which is already underway with passenger and staff research, will employ actors to assist in live and recorded role-playing scenarios. These will help meet Metro's bid for bridging a perceived communications gap between its public and crews.
The methodology has been used successfully by Echelon on behalf of London & Continental Railways for the recruitment and induction of customer-service personnel at London St Pancras and Ebbsfleet international stations, where mobile learning formed an innovative element of the programme.
Echelon has been enjoying significantly increased demand for its services from both commercial and public sectors over the past twelve months.
London Overground Rail Operations (LOROL), recently appointed to the old Silverlink franchise, has commissioned a staff survey to be carried out by Echelon with a view to determining issues to be addressed in a radical transformation of service performance.
Westminster City Council's planning department has recently launched an online 360 degree performance review system. This makes use of Echelon's technology and the company's heightened awareness of planning related performance issues from an ongoing five-year publishing relationship with the Royal Town Planning Institute.
In the same profession, Echelon's publishing division is enabling universities and colleges participating in the government-sponsored Pathway to Professions initiative to share web-based learning and costs. 'Urban Design Skills' (UDS) learning, commissioned from Echelon Learning by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), is being shared by universities and institutes, with editing handled centrally via a content management system and distribution centralised via the web.
Echelon has just launched the latest addition to its Teaching Best Practice programme in 'Student Assessment', which discusses issues concerning the implementation of initial, formative, and summative assessment.
Developed in association with Westminster Kingsway College, London, the Edexcel-endorsed series provides interactive, intranet-based teaching, and learning resources for both new lecturers to build classroom skills and for existing teachers as part of their continuous professional development (CPD).
Latest users include Thames Valley University, College of North West London, and West Sussex County Council.
Echelon is also providing learning-development services to institutes CIPS and the IIA, to educational establishments such as Ashridge Business School and Southbank University, and to corporate clients including BUPA and Vodafone.
