Think Learning supports the NHS through COVID-19 with Totara.

Written by Jamie Harwood

6 September 2021

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World-leading talent experience provider Totara has delivered critical learning technology support to the NHS through the COVID-19 pandemic so far, with Think Learning, the Alliance Platinum Totara Partner and specialist Healthcare LMS provider.

Think Learning is proud to be the leading Totara LMS supplier to the UK Healthcare sector with around 25% (350,000 employees) of NHS employees in England now accessing a Totara learning platform, supported by Think Learning.

The flexibility of the Totara platform, combined with Think Learning’s healthcare knowledge and solution-focused expertise, means that healthcare clients have been supported to make rapid changes in education delivery, moving content and processes online very quickly. Think Learning has responded to the creative ideas and requirements of NHS digital learning teams and provided rapid and innovative technology support around integrating virtual classroom capability, developing online e-Form processes to support PPE-testing and risk management tracking, rapidly changing compliance reporting processes, and adapting seminar functionality to enable mass-vaccination appointment-booking.

Totara Learning Solutions has supported the rapid on-boarding of thousands of volunteers, and medical staff returning to work, to deliver the vaccination program during 2021 through a flexible approach to the Totara subscription, which has seen additional Subscription charges waived where vaccination-related active user numbers have moved NHS Trusts into higher Subscription usage bands.

Key UK NHS organisations in the South West of England, including Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, and Gloucester Health and Care NHS Trust have realised significant benefits using their Totara Learn systems to offer powerful learning solutions to frontline healthcare workers dealing with the pandemic, including as part of the UK’s world-class vaccination program.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust: Will Bladon, Digital Skills Lead. “We have used our Totara learning platform to deliver support and training to the whole Somerset Integrated Care System, and this has contributed to the Somerset region being one of the most effective Nationally at delivering vaccinations to our population. In addition to our substantive staffing pool, we have been able to provide learning resource access to an additional 1485 people, and to track their progress and report on their readiness so that they could be deployed to staff our vaccination centres. As we move into the 3rd Phase of vaccination, we are now adding further workers that focus on Flu and children’s vaccinations, so the maintenance and re-skilling of colleagues throughout this winter and into June 2022 is an ongoing piece of work supported by our Totara system.

Gloucester Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust: Ruth Thomas, Associate Director, OD, Learning and Development. “The pandemic resulted in a huge change in the way we provide training, and we were ably supported by Totara and Think Learning in making this happen. In particular, our Covid 19 vaccination training requirements needed staff to be able to access a complex range of learning and we were able to quickly set up vaccination training pathways, consisting of e-learning, PDF documents, internet links and slide presentations via one easy-to-access button. Staff, many of whom were new to the NHS, and who needed to be rapidly deployed were able to clearly see what training they needed to complete, and we could easily track their progress and monitor compliance.

Think Learning specialises in creating award-winning learning experiences in high-stakes public and private sector organisations, including NHS Trusts in the prestigious Shelford Group, King’s College Hospital and Cambridge University Hospital Trusts as well as South London and Maudsley and Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, organisations that are experts in NHS compliance. In this Case Study, Jane Trundle, Head of Learning and Development at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust reports that targeting training to specific audiences is easier in Totara Learn than in legacy systems.

By early September, more than 85 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered across the UK, equalling 78% of the UK population – second globally only to Canada of its population at least part-vaccinated. This is due in part to programs like those rolled out by Think Learning’s NHS clients to upskill healthcare professionals and volunteers with no previous vaccination training.

Totara gained a total of 44 healthcare customers in 2020 as healthcare organizations worldwide rose to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

Totara Alliance Partners Think Learning continue to roll out adaptable Totara Learn platforms and solutions to support NHS, and wider health and social care sector workers, giving them the flexibility and agility to adapt in the rapidly changing post-pandemic world.

To find out more, take a look at Totara’s full range of healthcare customer stories, or visit the Think Learning website.