BILD Member and Oxfordshire training company wins top industry accolade (17/11/2011)
Learning and development experts Explosive Learning Solutions (ELS) based on Harwell Science and
Innovation Campus has received high recognition for its training expertise and named winner of the Best
Training Partnership Award at this year's Training Journal Awards.
ELS Operations Director Cath Convery was presented with the award at a glittering Gala Dinner on 17th
November held at London's exclusive 8 Northumberland Avenue staterooms. She says: "The TJ Awards
are considered to be the most prestigious in the learning and development industry and we are thrilled to
have been recognised by our peers."
ELS prides itself on the ability to form close partnerships when designing innovative programmes for clients
across the project, change, training design and risk management fields. Working to aggressive timescales
and concentrating on setting clear and precise learning objectives, the company is meticulous in
ensuring problems are solved and business objectives delivered on budget and within deadlines.
The specific partnership project which ELS was nominated for in the TJ Awards was its work with the MOD to
help their personnel have a greater understanding of the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), to
give them the skills required to identify and respond to potential attacks and avoid casualties.
Cath Convery explains: "During late 2008 and early 2009 the number of roadside bomb casualties sustained by
the British Army in Afghanistan increased at an alarming and unacceptable rate. As a soldier about to return
to Afghanistan said: "If we'd had this training before my last tour we'd have a lot more blokes still around"
a sentiment echoed by all of his colleagues.
ELS is the first civilian training consultancy to be engaged by the British Army to help it examine an area of
core army operational training and was extremely well received by the MOD. The company rolled out the
course within two months of winning the contract and showed 100% achievement of the learning objectives,
both key reasons for the nomination."
To the outside observer the partnership of Explosive Learning Solutions and the Ministry of Defence might
have looked like a David and Goliath relationship – but the reality was that it worked exceptionally well because
the MOD respected ELS' specialist training competencies and because both parties were totally focussed on
the learning objectives and best results for the end-users...in this case soldiers' lives on the ground in
Afghanistan. The MOD could have gone with a larger, more established, training provider but, after a
rigorous selection process, recognised that ELS' relative size was actually a strength (giving the
MOD the necessary levels of personal and professional engagement), that it was well organized with a
robust Project Management process, and that it's relative youth (founded in 2005) made for a
high energy, committed, working relationship.
