Virtual College Ltd

Leadership and Management elearning and courses

Developed for aspiring managers through to organisational leaders, covering essential topics including employment law, team management, line management and more. Our courses show common management scenarios that learners can elate to, along with innovate and rich resources that can be referred to at the point of need for ongoing support.

Features

• Online, self-paced, flexible and accessible on all devices
• High quality, trusted provision from verified subject matters experts
• SCORM compliant
• CPD accreditation on all courses
• Knowledge check assessment at the end of the course
• Instant digital certificate awarded on completion
• Course evaluation to capture learner feedback
• Instant help and support guides for learners and administrators
• All courses updated with legislative changes and best practice thinking
• Suitable for learners from introductory to advanced levels

Benefits

• High quality and interactive courses improve learner engagement
• Excellent learner experience, improves learner completions
• Consistent approach to improving competencies across organisation
• Opportunity to customise to client requirements
• Easy onboarding and set up, with ongoing support
• Value for money packages to suit job roles
• Capable of being hosted in any SCORM compliant system
• Flexible learning in bite-sized sections
• Can demonstrate completions and compliance of learners
• Cost effective option to support a blended learning approach

£12.50 a licence

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at contracts@netexlearning.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

986723714004408

Contact

Pauline Wood
+441943605976
contracts@netexlearning.com

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes
• What software services is the service an extension to: A SCORM compliant hosting platform is required.
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: Content must be hosted in a platform such as a learning management system. The host system may also dictate the file format of the content (e.g. SCORM).
• System requirements: Access to a hosting platform

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: Full email support is available to all our users, including system administrators and individual users. This service is available from 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, via our help and support team. Our response standards are within two hours of receipt or next working day if received outside working hours. 80% of all support emails are answered within 2 hours and 95% of emails are resolved without the use of further correspondence
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: All users have access to our learner support team - accessible by phone or email during business working hours. All users have access to our learner support team - accessible by phone or email during business working hours. If the content is hosted in our learning management system help and support guides are also available. If more extensive support is required (for example if purchasing a large selection of titles or support with roll-out) then Account Management support is also available. A dedicated Account Manager will provide: • communication and support including regular catch-ups and reviews • coordinate responses to incidents and issues. Issues can be escalated to the Technical Team and dealt with in relation to their severity. Account Managers will acknowledge all email requests within 1 working day. Each business wide training implementation program will be supported by an implementation team of at least a dedicated Account Manager and Second Line Support Executive, overseen by a manager
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Our content has been designed to be easy for new learners to pick up and use. For one-off purchases made online the user will be sent an email to their registered address confirming their login details and a link to the training. Should the purchaser being doing so on behalf of a group of learners they will have their own hosting domain setup and the purchasers be set as an administrator for that domain. They will then be able to set up users and allocate the courses as they require. They will have access to an array of support guides on the system's Help and Support page. ; ; If a purchase has been made for the content to be hosted in another platform a link from which to download the files would be sent to a named administrator. ; ; Further on-boarding support can be provided by the support team if required.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • PDF
  • Other
• Other documentation formats: Platform help and support page
• End-of-contract data extraction: The course does not capture any client data however the client's learners will be able to download their certificates as evidence of completion prior to the contract's end.; ; Should our hosting platform be employed we ensure customers are able to fully extract the data they need. Initially we would inform them they have a certain amount of time to extract their data themselves should they wish. System administrators have access to all user data held in the system and can extract by their preferred method. They are also able to run any number of system reports and export these from the LMS as a comprehensive record of all system data. If the files are too large for them to extract we will offer to do this on their behalf. Upon extracting the data will send it to them via an encrypted memory pen. This data would usually be extracted in the form of a series of system reports that provide the customer with all the user data they require.
• End-of-contract process: If a customer requests to leave our service, we commit to providing a simple and efficient exit process to enable customers to end their service with us and where appropriate, move learners and their respective records to a different supplier and/or retrieve their data. On receipt of confirmation that a customer will be leaving us, we will send them Off-Boarding correspondence via email. This will confirm the products that the customer has chosen not to renew, the date that access will cease, the steps taken in Off-Boarding a customer, and the contact details of a named individual within Virtual College, should they have any questions. We do not charge customers for any costs associated with our standard off-boarding procedure. At the end of a customer’s contract we will usually leave administrator access open for 1 month following the final learning date – this timeframe will be agreed with the relevant Account Manager.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Internet Explorer 11
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: All the content we produce can be used on mobile devices. In most instances the content will appear on the mobile device as it does on a desktop.
• Service interface: Yes
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Description of service interface: All our content has clearly labelled navigation and menu features which are explained to the learner at the start of the course. These are support by the course narration. All our courses also feature a menu button, enabling the learner to move to a particular page within the content. ; ; We include elements such as keyboard navigation and other accessibility features (such as compatibility with screen readers) to ensure the content can be viewed by a wide learner base.
• Accessibility standards: WCAG 2.1 AA or EN 301 549
• Accessibility testing: We test all our content on Internet Explorer 11, Firefox, Android, Google Chrome, Safari and Edge as well as on our own learning management system.
• API: No
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Our content team can customise our ready-to-content to meet a clients requirements. This includes rebranding, making amendments to particular pages, adding new interactive elements or resources or new pages entirely. ; ; Customisation can only be provided by our content team. Costs are dependent on the scope of the required amendments.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We load test our service using a number of software tools which emulate a large number of active clients on the system. We are aiming towards the system being able to host 10,000 concurrent users. Each customer using the LMS is set up on their own domain. These domains are separated, so no users in one domain may affect another domain. Multi-domain access is restricted to the admin panel, which only certain members of the Technical Team have access to.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: System Administrators view service metrics by a variety of means. They can view user records which contain their system data and can further drill down in to individual pieces of data, such as courses, to view these in greater detail. The system also has a reporting suite which features customisable reports. These report on a number of elements such as system usage, course data, evaluation data etc. These are presented in a tabular format and provide a comprehensive view of all elements of service usage.; ; SCORM compliant systems will also be able to track SCORM files they host.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: No
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest: Other
• Other data at rest protection approach: TLS (Version 1.0 and above)
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type: Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: A third-party destruction service

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Users are able to export data system data, such as notes and reports by clicking the 'Export' button on-screen. They have the option to export them in a variety of different formats. In terms of exporting personal data this task would need to be performed by our Business Administration team.
• Data export formats:
  • CSV
  • Other
• Other data export formats:
  • .XLS
  • .JSON
  • .PDF
  • Rich text
• Data import formats: Other
• Other data import formats: Text input

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: Other
• Other protection between networks: For our own platform TLS (Version 1.0 and above)
• Data protection within supplier network: Other
• Other protection within supplier network: For our own platform IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: Learner Support ; • Calls answered within 3 rings; • Emails acknowledged within 2 hours; • Email replied to either resolving the issue or explaining next steps in 1 working day.; ; Hosting Platform; We have an internal technical team that manages and solves any day to day technical issues with the systems we operate following a priority rating system to ensure business wide/total lock out technical issues are resolved as quickly as possible. They are also responsible for implementing technical developments and new features. Available from 8.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. ; ; In addition we provide out of hours technical support in the event of infrastructure issues. The monitoring software on our hosted systems alerts all key staff to any problems or issues. ; ; We also have 4-hour hardware service agreements with both DELL and Com-Com. ; ; As we take our service and security responsibilities extremely seriously, our current system availability statistics show that we have achieved 99.9% system availability over the last year.
• Approach to resilience: Our services are hosted in modern cloud hosting environments and our hosting providers are verified and have the required accreditations. Further details are available on request
• Outage reporting: Any potential outage would be reported by sending out a notification in the system to warn LMS users. These notifications would pop up on the user's dashboard and be stored among their notifications. Outages are also reported to key contacts via an Account Manager.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: If the content is hosted on our platform a user will be set up as an administrator. Only they are able to access the management interface. In terms of support channels, users can access the Learner Support team with any queries by phone or email. We also offer a full account management service, backed by a business support team, access to whom is restricted to an organisations administrators.; ; Where the content is to be hosted in a third party system we send a link to the content directly to an administrator, ensuring only they are able to access the files.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication: Other
• Description of management access authentication: Management access to our platform is authenticated via the manager's username and password.

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: User-defined
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: User-defined
• How long system logs are stored for: User-defined

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: Yes
• Security governance standards: Other
• Other security governance standards: Cyber Essentials Plus
• Information security policies and processes: Virtual College takes its data management responsibilities seriously. We train all staff to identify and report all potential risks so that we can take positive measures to eliminate or control these risks whilst working within the data management principles. We are proactive in providing information, training and supervision so that all those associated with the organisation can take reasonable care of their own and other people’s information and feel able to report any situations in line with our Data Protection and Confidentiality Policy. Through our quality assurance procedures and training, a consistent approach is taken by all staff members processing your data so you can be sure that whilst user data is being uploaded to the system, and throughout the ongoing support, it will remain strictly confidential at all times. Virtual College complies with all aspects of data protection and we train all our staff on what this means in practice. We work with an independent consultant in the continuous improvement of our approach and undertake regular audits in order to ensure all staff work within our policies and procedures. Our registration number is Z7723545.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: We have a strictly defined quality process which is managed as part of our ISO9001 accredited quality management policy. A copy of this policy is available on request.; ; For our code base, everything is under strict version control so nothing is lost and everything is backed up. For configuration and content within the LMS, there is also version control to allow administrators to revert any changes and have a history of changes.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Security is paramount and rigid design protocols are utilised to reduce the threat of vulnerabilities. Using Entity Framework and MVC with extensive use of stored procedures to mitigate SQL injection attacks through comprehensive sanitization of input and stored procedure permissions. Using tools including Nexpose, ZAP and BurpSuite vulnerabilities are dealt with expediently and added to sprints where necessary to mitigate the risks of cross site scripting, cross site request forgery, click jacking etc. ; ; We have a strictly defined quality process managed as part of our ISO9001 accredited quality management policy. A copy of this policy is available on request.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: We have monitoring services on the server to alert our IT staff of any potential issue. We then have extensive reporting in the system which logs any potential risk or attack. When a compromise is found, it is looked at according to our SLA. If the risk is high it will be solved within 2-3 hours.; ; We have a strictly defined quality process which is managed as part of our ISO9001 accredited quality management policy. A copy of this policy is available on request.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: All incidents are reported using Virtual Colleges own mechanism as part of our ISO process. An RCA (Root Cause Analysis) form is filled out and then a detailed report of the issue, how it has been rectified and measures to prevent in the future is created and distributed internally and externally when required. Minor requests will be completed within twenty-four hours. More in-depth requests are assessed on receipt. ; ; We have a strictly defined quality process managed as part of our ISO9001 accredited quality management policy. A copy of this policy is available on request.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  Our training offer is 100% digital provision. This delivery of digital training solutions is a green and sustainable option for training reducing the need for tutor and learner travel. As part of our external impact, working in partnership with the Carbon Literacy Project, we’ve developed an online course to help the general public understand how our climate is changing and their role in taking action. ; ; Over 90% of our staff are based within 10 miles of our office and we have established hybrid working patterns, with staff working from home 3 days a week. Whilst some client meetings are returning to face to face, the majority (90%) remain virtual. Reducing staff and client travel, costs and emissions. ; ; We also ensure our premises are managed and operated to preserve energy and resources e.g. low energy lightbulbs; heating set at 1°C lower than last year.; ; We reflect and integrate sustainable development into business wide policies, plans and decisions our Environment and Sustainability policy is reviewed annually in line with environmental regulations and best practice.; ; Focusing internally, Virtual College identified potential environmental impacts our activities may have by creating and reviewing/updating our Environment and Sustainability policy annually in line with environmental regulations and best practice.; ; We consider the environmental impact our business decisions and actions and support sustainable development. A copy of our policy is available upon request.
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  The situation necessitated a comprehensive real-time test of our Business Continuity Plan. We moved the entire business to home-working at within 2 weeks with no interruption to customer service and no disruption to our internal systems and operations. Due to the nature of our business, we were able to maintain business operations throughout the pandemic and into the recovery from it. This has allowed business to continue as normal. As a company, we have now adopted a hybrid working pattern. ; ; Alongside the short-term plan, we have executed a long-term financial plan to secure the future of the business in the face of continuing uncertainty. We have taken measures to reduce the structural, long-term cost-base of the business and have recently been acquired by Netex, a listed company on the Spanish BME stock market. This enables us to continue as a standalone business with a secure financial future. ; ; We continue to monitor the ongoing financial risks on a regular basis to respond to emerging threats. However, we believe that future home working and home education will cause a greater step change in the transition from traditional face-to-face learning to digital learning and blended education models which will ultimately accelerate growth in our digital learning markets. ; ; At the start of the pandemic, we were keen to support employers and those impacted by: ; ; • Creating two free courses to raise awareness on infection and prevention around Covid-19, designed to support managers and employees. These courses have been accessed by 182,01 people. ; ; • Supporting the government Skills Network site, providing free access to online courses targeted at reskilling and upskilling those impacted by the pandemic and furlough, with 3,100 courses accessed.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  As part of our social value offering, we aim to tackle economic inequality by delivering free of charge, a selection of targeted vocational e-learning courses to learners who are currently economically inactive. These free courses are currently live on our website. ; ; Our catalogue of 600 ready-to-go online courses, spanning a range of sectors, is used by local colleges and adult education providers to offer job-focussed upskilling and compliance training through their adult education funded skills training. We are thereby helping to develop vocational skills to improve learner chances to re-enter the job market or further their career. ; ; In addition, we have a comprehensive local authority offering with courses that are specifically designed to combat socio-economic inequality such as pre-tenancy training for housing association clients. Collaborating with our clients in these sectors, and using their insight and research, has enabled us to design and develop courses that meet tenants needs and helps them adapt and live well in their property.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  Through our human centred design approach, we identify how to make the learning created for clients inclusive and accessible for all. Learning Design includes identifying appropriate, inclusive and relevant characters, language and scenarios. Design also identifies digital learning that supports everyone, including those with access requirements. All our digital learning is built to WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards. ; ; Our approach to ensuring implementing EDI effectively throughout our own business, in addition to our legislative obligations, includes: ; • Improving recruitment and selection process to reduce unconscious bias through involvement of wider colleagues in the selection process plus EDI training for hiring managers ; • Clearly written job descriptions based on role-specific criteria used to short-list candidates – based on evidence of relevant knowledge, skills, qualifications and experience; • Flexible working policies are open to all and support candidates and employees who might not be in a position to work full time; • A full review of our recruitment, selection and onboarding approach following the BLM working groups recommendations; • Fact sheets shared with all new starters on unconscious bias and BLM in their induction goodie bags.; • All new recruits complete EDI courses during Induction ; • Our Good to Great People Strategy includes Fair Employee Practice (including BLM) and measured progress via our regular Staff Surveys; • Annual salary reviews, based on cost of living increases, merit/market rate and UK Payscale is used an objective benchmark; • Our employee stats are reflective of local data (ethnicity) – Ilkley 98% white, Bradford 58% white, Leeds 79% white. VC’s stats are: 58% female, 42% male, BAME 8% (92% white), Disability 1%; ; We have an internal BLM working group. The collective goal is to address racism and discrimination through awareness raising, self-education and learning. Encouraging people to research, find out more and draw their own conclusions.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  Virtual College has created a free digital mental health and wellbeing resource pack to support any organisation. The pack includes a range of downloadable resources and learning on topics such as stress management and work-related mental health. ; ; Topics include: ; • Mental Health and Wellbeing Resource Pack ; • Resilience ; • Personal development and Self Awareness ; • Dealing with stressful situations ; • Get moving, get healthy ; • Prepared to save a life ; • FGM ; For our own staff, a Health & Wellbeing benefit package is provided through a specialist supplier to support staff at all life stages to manage their mental, physical and medical health. Support includes complimentary medicine and health-checks for preventative and holistic wellbeing, fruit baskets, online meditation and exercise classes, book club, gardening club. In addition, we provide series of digital learning and resources e.g. mental health & wellbeing resource pack, infection prevention which are regularly updated, easy to access, flexible source of information to support staff as and when needed.; ; We also offer flexible working hours and a hybrid working approach.

Pricing

• Price: £12.50 a licence
• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: We would be a happy to provide time limited access to a demonstration version of any course title. Requirements will be discussed and access given by relevant Virtual College contact at the time of enquiry

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at contracts@netexlearning.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.