At Exemplar Health Care, our Training Champions help to build and promote a learning culture across our care homes and central services.

Introduced in 2020, our champions ensure compliance with mandatory and statutory training (MAST) and job essential training. They also promote continuing professional development through apprenticeships, diplomas and in-house training programmes.

Our champions are passionate about learning and development – they champion it to everyone in the home.

They’re also ‘super users’ of our eLearning platform, Exemplar Learning Management System (ELMS), to support colleagues in its use.

In this blog, Aaron Jones, Core Learning Facilitator and Business Partner, tells us more about the Training Champion initiative and how it ensures that our colleagues are competent and confident.

What do our Training Champions do?

Our Training Champions play a key role in our learning and organisational development ambitions.

They’re passionate about learning and development. They use this enthusiasm to explain the benefits of learning and promote a learning culture in their care home.

We provide training to help them to be a ‘super user’ and act as a local point of contact for our eLearning platform, Exemplar Learning Management System (ELMS).

This enables colleagues to get advice or support quickly in their home, so they can complete training online and maintain compliance.

Our Champions are knowledgeable about the learning and development opportunities across the company. They promote learning to colleagues, and offer support and guidance regarding training enquiries.  

“The reason I became a Training Champion is because everyone was already asking me for help with ELMS, and I feel comfortable and confident helping them to find what they need to do. In this role, I sit down with colleagues and talk them through the eLearning system and what they need to do. I enjoy it because I like knowing that my help can make someone feel more confident to complete their training. My biggest achievement is supporting most of my colleagues to get to 100% compliance.”

Beth Heaton, Training Champion at Fairburn Vale care home in Castleford

 

Why did Exemplar Health Care introduce the Training Champion role?

At Exemplar Health Care, we believe that having a confident and competent workforce is vital to delivering the highest standard of care.

We’re proud that we offer a range of learning opportunities and invest in our employees.

Our central Learning and Organisational Development Team do a brilliant job of promoting learning across the company.

However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the team couldn’t visit our care homes in person.

We introduced the Training Champion role to bridge the gap between the central team and our front-line care colleagues.

We’ve found that colleagues respond better when they hear about things from their peers.

We wanted to bring together a community of colleagues who were passionate about learning and development, to help us to promote a learning culture in our homes.

Our Training Champions ensure that everyone’s aware of their responsibility to complete mandatory training, and know what other learning opportunities are available to promote their career development and progression.

“I became a Training Champion to instil relevant up-to-date practice in our homes and ensure the correct support, skillset and training is in place for our colleagues. In turn, this ensures that our residents are well cared for. I enjoy being able to spend time with colleagues to support them to feel confident in their role. I’ve done training myself and am able to train my peers, so that our homes stays compliant with training targets.”

Jack Kirkman, Clinical Nurse Manager at Copperfields care home in Leeds

What are the benefits for our Training Champions?

Being a Training Champion is a great development opportunity for colleagues.

It gives them the chance to learn new skills such as digital, communication and mentoring skills.

Champions can access training to support their role, and they network with other champions to share best practice and learn new techniques to motivate their colleagues.

Doing the Training Champion role is also very rewarding. Champions get recognition from their Home Manager, care colleagues and support functions, which motivates them.

Knowing that they’re an integral part of their home achieving 100% compliance provides great job satisfaction.

And they get a £25 voucher when their home meets their targets, which is an extra added benefit!

The impact of having Training Champions

Our Training Champions have had a positive impact in developing a learning culture and ensuring compliance with mandatory training.

Since the introduction of Training Champions, our homes are more autonomous. They’re able to support themselves during days when the Learning and Development Team are delivering training.

This has led to all of our care homes achieving above compliance targets for the last 12 months.

Because of this, we can be confident that our colleagues have the right skills and knowledge to deliver specialist nursing care to a high standard. Ultimately, this helps us to achieve our mission of making every day better for the people we support.

“I became a Training Champion to help develop our current staff and also our new starters. As a Clinical Nurse Manager, I ensure that competency assessment documents are completed and signed off, so we can be confident that colleagues have the skills to carry out their role. I also remind colleagues when their training is due, and support them to complete it if needed. If someone is excelling in their role, I highlight areas where extra training could benefit their career progression. I love seeing my colleagues and our home succeed. We reached our targets earlier this year and haven’t dropped below them since.”

Liv Rawnsley, Clinical Nurse Manager at Copperfields care home in Leeds

 

Career development at Exemplar Health Care

At Exemplar Health Care, there are lots of opportunities to develop your skills and progress in your career.

We provide a range of learning for people in all roles, and at all levels, including training for Health Care Assistants and training for Registered Nurses.

Read more about career development.

If you’re looking for a new care home job, check out our latest job vacancies.