...British bank rolls out e-learning and classroom workshops to enhance project management skills amongst in-house IT staff...

Monday 14th September 2009 - ILX Group plc (ILX), the specialist best practice training company is working with Northern Rock to help deliver PRINCE2® training through a blend of two-day classroom workshops and e-learning. The programme will help Northern Rock to enhance project management skills amongst its valuable IT staff and improve reporting systems within the organisation.

To date twenty IT staff have been trained in PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner methodology with a 100 per cent pass mark.  More staff are expected to take the test later in the year. A further fifteen senior project IT managers are also undertaking the APMG Programme and Project Sponsorship qualification which will help individuals manage multiple, complex and large scale IT projects.

Peter Atkinson Assistant Director at Northern Rock comments: “We took the PRINCE2 training route as it provides globally recognised best practices.  This was a strategic decision for us as we wanted to align the bank’s IT project management framework to support the corporate planning process and to provide an efficient, agile IT service for the business.  With the help of PRINCE2 best practices we are able to manage IT projects more expediently, whilst maintaining quality throughout the process.” 

Northern Rock’s IT function develops and updates their own IT systems to serve their mortgage and savings departments and Northern Rock’s customer facing branches throughout the UK.

Steve Chapman, IT Project Manager, who recently attained Prince2 Practitioner accreditation adds: “It’s too early to measure the full extent of embedding PRINCE2 principles within our department, but we can already see the positive benefits. By combining the classroom workshop with e-learning modules, ILX provided us with a cost efficient and flexible approach to delivering training to colleagues.  There was no need to install any applications on our side as everything was hosted by ILX. Colleagues were fully engaged throughout the process, gaining valuable knowledge and ultimately, a recognised qualification.”

Eddie Kilkelly, Chief Operating Officer, ILX Group plc, says: “We are thrilled to see Northern Rock reap the benefits of using PRINCE2 methodologies.  For many organisations a blended training approach is the only feasible way of enhancing staff skills in a busy work environment.  Our training exercises are based on a variety of topics including PRINCE2® processes, the preparation of a business case, risk analysis and full product descriptions. Each exercise is stand alone, and once completed, provides useful feedback and pointers on further revision and study. Our experienced training consultants work very closely with all our customers to ensure the right course is delivered in the right format.  Hands-on support is also available to ensure a successful internal rollout and management of tests.”

The project management method PRINCE2® since its introduction in 1996 and the alignment of a formal examination scheme has over 300,000 qualified people worldwide. Around 7,000 people take their PRINCE2 exams worldwide each week and currently ILX has the largest market share.