With over half its multi-million dollar revenue regularly coming from clients outside the UK, the digital learning and assessment specialist, eCom Scotland is used to working with organisations in far-flung, often exotic and, sometimes, remote parts of the world. Among these is the far-from remote but no-less-exotic Bahamas, where one of its professional institutes is benefiting from using eCom’s eAssessment platform with the hundreds of students studying for qualifications on its 16 or so regular programmes.

According to Wendy Edie, eCom’s Managing Director, “Providing exams that ably and effectively test candidates’ knowledge is a key requirement in the professional qualification process – but so is being able to assess those candidates’ answers accurately and provide timely feedback, wherever those candidates and other stakeholders are in the world. That’s why we’re getting a rising number of enquiries from professional institutes looking for an efficient digitally-deployed exam-and-assessment platform.”

Having been introduced, in 2008, to eCom’s eNetAssess system through a partner professional institute, the Bahamas Institute of Financial Services (BIFS) – a not-for-profit institution established in 1974 – asked eCom for help in 2019, when it wanted to offer exams direct to its students.

Following discussions with eCom’s Linda Steedman and her team, BIFS recommended using eCom’s services to its ten partners: Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester; Bangor University; Central Law Training; The College of the Bahamas; the Bahamas Association of Compliance Officers; the Bahamas Financial Services Board; the Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accounts; the Association of International Banks & Trust Companies; Keith Checkley & Associates, and the Chartered Banker Institute.

With their agreement, eCom made its eNetAssess platform available to BIFS students. Included in this is eCom’s eNetSecure system – eCom’s secure bowser application.

The learning technologies specialist, Emma Dickson, of eCom, explained, “Many organisations use eCom’s online assessment solutions for compliance and competency assessment but some organisations – particularly those operating in remote or inaccessible parts of the world – struggle to find an eAssessment solution that works everywhere and at any time.

“For BIFS, eCom provides a managed service – adding assessments and setting up exam schedules – with eNetAssess/ eNetSecure providing multiple choice question assessments,” said Emma. “From sign-up to going live with the system took around three weeks and, to date, every exam has gone successfully without issue.”

Commenting on a recently-held examination, Miguel Pratt, BIFS Programme Director, said, “The examination was flawless. All 22 candidates successfully logged on with no technical glitches at all.” He added, “We’re delighted with the performance of eCom Scotland’s platform in the examination process that we use – in collaboration – for our International Certifications. We’ve had minimal technical difficulties and, when we did, a phone call soon solved it all.”

eCom’s Wendy Edie explained, “Over the years eCom has worked with several professional institutes to help them develop high quality, digitally-delivered and assessed programmes – and, although we’ve delivered to BIFS students for many years, it’s the first Caribbean-based professional institute on our client list.”

The Bahamas Institute of Financial Services (www.bifs-edu.com) is a not-for-profit institution established in 1974 to support the Bahamas’ financial services industry development. It was the idea of Mr T Baswell Donaldson, the first Governor of The Central Bank of the Bahamas, to ensure that Financial Services organisations’ operations meet professional standards. Its aim is to promote quality training and education programmes for the financial services sector; to be innovative and responsive to the expanding needs of the business and financial community, and to develop creative synergy to foster and enhance sustained growth within the industry.

eCom (https://www.ecomscotland.com/contact/) creates innovative learning solutions – aimed at increasing learning engagement and driving productivity – to help organisations achieve their goals. With offices in Dunfermline, Scotland, and Athens, Georgia, in the USA, but with customers from around the world, eCom focuses on the delivery, tracking and reporting of workforce learning and development through innovative technologies. Its products and services address a range of workforce management, development and training challenges, including eLearning, online assessment, blended learning, competency management and accreditation.