The Charity Learning Consortium (CLC) Conference and Awards, which took place in the City of London on 19^th November, honoured those creating the most effective learning resources with little or no budget.

The CLC – which includes over120 charities, housing associations and not-for-profits organisations among its membership – exists to enable e-learning to be offered to more than 500,000 staff and volunteers across the third sector in the UK. Consortium members claim to save twice as much money on L&D compared with non-members in the sector; are twice as likely to report positive changes in staff behaviour and almost three times more likely to report that using learning technologies has improved their organisation’s productivity

Among the CLC members singled out for doing ‘more with less’ this year were Stella O’Neill at the Crime Reduction Initiatives (CRI) charity whose e-learning module helped 3,000 staff to become compliant in information security. Also with no budget, Nicola Tyzack from the National Autistic Society used her imagination to create a multimedia mix of online resources to engage and support e-learners.

The National Autistic Society also won the award for the ‘Most effective use of Moodle for blended learning’. Other award winners included Laura Skilton, at Cats Protection, and Anand Yagnik, at Shaw Trust, the UK’s largest provider of employment services for disabled and disadvantaged people.

The accompanying conference featured presentations by – among others – Laura Overton, of Towards Maturity, Andy Lancaster of the CIPD, Stephanie Davies, of Laughology, and Charles Jennings, of the Internet Time Alliance and Duntroon Consultants.

“Humour helps us make sense of the world,” said Stephanie. “A sense of humour shows us how to look at a situation and flip it – through using our imagination to get new and different answers to our challenges and problems. We need to change our workplaces to encourage more imaginative answers and ideas.”

Stephanie concluded her presentation by saying, “Some people create happiness when they walk in a room. Others create happiness when they leave. Which of these sorts of people do you want to be?”

Not ‘Charlie’s Angels’ but ‘Martin’s Ministers’ - CLC award winners: (left to right) Kayleigh Smith, Addaction; Nicola Tyzack, National Autistic Society; Martin Baker, CLC; Monica Gomes, Shaw Trust; Laura Skilton, Cats Protection; Stella O’Neill, CRI.