The homelessness charity, Sanctuary Trust, has become eLearning supplier Engage in Learning’s 1,000^th customer.

Sanctuary Trust’s Administrator, Colin Atkinson, explained, “Over the last few years, we’ve migrated to a situation where some 75% of all our learning activities for both the charity’s key staff and volunteers are delivered electronically. Moreover, these people are responsible for accessing and completing this learning – so they tend to access the learning materials remotely, especially via mobile devices.”

Many of the Trust’s current volunteers first encountered the charity through being homeless. So, by making eLearning programmes available to these people, the Trust is helping them to develop their knowledge and skills – with the aim of helping them gain certification to enable them to get paid jobs and further help rebuild their lives.

Sanctuary Trust focuses its learning and development activities on health & safety topics – largely for compliance and regulatory purposes. However, in recent months, it has wanted to add learning activities in the field of customer services – mainly for shop staff at its Rochdale headquarters.

“After some research into the relevant eLearning materials available, we selected those from Engage in Learning (EIL) as being the most suitable in terms of covering what we need – and the most versatile in terms of delivery to various mobile platforms,” Colin added.

Having placed its order, Sanctuary Trust was amazed to learn that it had become EIL’s 1,000^th customer – not least because, to mark this milestone, EIL’s Managing Director, Chris Horseman, made a charitable donation to the Trust which was equivalent to the value of the courses it had purchased.

John Wigley, the Trust’s North West Area Manager, commented, “This training plays a major part in a person’s journey away from homelessness into employment. It’s a great vision and I’m lost for words with EIL’s amazing offer to help us in this.”

Colin Atkinson added, “Since we’ve been in contact with EIL, we’ve found them incredibly helpful – offering advice and guidance on the course contents, how these can be accessed and so on.”

Initially available, as a pilot programme, to the 30 or so key staff and volunteers who work at the charity’s Rochdale headquarters, the EIL customer services and health & safety courses are soon scheduled to become available to more than 70 of the Trust’s volunteers in Lancashire and North Wales.

Kate Carter, EIL’s Marketing Manager, pointed out, “The EIL customer services and RoSPA-approved health & safety courses, along with the 100 or so other titles in our e-learning portfolio including leadership and management, legal compliance and project management, will be available on our stand – E05 – at the forthcoming Learning Technologies exhibition, taking place at London’s Excel, on 12^th and 13^th February this year.

“As we now head towards signing-up our 2,000^th customer, we’re continuing to focus on helping all our customers to unlock the potential of their workforce and see their businesses flourish as a result. We do this by putting the learners in control of their learning, with a choice of interactive, engaging and affordable courses that make e-learning more effective than ever before.”

For further details of Engage in Learning’s e-learning courses, visit: https://www.engageinlearning.com/ready-to-use/

The Rochdale-based registered charity Sanctuary Trust works with homelessness, homeless related-poverty and emergency homeless issues, including the misuse of substances such as drugs and alcohol. The Trust provides intelligent accommodation for the homeless in supported housing services, as well as a Crisis Accommodation Project STEP night shelter. It also works with providers such as Renaissance House, CDT, Big Life, High Level, Recovery Republic, Shelter, Homelessness (Housing Options Team), Petrus and Stepping Stones.