2007

PA and Jobcentre Plus take Gold at the 'consulting Oscars' for innovative e-learning project - 10 May 2007

The prestigious Human Resources category winner was awarded by the Management Consultancy Association (MCA) at its recent ceremony to PA Consulting Group for its work with Jobcentre Plus helping to deliver the UK Government's largest ever e-learning project.

Rather than just offering to build the e-learning modules, PA went a stage further and offered to make Jobcentre Plus self-sufficient in the development and maintenance of e-learning. It was an unprecedented approach.

PA identified the leading Learning Content Management System (LCMS - provides the ability to write e-learning) and configured it to meet Jobcentre Plus's needs. PA redesigned the learning development processes to make best use of the new system and trained the Learning Content Designers to use it. At the end of the project PA managed a transfer of the system and the necessary skills to Jobcentre Plus leaving them entirely self-sufficient in e-learning design, build and maintenance.

Over 350 hours of new material were developed in just ten months, including 100 hours of e-learning. It amounts to the largest e-learning programme ever undertaken in UK government, and one of the largest in Europe. The project's expected return on investment (ROI) is over 500%, and time taken to develop each hour of e-learning material has decreased by 30%. In total, 90,000 fewer days are spent in training each year.

Ellen Stoner, Jobcentre Plus Project Manager, said:

"The project is receiving widespread acclaim and is seen as setting the standards for future learning modernisations."

Stephen Brooks, Member of PA's Management Group, said:

"We offered Jobcentre Plus a solution they did not know they could ask for. We helped them become self sufficient by developing a solution that made e-learning as easy to build as PowerPoint. I am proud that we have helped the Jobcentre Plus team develop more interesting and more highly skilled jobs." 

ENDS 

For more information, please contact: 

Carol Briggs PA Consulting Group 123 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 9SR United Kingdom Tel: +44 207 333 6144 Fax: +44 20 73335452 E-mail: carol.briggs@paconsulting.com

Heather Smith PA Consulting Group 123 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 9SR United Kingdom Tel: +44 207 312 4975 E-mail: heather.smith@paconsulting.com

Notes to editors

1) The best Human Resource Project was one of five awards won by PA Consulting Group

PA Consulting Group, the leading international management, systems and technology consultancy, has once again enjoyed significant success at the annual Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Management Awards, announced in London on Wednesday night.  PA won a total of five awards - more than any other firm - with  three top prizes, including the highly prized overall 'Best Public Sector' project, as well as being 'Finalist' in two categories (the runner up award to the overall winner). PA won:

Overall Best Public Sector Project - for its work with the Highways Agency. PA helped England's Highways Agency to build a new partnership with the police to reduce road congestion and improve safety. This was the biggest change to traffic management in England for over ten years. Nothing of comparable scale had been achieved anywhere in the world.

Best Change Management Project - also for the Highways Agency

Best Human Resources Project - for its work with Jobcentre Plus
Over 350 hours of new e-learning modules were developed in-house in just ten months - the largest e-learning programme ever undertaken in UK government, and one of the largest in Europe. The expected return on investment is over 500%, with net savings estimated at over £12 million.

PA was also a 'Finalist' in these two categories:

International category - for PA's work with Fiat Auto - 'The miracle of Turin - maximising performance improvement with a revolutionary approach to cost control'

Operational Performance category - for PA's work with the Department of Health, National Orthopaedic Project - 'No bones about it, PA and NHS reduce orthopaedic waiting list from 57,128 patients to one'.

The result consolidates PA's position as the outstanding performer at these awards, commonly referred to as 'the Oscars of the consulting industry'. Despite the fact that around 40 different consulting firms compete each year for these awards, PA, in the nine years that it has entered the awards, has won an unprecedented 30% of the top awards. This includes winning the Overall Award on four occasions and securing 19 Gold Category Winners. No other consulting firm in the UK comes close to matching this record.

Every year, the MCA, the industry body for management consulting firms, organises the Management Awards to recognise excellence in client work. An independent panel of senior business figures, journalists and academics, selects the most value-adding, innovative and successful assignments. 

Full case studies are available at: http://www.paconsulting.com/news/award_winning_work/#1

2.   The Management Consultancies Association (MCA)

The MCA was formed in 1956 to represent the consultancy industry to its clients, the media and government.  Management consultancy is an increasingly important industry for the UK economy with revenues for 2004 estimated at just over £10bn.  MCA members represent around 65% of the UK consulting sector, employ approximately 40,000 consultants and work with the FTSE100 and all government departments. Nine of the top ten UK-based consulting firms (by consulting fee income) are members.

As well as setting and maintaining standards in the industry, the MCA supports its member firms with a range of services including events, publications, interest groups and public relations. The Association also works with its members to attract the top talent into the industry. The MCA provides advice on the selection and use of management consultants and is the main source of data on the UK market.

3.     About PA Consulting Group

At PA Consulting Group, we transform the performance of organisations. We put together teams from many disciplines and backgrounds to tackle the most complex problems facing our clients, working with leaders and their staff to turn around organisations in the private and public sectors.
Clients call on us when they want:

an innovative solution: counter-intuitive thinking and groundbreaking solutions

a highly responsive approach: we listen, and then we act decisively and quickly

delivery of hard results: we get the job done, often trouble-shooting where previous initiatives have failed.

We are an independent, employee-owned, global firm of 3,000 talented individuals, operating from offices across the world, in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Oceania. We have won numerous awards for delivering complex and highly innovative assignments, run one of the most successful venture programmes in our industry, have technology development capability that few firms can match, deep expertise across key industries and government, and a unique breadth of skills from strategy to IT to HR to applied technology.

• defence • energy • financial services • government and public services • international development • life sciences and healthcare • manufacturing • postal services • retail • telecommunications • transportation

strategic management • innovation and technology • IT • operational improvement • human resources • complex programme delivery

Delivering business transformation  

4.  About Jobcentre Plus

Jobcentre Plus, part of the Department for Work and Pensions, brings together employment and benefit services for people of working age and is a key element in the Government's objectives to help people based on 'Work for those who can, support for those who cannot'. It provides a professional and modern service to meet the diverse needs of employers and those seeking work, including:

• Personal advisers to provide practical support and advice to help those in need find and keep work, including training provision and benefits guidance
• A dedicated service to support employers in filling their vacancies quickly and successfully, including the ability to place jobs online
• Ability to search for jobs both online and over the phone through the website, the Jobseeker Direct phone line and via Jobpoints in Jobcentre Plus offices
• Swift, secure and professional access to benefits for those entitled to them.

Customers can access Jobcentre Plus services through around 1,000 locations across Great Britain, including over 800 newly refurbished Jobcentre Plus offices. Touch-screen terminals and Customer Access Phones are also available in a further 120 sites such as libraries and local authority premises. Jobcentre Plus works with over 275,000 employers to place 17,000 people into work every week. Over 400,000 vacancies are listed each week on its website and more than 4m job search requests are received, making it the number one UK recruitment website.

For further information on the services that Jobcentre Plus provides employers and people of working age visit www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk. 

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