MyKnowledgeMap

The Retail Academy

Background: MyKnowledgeMap founded the Retail Academy in 2002. It is a legal consortium comprising several universities and a number of Further Education colleges specialising in retail education, private retail training providers, retail trade associations and Skillsmart Retail (the national sector skills council). Since then it has become an important national initiative.

Primary Aim: To support smaller retailers across the UK, and to provide a national brand and support infrastructure for their learning, both formal and non-formal learning.

A wide range of initiatives is supported within the Retail Academy, such as new qualifications and the delivery of online support infrastructures for small and large retailers in their e-learning development, whether certified or non-certified. Other initiatives include the development of skills diagnostic tools and e-portfolio systems for retailers.

Key Challenges: The trade associations supporting the Retail Academy represent over 200,000 independent retailers in the UK. So this is one of the largest scale e-learning initiatives and online support service development in the UK for any sector or industry.

Solution: MyKnowledgeMap has supported the development of a complete infrastructure for the Retail Academy, including e-learning and skills diagnostic solutions, together with the management of delivery logistics and support for all trade association and stakeholder partners.

The Retail Academy is supported by government agencies such as the National Learning and Skills Council, the Qualification and Curriculum Agency (QCA) and leading awarding bodies, such as City & Guilds.

Together with its trade association partners, the Retail Academy is now implementing a subscription service, Retail Detail, which integrates all the Academy's functions into one subscription, and is available to small retailers at a very reasonable price.

Post-implementation evaluation

Retail Detail was launched in September 2005 and has already had an enthusiastic reception from a range of trade associations. The feedback from retailers is also very positive.

As a result of investments in the Retail Academy, MyKnowledgeMap has devised and developed an architecture and systems solution suitable for e-Academies generally, and that can be used in large sectors or organisations. And we are working with various organisations now on the implementation of e- or skill-academies.