Amazing GRACE
The Glass & Glazing Federation launched its new online training platform to the industry press last week, a comprehensive system that has been designed to encourage ‘deeper learning and greater engagement’ with new starters to the industry – as well as those with more experience.
The GGF has invested considerable resources in developing this dynamic Learning Management System, partnering with Nucleus Learning, which is said to be one of the UK’s leading training software platforms, as well as utilising its extensive in-house expertise.
The result is a modern, digital learning experience that makes training much more accessible and attractive for organisations and individuals as they can complete it all remotely. And by making the classroom element of training more efficient, it should free up more time for the practical stuff.
A standout feature is GRACE, which is an acronym for ‘Glazing Resources and Career Education’, represented by an AI avatar that features throughout the courses and is designed to further increase engagement and deepen learning.
The avatar is so life-like that you may not even realise she’s not a real person – so why bother creating her in the first place?
It’s all about future proofing the platform. With GRACE, the GGF can tweak and update content digitally, which means it can do it quicker and more cost effectively than filming a real person over and over again.
And it’s only just the start of AI’s capabilities. In the near future, we may see digital avatars of GGF technical staff, potentially with the ability to interact with an audience, and even virtual reality practical training as well.
It’s all very exciting and the GGF should be commended for its forward-thinking approach with such technology.
For now, the important message is that the GGF’s new training platform can help to train new people to the industry more efficiently and also allow organisations and individuals to get up to speed with industry specific competencies.
This is of vital importance following the Building Safety Act and Building Regulations amendments that mean it will soon no longer be good enough to claim ‘grandfather rights’ – ie, I’ve been working all my life without a competency card, so I don’t need one now.
According to the GGF, there are currently around 23,000 glaziers and installers working on construction projects around the UK that have no official qualifications.
For all of those that will soon need to demonstrate competency if they want to carry on working, the GGF’s new training platform is a good place to start…