24x7 Learning partners The Retail Academy, UK

24x7 Learning, India’s premier Talent Lifecycle Management Company announced their partnership with The Retail Academy, UK’s leading provider of online training programs for the retail segment. With this association, 24x7 Learning has a complete eLearning based training solution to help the retail industry cut training costs drastically.

Anil Chhikara, President, 24x7 Learning, said, “India has been ranked as the most preferred retail destination for international investors. The sector is on a high growth trajectory and is expected to grow by more than 27 per cent over the next 5 to 6 years. This rapid growth will require a steady flow of skilled manpower. With training, educated but currently unemployable graduates can be groomed into ideal candidates for roles in modern organized retail formats. Tapping into this chunk of educated youth and developing their skills can result in tremendous cost savings in the retail sector over a period of time.”

Training expenditure today is viewed as a critical investment in human capital, and an effective method of increasing employee retention. eLearning provides significant cost savings in comparison to traditional training delivery methods. eLearning has the ability to cut out expenses related to instructors, locations, and travel, and can consolidate education and training across geographical and time constraints. Results include reduction in learning time, increase in knowledge retention rates and ultimately, cost savings.

Speaking on the partnership, Anil Chhikara, said “We’re very happy to partner with The Retail Academy and believe that the content offering they have for retail is comprehensive and best-of-the-breed. Integrating this content with our Learning Management System-24x7 LearnTrak™ - we can now build and implement Virtual Academies for large and geographically spread retail players in the Indian market. This partnership is in line with our strategy of identifying world leaders in each industry vertical and bringing them to Indian customers”.

According to recent studies; retail contributes to 10 per cent of India's Gross Domestic Product and provides employment to 8 per cent of India's working population. The share of organized retail is projected to grow to US$ 43.8 billion out of the total retail sector revenues projected at US$ 460.6 billion in 2010-11. Existing players are increasingly turning to TierII and Tier III cities for retail establishments and manpower sourcing. These cities offer significant cost advantage in the form of low-cost skilled resources. With some training, these graduate scan be groomed into suitable candidates for the retail sector. Skills of existing manpower can be upgraded and they can be groomed for better productivity through continuous learning. This encourages employee growth and aids retention, in what is otherwise a volatile job market.

Rob Arntsen, CEO -The Retail Academy added, “We’re extremely happy to associate with 24x7 Learning, aleader in the Indian eLearning solutions space. Organizations like TESCO, JetPetrol etc. have implemented our programs successfully. We’re looking forward to the Indian Retail sector leveraging Retail Academy’s tools and resources, delivered on LearnTrak - 24x7 Learning’s LMS, for optimal organization learning”.

Retail Academy has content spanning all areas of retail knowledge and training. Areas covering Retail Security, Visual Merchandising,Customer Service, Floor Sales, Marketing, Retail operations, features like skill gap analysis, personalized training plans etc. and much more, make it an exciting solution for retail.

24x7 Learning

24x7 Learning is a leading consulting, technology services and outsourcing company committed to delivering technology enabled learning solutions. As India’s premier Talent Lifecycle Management Company, it enables organizations to be successful globally by upgrading their workforce to compete in the global markets. Headquartered in Bangalore, 24x7 Learning has regional offices in Mumbai, Delhi,Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune,and Kolkata. Some of 24x7 Learning’s marquee clients include: The Aditya Birla Group, MindTree, Accenture, Samsung, Essar, Mahindra and Mahindra, Steria, Genpact, Barclays Bank, ONGC India, Dell and PepsiCo.

The Retail Academy

The Retail Academy is an international learning organization providing best-of-breed resources and tools designed to make a real impact on a retail business's bottom line. Thee-learning, tools and qualifications are designed by retailers, for retailers,to help people at all levels of retail to know more and do things better.

The Retail Academy was established in 2003 to provide a better way of developing retail training materials. The leading Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University and leading technology company My Knowledge Map teamed up with retailers and other training organizations to create a new kind of partnership that focused on retailers' business needs, and delivered training using the web.

Accolades and Achievements of 24x7 Learning

• Recognized as the 50 fastest growing companies in India by Deloitte for the year 2007 and 2008
  
  
• Is the largest e-Learning implementation company in India with users in more than 25 countries across the world
  
  
• Has provided learning solutions to over a million learners since its inception in 2001
  
  
• Serves 7 of top 10 IT outsourcing companies and 6 of top 10BPO/ITES companies in India
  
  
• Has been awarded the Red Herring 100 Asia award in 2006
  
  
• Is the winner of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia in 2007 & 2008.
  
  
• Is amongst the NASSCOM Top 100 IT Innovators of 2007

With this partnership, 24x7 Learning brings cost-effective eLearning solutions for the Indian Retail sector. Training will cover Retail Security, Visual Merchandising, Customer Service, Floor Sales and much more.