Capella Win Gold Award

Capella win Gold Award for outstanding innovation at the Learning Excellence Awards 2023. The 2023 awards ceremony was held on Thursday March 30, 2023 in the Imperial Suite of the National Conference Centre, Bickenhill.

Our Award entry showed how the application of Power BI can be utilised to enhance learning outcomes and business sustainability.

Kate Smith, Capella’s Managing Director, said:

“This has transformed our management reporting, giving accurate and timely data to understand status and make decisions with confidence. 

The impact of this is evident in a number of key measures including OTJ, breaks and withdrawals, which in turn have a positive impact on profitability and sustainability, as well as our ability to win future business which relies on us having good Achievement Rate data.  To receive external recognition, adds icing to the cake and is something that we can all be really proud of.  Special recognition and thanks go to Mark Wood and Amrik Gill for their excellent work.”

The overall aim of the project was to find an efficient and robust way of extracting data from multiple spreadsheets and the learner onboarding system, to produce management reports and enable deeper analysis for improvement activities.

The objectives were to ensure data was accurate and timely, could be extracted efficiently, and enable decisions to be made with confidence.

Through consultation with stakeholders, we identified that a dashboard would be helpful and that we also needed to be able to easily drill down, so that Capella and their Advisory Board could identify and implement a range of actions to drive improvements in key metrics. 

Mark Wood, Data Analyst, created a dashboard, using Power BI, with metrics that aligned with the Department for Education (DfE) Accountability Framework.

“Through the use of Power BI we’ve significantly improved the quality and accessibility of our management data.  This has enabled us to spend more time implementing improvements.  For example, the team created an early-warning dashboard so that we can see instantly when learners are going off-track and plan interventions to recover.  Clients also love the dashboards, which are shared during programme reviews and they now rate communication as a key strength.”

Kate Smith

Managing Director

Capella also plan to extend this innovative approach to data management into other areas, including equality studies, which will benefit hugely from this creative application of technology and support continuous improvements in our services, for the benefit of our learners, their employers, and our stakeholders. 

Find out more about the Learning Excellence Awards here and see Capella’s other awards and recognition here 

Testimonials

  • Capella have provided a superbly structured programme, and have proven to be entirely supportive of delegates in completing their apprenticeship with confidence. Key to this has been the instructor’s knowledge of the subject matter, allowing him to apply the theory to a variety of scenarios in the delegates’ work. We have appreciated the instructor being approachable, flexible and understanding of the challenges of extra-curricula activity for people with busy jobs. All staff that we’ve engaged with at Capella have been professional, welcoming and clear in their communication.

    Mark Robbins, Retail and Pension Operations Training and Communications, Fidelity International

  • Capella’s focus on developing long-term relationships and their continual search for innovative approaches to upskilling has enabled Toyota and many other employers to learn and apply best practice Problem Solving tools which deliver great outcomes for all. In our experience, no other training provider has taken such a lead role in the development of sector wide initiatives such as the Automotive Industrial Partnership and development of the ‘improvement suite’ of Apprenticeship standards. Capella constantly seeks innovative opportunities to deliver an excellent service to the learner and to the business.

    Paul Fitzpatrick | Senior Manager | Toyota UK

  • We have found Capella really professional and flexible and their passion for delivering high quality training is a culture we have in common between us and has made working with them highly beneficial. Their knowledge of the automotive sector in particular has also been very useful and has simplified working together to create a really excellent training programme. In addition, they have managed to modify their usual commercial programmes in line with government approved apprenticeship standards, which has enabled us to utilise our Apprenticeship Levy to fund the training.

    Chris Bauman | Group Managing Director

  • Capella are delivering the Business Improvement L4 programme to a cohort of 12 staff at our Barnard Castle site. We chose Capella after a series of meeting with Kate and her team and from day 1 we have been impressed with the professionalism, enthusiasm and knowledge of the team. The staff have really thrived on the learning schedule and through working with the programme tutors and we have had nothing but positive feedback. Internal changes on site have impacted on the programme delivery, which Capella took this in their stride, adapting delivery timelines, providing support and working with those facing change has added another dimension to the relationship that has been developed between the site and Capella. While still in delivery mode GSK already believes that the programme has been a success for all involved and we look forward to its completion and sharing that success within the organisation.

    Tim Buchanan | Apprenticeship Vendor Manager | Talent, Leadership and Organisation Development- Centre of Excellence

  • Capella worked closely with Wilko to deeply understand our needs at a strategic and operational level, helping us to jointly explore a range of options to meet these needs. Capella have an experienced team of Lean Six Sigma experts. Their programme design, management expertise and resources are second to none. Wilko have been allocated a dedicated Account Manager which helps us ensure the learner is always front of mind. Capella’s programmes have developed the knowledge, skills and drive of our Wilko delegates to seek and implement improvements in every process, constantly reducing costs, waste and inefficiencies. Capella also enabled Wilko’s leadership of continuous improvement to be showcased through the publication of an extensive article for the Chartered Quality Institute's Quality World magazine.

    Teresa Ward, Wilko Talent Programme Manager, Wilko

  • I would sincerely like to thank you again and the fabulous team at Capella for the dedication shown in achieving the Black Belt qualification. It is such a pleasure to work so closely with passionate professional people and I hope our partnership continues to grow especially with the role out of the new standards.

    Richard Bates, Managing Director, Qualitrain

  • "Capella are a company that keep to their word, they have supported me fully during and even after my projects have been completed. The coaching team are always on hand to help with any issues and often put themselves out to ensure support is available. Highly recommend anyone looking to progress their career to take a look at Capella."

    Chris Woodcock, Jaguar Land Rover