Our Lounge: Learning with McDonalds
Jim Pateman
The Centre for Literacy, Summer Institute, 2010:
Workplace Literacy and Essential Skills: What counts and why?
Background context (1) – Government policy
National: In 2001, the UK Government launched a strategy,
Skills for Life, to improve adult literacy, numeracy and
language skills in England and Wales. In 9 years, 5.7 million
learners have taken training courses and 2.8 million have
achieved nationally recognised qualificationsGovernment
funding for this strategy has been Canadian $13.6 bn
Workplace literacy: A key focus of the
strategy has been the workplace. Action
has included:
• National Promotion to employers, including
a Skills Pledge signed by employers
•Funding for large and small companies
•Union funding, through the national Union
organisation
Apprenticeships: It has been crucial to connect
literacy and other programs to the national
priority to train apprentices. Government
workplace funding priorities have focussed on
integrating literacy and other skills into wider
vocational programs
•Resources for workplace learning
•Specific workplace teacher training
Background context (2) – Tribal
What is Tribal? Tribal is a leading provider of public sector
services. Almost everything we do helps to achieve a public
policy goal set by central or local government
What do we do in adult learning?
We produce Learning Resources
online
Target Skills Gold
We develop and run
training programmes for
employers and others
We run national programs for
government and other
organisations
Background context (3) – McDonalds UK
In 2006, McDonald’s decided to invest in the development of crew members through a new Careers
and Coaching website. Part of this involved offering an opportunity to improve their English and
Maths skills through e-learning.
The project has been part of McDonald's strategy to employ people from all backgrounds regardless
of their academic attainment, with a view to building on their interpersonal and customer skills
(“recruiting for the smile”). This means their “crew” have a very wide range of educational
backgrounds, and many have no qualifications from school or college.
McDonalds funds crew and other job-specific training. It has used government funding to supplement
this for literacy and numeracy training.
McDonald’s Employee Value Proposition
•Opportunities: The chance for everyone to prove themselves and progress.
This is about making the most of your skills and experiences. It could mean climbing the ladder and taking on
bigger management responsibilities. Or it may mean becoming an expert in a particular field.
•Flexibility: Opportunities that fit into your lifestyle.
We’ll help you build your career around the other things in your life. These could be family, studying or even
your social life.
•Environment: An engaging and structured work place.
The secret of being good at what you do is to enjoy doing it – and our environment can help you do just that.
•Learning: Building confidence and developing your work and life skills.
We’ll help you build personal and professional skills that last a lifetime.
How the program works
Restaurant
manager
encourages crew
New / existing
crew member
Crew
member
registers
Induction training
reveals needs
Throughout the
process:
Help from
store staff
Learning time
with e-tutor
Initial
assessment
(screener)
More in-depth
assessment /
Learning Plan
Referral to
local centre
Join
apprenticeship
program
Undertake National
qualification (practice
tests included)
Learning
activities /
learning
reviews
Learning goals
achieved
More learning: job-specific / personal
learning / higher qualifications
Our lounge – how it works
Perhaps showing some of the pages –
possibly interactive
Our Lounge literacy and numeracy training:
what Tribal does
•
Tendered and won contract to develop and deliver Our Lounge
(national-approved supplier)
•
Organise and run the learning websites for McDonalds staff,
accessed through McDonalds main crew website.
•
Gather and report on how the websites are used, the staff who
use the site, how they use it and the outcomes.
•
Collate and submit funding claims on behalf of McDonald’s to
government funding organisations.
•
Manage registrations and achievements with the qualification
body for numeracy/literacy.
•
Provide learner support service (email and support telephone
line).
•
Provide e-tutors to support learners in their numeracy/literacy
•
Advise and train local store managers, supporters and teachers.
How’s it going? – some statistics
Since May 2009:
•over 7,500 McDonalds employees have registered as potential
apprentices on Tribal systems; and of those
•just over 7,000 of them have completed their full registration and
induction process so are officially classed as “apprentices”. Of this
cohort
•just over 4,000 of them have received government funding for their
learning; those not eligible have been funded by McDonalds
•there have been between 100 and 350 learners achieving a
literacy or numeracy qualification every single month and over the
last 3 months the average is approximately 250 per month.
How’s it going – learner case studies
Katarina:
Katarina is Slovakian and has worked with the company for two and a half years; she is also the second exam success for the
My Learning Exams! She is currently a shift manager in our Newry County Down Restaurant in Ireland. Katarina undertook
the learning to improve her English and brush up her knowledge, about My Learning. Katarina said:
„I would recommend My Learning qualifications to all McDonald‟s people, the My Learning programme meant I was really ready
for my exam and felt prepared. I think Our Lounge is a really good idea and I use Our Lounge because it is easy to use. I
found the Learning section excellent; my e-tutor was really good and helped me prepare for my exam and any problems I had‟
Katarina found that the learning she undertook was easy to manage in her spare time and flexible enough to fit round her
lifestyle. In her spare time Katarina likes to read, cook and she also enjoys learning and looks forward to McDonald’s offering
further qualifications!
Pam:
Pam is a crew member in the Blackpool restaurant in her 40s. Having dropped out at 15 Pam was not interested in school.
She had no qualifications when joined McDonalds and stayed in same shop for 16 years, now a shift administrator. She has
completed both English and Maths exams recently and was very excited about the opportunity to get qualifications. Pam’s
motivation was to get qualifications because she felt bad about not having any, especially when other younger employees had
FE and HE qualifications.
Pam has particularly valued e-learning for learning at own pace. She had found a college experience in a group learning IT
very slow going. She does not have time to go to evening courses anyway, so this is preferred mode. She would do more
modules if they were on offer.
She was very supportive of staff who wanted to do it. Thought that each McDonalds shop should have a PC for employees
who wanted to access it and My Lounge should have more games to attract the young.
How’s it going – what counts?
Company
Effective crew training
Communication, number & customer skills
(noticeable and recorded improvements through quality
control)
Staff retention (people are staying longer)
77% success rate (qualifications & learning goals)
Employee
Government / Funder
Enjoyment and benefit of
learning
Training and qualifications that can be funded
Chance to progress
Fit with McDonalds
Chances for promotion
Chance to get qualifications
What counts?
Trading figures show McDonald’s recorded an additional 130
million customer visits in 2008/09 - the equivalent of, it says, an
extra 1,000 customers per week in every one of its 1,200 UK
restaurants.
“I‟m convinced our investment in skills and training has played a
key part in these achievements,” Mr Fairhurst of McDonalds
says. “Since we started our Skills for Life programme in 2006,
crew tenure has increased from 18 months to two-and-a-half
years, staff turnover has dropped to an all-time low, and the
number of employees who feel proud to work at McDonald‟s has
risen to a record high.”
Times Educational Supplement, 28 May 2010
What have we learnt
Our Lounge has developed and changed over the past 4
years with:
Different learning options for different learners, to suit lifestyle, level,
goals
Embedding literacy and numeracy training - Adapting to the
company’s changed thinking, widening the learning offer to link closely with
crew training, better in-restaurant support
Introduction of ESOL learning resource – in response to
greater numbers of learners with language needs coming forward;
Persistence – support to keep learners engaged, reduce drop-out/off .
Greater support role for restaurant staff.
What works best – building learning plans that provide small “doses” of
learning to crew members over a longer period has worked better (spaced
repetition)
What we might do in Canada 1
•
The proposal is for trial of online learning for employees in the
foodservice industry, based on the model developed with
McDonalds in the UK.
•
ABC Life Literacy Canada to involve up to three foodservice
companies, an important and growing skills sector for Canadian
workers
•
Production of Canadian versions of modules and the online
learning model, mentors trained and deployed
•
Links to existing Essential Skills materials
•
Engagement of employees, trials, evaluation
•
Mentoring and training in essential skills to be provided
•
Independent evaluation. Success measured through achievement
of individual goals, feedback from learners and restaurant staff.