Stonegate Pub Company, the 560 strong national pub group is this week launching a comprehensive new training programme for employees entitled ‘Albert’s Theory of Progression’.

Based around the historical figure Albert Einstein, the programme covers all aspects of career progression for team members through to high performing managers. The largely online-based training is separated out into sections depending on the level of the employee within the business, starting with ‘Albert’s Holy Little Book’, the all-encompassing bible for team members, and working its way through ‘Albert’s Award’, ‘Albert’s Accolades’ and ‘Albert’s Welcome’ for team leaders, deputy managers and managers-in-training to ‘Albert’s Masterclass’ and ‘Albert’s Aspirations’ for managers and senior operational staff.

Each employee can manage their career progression online, alongside their managers or area managers. By having their own unique login details and homepage with updates on all aspects of their career development from training to appraisals, it’s as simple as a click of a mouse.

One of the unique aspects of the programme is Albert himself. Not just the name of the programme, Albert has been transformed into a character who takes the delegate through his or her learning by narrating the content. He sends his newsletter ‘Einstein’s Evening News’ out to members, hosts his online birthday party in the office, runs competitions for team members and even has his own cartoon avatar on the online system. Albert uses all the modern day social media mediums to interact with members such as facebook and twitter and aims to put the fun into learning and training. Packaged in short modules, the e-learning method gives members clear timescales within which to complete them and places the emphasis on the individual to take control of when and where they wish to learn.

Talking of Albert, which goes live this week to 10,000 employees across the estate, Lee Woolley, Head of Learning and Development said, “We’re in the people business and we know our staff are brilliant at interacting with customers and delivering great service. So what we wanted to achieve with Albert was to bring a modern approach to the important business of learning and development but in a way that really enthuses and engages our people and plays to their strengths.

“We’re delighted with the feedback for Albert so far by members. It’s a great training tool for the next generation of Stonegate employees, complimenting simply and efficiently alongside more traditional practical project based learning methods”, he continued.