News and events
Today Central England Co-operative (CEC) launches Let’s Learn, their brand-new platform with Kallidus.
Proud to encourage a culture of learning, CEC believes that everybody should be able to upskill themselves and that everyone has a brighter future through learning. Achieving the 4 pillars of sustainability – environmental, economic, social, and human – is a core value at CEC. To support that human element, they have spent recent years re-evaluating their people strategy, putting structures in place to better support employee engagement and retention.
Investment in people is a priority, so CEC listened to their teams to understand what they needed to thrive, and the final page in their people strategy story was L&D. CEC had a vision to create a flexible, inclusive, inspiring, and simple experience for their learners to feel both empowered and engaged to develop their learning. CEC value their people and want to ensure they are providing them with all the support, care and resources to achieve their career path, and reach for more.
Philip Pyle, Chief Revenue Officer, Kallidus says of the partnership: “Partnering with a brand as prestigious as CEC on such a business-critical project is super exciting. They were looking for a robust LMS that could support their ambitions of redefining L&D within the organisation, and Kallidus are able to really deliver against these goals. Developing a high-performance culture has never been more important to employees; by investing in their people strategy, CEC have secured a future of outstanding talent and excellent results.”
Jen Chance, Head of Talent at Central England Co-op, adds: “We’re delighted to have launched Let’s Learn within CEC and are looking forward to our fantastic colleagues engaging with the new platform and exploring the many benefits it has to offer.
“We set out to create a flexible, inclusive, inspiring, and simple experience where learners can develop the skills they need, are empowered to develop, and encouraged to participate. We knew that this would need to include providing high-quality digital content, an intuitive experience, and robust data to track progress and return on investment.”
“I’d like to thank Kallidus for being such collaborative and supportive partners on this project and helping bring Let’s Learn to life and we’re so delighted to now share it with our colleagues.”
Co-op’s love and support for education is nothing new; in fact, it dates back centuries. In 1844, the Rochdale Pioneers Co-op recognised the importance of education and started to run night classes to promote learning, especially among women. At a time when education was not accessible to all, Co-op paved the way for the culture of learning we see today. recognised the importance of education and started to run night classes to promote learning, especially among women. At a time when education was not accessible to all, Co-op paved the way for the culture of learning we see today.
Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK with interests in food, funeral, floral and property investment.
Owned by hundreds of thousands of members, its over 8,000 colleagues serve customers across 400 plus trading sites in 20 counties in the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.
Its purpose is to inspire communities to create a sustainable society for all.
It actively campaigns for the Government to increase sentencing for violent attacks on retail workers and works with FareShare Midlands and hundreds of food banks, generating enough food donations to create over 2.1 million meals for people in need.
The Society embraces inclusivity and equality and is a signed-up member to the Business in the Community (BITC) Race at Work Charter, while it is also fully committed to addressing the impact of climate change and is on track to be Carbon Neutral by 2030.
It invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities through its Community Dividend Fund scheme which has seen over £175,000 shared out between 116 good causes over the past 12 months.
Central England Co-op was named Leading Co-op of the Year by Co-operatives UK in 2021.
Press office contacts: Rob Smyth and James Brindle
Contact details: www.centralengland.coop/press-and-media
Claire is an enthusiastic and meticulous content writer whose passion is to support growth and continual learning for everyone.
