The mobile delivery system that makes this possible is supplied by leading learning and mobile content-management technology provider, Giunti Labs. The content is being authored and developed for deployment by Eukleia Training Limited, a specialist provider of compliance training services for the financial services sector. The learners' test results - returned by Giunti Labs's mobile learning platform - are sent and monitored by the institution's learning and talent management system, provided by partner Cornerstone OnDemand.

Angus Turpin, managing director of Giunti Labs UK, explained that three key issues have prompted this approach:

• Many organisations in the financial services sector - notably retail banks - reserve all of their network capacity during working hours for business operations. This leaves no capacity on the network for the vital eLearning programs needed to keep staff up to date with regulatory and compliance issues.
• In order to prevent unauthorized access to confidential information, Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulations along with bank regulations prohibit staff from using Bluetooth or other wireless networks with their laptops. Consequently, many employees in the financial services sector rely on BlackBerrys to send and receive email.
• Since so much of their working life is spent doing their jobs under intense pressure, people in the financial services sector rarely have time to spend even forty minutes of 'downtime' working through an eLearning program. Consequently the opportunity for, and ability to, carry out eLearning during working hours, using the organization's network, is severely limited", Turpin said.

"The answer - at least to three divisions within this major UK financial services institution - has been to develop compliance and data-protection-related learning materials, with accompanying tests and to make them available to staff via a number of mobile learning options."

While staff members don't have the time to spend on a forty-minute eLearning course, they can easily find time to take the course in, say, ten minute chunks via their mobile. A further advantage of this system - which, of course, takes up none of their employer's network bandwidth - is that any changes in regulations will involve altering only one module rather than an entire course.

"Mobile and traditional eLearning are complementary formats", he continued. "There is a very real need to deliver the core, basic facts to time-pressured professionals and a mobile device is an ideal way to achieve this - even if it doesn't completely replace the need for more in-depth learning."

The mobile learning materials can include video - if the user's mobile device supports it - and conclude with a series of multiple choice questions. The user's answers are recorded and uploaded in real time to the Giunti Labs' server for eventual transfer to the financial services institution's talent-management system.

"The test answers can be marked in real time", said Turpin, "but most of our clients update the users' results every 12 or 24 hours. The test results are an indication that staff have received training and that there is an implied level of understanding, which is a part of the training and competence requirement. The FSA views this positively."

Turpin revealed that a number of other financial services institutions, including banks based in Germany and France, are also in discussions with Giunti Labs about adopting a similar arrangement to ensure their staffs' compliance with the sector's legal requirements.

"We believe that this mobile learning approach will benefit other industries too", said Turpin. "Any industry in which employers have a number of remote workers who need to have access to key information, such as health and safety information or product updates, will be able to use this performance support system to excellent effect."