Towards Maturity was launched on the 29th of April 2008 – an independent, not for profit organisation with a passion for helping others to improve the impact of learning technologies at work. This week we are a year old and what a year it has been!

The recession hitting hard this year has just accelerated the demand for change and innovative thinking on behalf of learning and development professionals is now essential if they are to meet demands to deliver improved results with less resources. 

Our aim at Towards Maturity is to:

• Provide independent research to identify trends and good practice in the workplace. What is driving change? How can technology support change? How can we develop new learning approaches that will improve business performance?
• Gather and share good practice and thought leadership within the community so that we can learn from each other (and avoid each other's mistakes!)
• Proactively influence the wider UK skills agenda to meet business skill’s demand more effectively.

So what has been happening over the last 12 months?

More people are using even more resources:

Over 1500 organisations now subscribe to using our resources which have been growing over the year:

• 24 case studies have been added to the site to share experiences from a diverse range of private and public organisations.
• 11 podcasts from 8 employers (including Cable & Wireless, Reuters & the Royal Navy) and industry experts such as Clive Shepherd , Jane Hart and Gordon Bull.
• 50 news updates and analysis articles – varying from recession beating tips, conference reviews and analysis, hints and tips (social software, demonstrating value, engaging learners etc)
• Driving Business Benefits - A  major UK study to help organisations build the business case  for e-learning and to improve its impact.
• 12 research papers – in addition to our own, we also featured research from the Chartered Management institute, Skillsoft, Caspian and others.

Influencing change:

• We’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of you at the 20 events we have attended this year to share the good practice that is coming out of community research and resources.
• As a founding ambassador for Becta’s Next Generation Learning @ Work initiative, we have been able to highlight the needs of businesses in the wider Next Generation Learning campaign and create opportunities for a number of us to inform and influence this important work.
• Our personalised benchmark report has been received by over 200 organisations who are using it to strengthen their own internal implementations as this quote from Wendy Stubbs, learning Innovation Consultant at British airways shows:
• 
  I need to be externally focused and tap into what other organisations are doing, and learn from what’s working well and what’s not! This is one of the reasons why I jumped at the chance to contribute to a personalised benchmarking report produced by Towards Maturity. The information provided from this report supported internal presentations regarding my aspirations to change the way we do things around learning & innovations at British Airways.
  But none of this could be achieved without the help and contributions from organisations and individuals equally as passionate as us!

On our first Birthday we want to say a BIG THANK YOU from the Towards Maturity Team (Laura , Howard and Nige) to the organisations who have supported this work over the last year and who have been willing to share their expertise via the site:

Becta; Brightwave;British Computing Society; British Institute of Learning and Development; British Council; BT; Cable & Wireless; Certpoint; Charles Jennings; Chartered Management Institute; CIPD; Clive Shepherd; Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks; Connecting for Health; CrossKnowledge; Channel Content; ChangeFirst; Diageo; Donald Clark ;e-Learning age magazine; eLearning Network; Epic; e-skills UK ; Gordon Bull; Grass Roots; Hibernia College; IITT; Informatology; IRRV; Jane Hart;  Johnson Control; Kineo; Learning Pool; Learning Technologies; NCALT;Nelson Croom; Offpat; Online Educa; Pfizer; PLAN; Relay Consultants; RedTray; Rob Hubbard; Royal Navy; Saffron Interactive; Skills for Health; Praxis42; The Dental Channel; The environment agency; The Royal Shakespeare Company; Toyota; Training Zone

Also do complete our minipoll.

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