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How Learn2 helps deliver 3 million swimming lessons a year

Written by Stephanie Hutchings | 16-May-2018 16:11:52

Course income now accounts for the second highest revenue stream across the leisure industry - coming in just behind gym membership. Whether it be tennis coaching, football sessions or learn-to-swim schemes, optimising the processes involved can result in serious financial gains for leisure centre operators. 

Taking the hassle out of course management 

Our bespoke software platform, Courses (previously known as Learn2), is aimed squarely at taking the hassle and admin out of course management, whilst boosting retention and ultimately, revenue. Not only does digitisation free up your valuable staff, but a powerful suite of automation tools means that students and parents are more engaged, and feel in control over their instruction. After all, in a world of Amazon Echo, Netflix and self-driving cars, should we really be relying on paper slips anymore to manage courses? 

So let’s get down to it: how do clients feel about Learn2? Well, Fusion Lifestyle is a large sports and leisure management organisation working with local authorities and other public sector organisations across the country, and in 2016-17 delivered over 3 million swimming lessons to 46,000 children across 90 pools - all enabled by Learn2. 

Mike Carruthers, Head of ICT at Fusion said:

“Our trial of Learn2 was led by a couple of enthusiastic members of the swim team and so far we’ve had very positive responses. The main benefits are continuous assessment, which I believe will help us keep children swimming for longer, as they can automatically enrol onto the next level, time saving on administration, meaning our instructors can spend less time recording attendance and attainment, and more time improving lesson delivery and interacting with their classes, and information for the parents at no extra cost.” 

Continuous assessment improves retention 

Not only do instructors love it - the mobile functionality means registers can be taken on any device, in studios or at poolside - but the ease of use means that rich data like competency checklists and more takes seconds for an instructor to input and is all viewable instantly by parents. 

  • The intelligent software promotes movement between courses by flagging up children that are ready to progress and, if necessary, can put them onto a waiting list in line with predefined parental preferences for lesson times and days - all saved in Learn2
  • There’s no more waiting for assessment sessions twice a year to determine a student’s level, with the associated drop in engagement whilst a student waits for the next class
  • There are no more lengthy queues at reception to re-enrol or slips of paper to chase
  • Most importantly, parents and students feel engaged, admin is cut right back and retention (and revenue!) are driven up 

The self-service Home Portal means parents can login and keep track of where their children are in their courses, prepay online and even view weekly instructor feedback - all without having to engage with a member of staff. It’s been working really well at Fusion - here’s what Mike had to say. “Learn2 has the added benefit of data sharing and enables automated customer contact, emailing or texting customers when a pupil is approved to move up a class or needs to pay for lessons, driving our engagement and retention potential.” 

Developing the software you asked for 

We are really proud of our relationships with our customers, and we talk to administrators, course instructors and centre management all the time to help us plan out new features for Learn2. It’s the small details that matter: like automatically skipping enrolment letters for students who are already registered but just moving up a class, or designing tailored KPIs that let your instructors monitor any new students joining, any who might be leaving, occupancy levels and more. 

If you’d like to learn more about Learn2, have a read of some more in-depth case studies here, or book a demonstration before end of June 2019 and receive a free waterproof case for your mobile device at poolside.

See what impact Learn2/Courses could have at your centre.

Not using a Gladstone Leisure Management System, all is not lost! This state of the art course management solution is also available as a standalone product called CoursePro.