Contributed by regular guest blogger Donal O’Nuallain

This week at ThirdForce we were delighted to launch a brand new care compliance course, the Learning Disability Induction (LDQ) Award. The LDQ is an essential induction qualification for any carer working in a learning disabilities environment. It also must be completed within the first 12 weeks of their job, a mandatory period determined by the Care Quality Commission.

Our new course provides all of the underpinning knowledge necessary for levels 2 and 3 of the qualification and doubles as an introduction for the Health and Social Care NVQ Levels 2 and 3. Essentially for those who take this course we would like it to be the first step of their e-learning journey.

This might sound like a bold statement to make but once somebody completes an e-learning course they are often filled with a desire to do the next one. We have learners coming to us all the time asking “What can I do next?” Speaking from personal experience, I have just started some e-learning courses of my own and I am mildly obsessed with completing them all and proceeding through my assigned learning. Of course this could be just that as a dedicated gamer I enjoy completing things and as a red-blooded competitive male, if there’s a leaderboard around, I like to be near the top!

Of course as humans we are constantly learning. We all know the saying “you learn something new every day”; I believe this to be true. However, often when we leave school or college we think that our formal learning has ceased. Can e-learning be used to jump start your learner journey once more? It certainly has for me.

What do you think? Is an introductory e-learning course a viable method of starting a learning journey? Or are there just some people out there who enjoy learning for the sake of learning and are embarked on more of a constant learning journey than the rest of us?