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 elearning journey.

This might sound like a bold statement to make but once somebody completes an elearning 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 elearning 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 elearning be used to jump start your learner journey once more? It certainly has for me.

What do you think? Is an introductory elearning 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?