Socotec relies on the PowerVote® interactive voting system in applying its teaching methods.

The Socotec Group specialises in inspection, consulting and training in risk management covering quality control, health and safety, and the environment, and uses the PowerVote audience response system for certification and accreditation training. Today, more than 3,000 people per year are trained using the PowerVote system.

The initial challenge for Socotec was to optimise the teaching impact of the "up-dating" training sessions in electrical accreditation.
Facing a public with very varied levels of accumulated knowledge, the idea was to discover what information concerning the different products needed to be transmitted.
Objective: to find the best way of quickly defining the gaps in the knowledge of the trainees, and to use a programme adapted to these "up-dating" training sessions.

"Through a quiz, with PowerVote we can evaluate the trainees' knowledge. Starting from this point, we can then use a teaching method which covers the necessary knowledge", emphasised Jean-François Gayot, Training Director at the Socotec Group. "Initial training lasts around three or four days, unlike 'up-dating', which only lasts one day. Using this system, we can go back over some subjects, and assess precisely what knowledge the trainees need. With PowerVote, we can optimise the contents of this single-day training session."

Today the Socotec Group uses PowerVote for three types of training: electrical accreditation, the training of asbestos research operatives, and lastly, training on awareness of health risks in buildings concerning lead, asbestos, legionella, etc.
These training programmes are intended for all those who work in the areas of electrical installations, and the maintenance and construction of equipment.

"We have been using the PowerVote electronic voting system since October 2002. It allows us to assess knowledge at the beginning and the end of training programme through a quiz", said Jean-François Gayot. "What is good about PowerVote is that it is in real time: after setting three or four questions, we analyse the answers with the trainees and at the end of this analysis, we ask for their reactions to the answers. In this way, we can use the questions/answers, pick them up again, and come back to them. This dynamic aspect increases motivation, for the trainers as well as the trainees, while the paper questionnaires which we used before PowerVote made the training programmes static." Finally, the dynamic and fun aspect of the training helps trainees remember it, and enables them to take an active part in their own training process.

In 1953, Socotec took over the technical monitoring of constructions which had been provided up to then by the Securitas Bureau, itself founded in 1929. Socotec established its solid position in the construction sector, and then decided to diversify its activities in the 80s. So professional training took off in its own right, alongside the development of offering advice on the organisation and management of quality control. To begin with, the provision of training was organised around the technical construction skills on which Socotec's reputation had been built, but then it grew rapidly in the other areas which today form part of the catalogue. The use of modern teaching tools, such as PowerVote, is one of the Training Management Department of the Socotec Group's objectives for continuing improvement.