To celebrate the launch of OneFile's new Learning Hub, we hosted an event at the Tunnel Club, Ethiad Stadium.

The key theme of the event was change – so Anne Stott, head of customer success at OneFile, kicked off proceedings with an overview of all the recent changes in the sector. The EPA has rocked the boat... the standards have shifted towards learning... and Ofsted has become obsessed with benchmarking learning before and throughout the programme. Apprenticeships have completely changed, so OneFile has changed too.  

Next up was Adam Fogo, head of customer services, to officially launch the Learning Hub and explain how the whole thing came about. Around a year ago, he was speaking to the big dogs at Ofsted about how OneFile could satisfy their new-found obsession with recording learning – and so the Learning Hub was conceived. 

Like a pro, Adam showcased each of the new features at lightning speed, and then went back to demo each one. The new scorecard feature was a big hit. Learners can set a baseline to build from and then rate their learning as they progress – which is exactly what Ofsted wants to see. Next, he demoed the new learning journal – with cool visuals, on-the-go updates and a social-media-style feed. Adam explained how the whole Hub is linked together – learning journal, scorecards and VLE – so learners can access everything they need in one place.  

The audience seemed impressed, so Adam asked them to vote on which of the new features they’d find most useful. The scorecard won by a landslide with 63% of the vote.  

By this time, the crowd was ready to get their hands on the new Learning Hub (and some biscuits), so we went upstairs for both. Customers got stuck in playing on the prototypes, asking questions and sharing feedback with the product team.  

After refreshments, in a kind of beauty-pageant-style roll call, Anne introduced OneFile’s customer success managers. They’re the friendly faces of OneFile, so it was great to see them in the spotlight.  

Next, it was time to hear from some of our customers – Becki Hunter, head of apprenticeships at First Intuition, and Deb Harrison, lead tutor at Axia Solutions. Becki explained her journey with the apprenticeship standards – from helping design them as a trailblazer group to delivering accountancy apprenticeships in levels 3, 4 and 7. She said it’s been a rollercoaster ride – but with OneFile by their side, they’ve been able to offer flexibility and transparency to their learners and staff.  

By then, everyone was ready for lunch – a savoury selection of pies, sandwiches and soup. There was plenty of time to eat, meet and mingle before we headed downstairs for the afternoon session.  

Adam was back on stage to showcase all the other features in OneFile to help providers manage the new standards. The biggest crowd-pleaser was the VLE. Adam explained that you can create or upload online content to OneFile, so the entire elearning journey can be completed in one place. There were nods in the audience from customers who have already done this and no longer have to use an alternative provider like Moodle or Blackboard.  

The finale was the OneFile roadmap – a sneak peek into the future of OneFile. The highlights included gamification, tutor and employer scorecards, learning plans – and the killer news: that OneFile will soon be integrating with Turnitin. This caused some excited murmurs in the crowd. It's gonna be a biggun – so watch this space!