New Partnership: BlueSky and the National College join forces

We are delighted to announce that BlueSky Education has joined the National Education Group (NEG), the market-leading provider of digital content and software solutions that empower education workforces worldwide. This partnership will deliver significant and unique benefits for both BlueSky and National College members.

The National College is the most trusted CPD platform in education, with an extensive catalogue of over 5,000 courses, webinars and guides for the whole school. The platform is trusted by 50,000+ schools worldwide, and we know many BlueSky members are already using The National College to support professional development programmes and mandatory training.

BlueSky members will soon be able to seamlessly integrate the award-winning The National College CPD content with our award-winning appraisal and professional development solutions. This will make it easier for school leaders to implement a developmental approach to appraisal that is intrinsically supportive without adding to workload, in line with the latest Teacher Appraisal Guidance from the Department of Education.

How BlueSky linking to The National College benefits schools

BlueSky’s highly adaptable appraisal and staff development platform allows school leaders to easily identify CPD needs across the school, trust or group

Leaders can align individual, team and organisational objectives with expert-led professional learning from the award-winning National College catalogue

Individual staff are empowered to take control of their own professional development through ownership of their CPD journey

Professional development can be seamlessly linked to appraisal objectives and wider school priorities

The whole appraisal and professional development cycle is significantly simplified and users save time with integrated online solutions

What does this mean for existing BlueSky members?

This partnership will not affect your existing BlueSky membership and the functionality of our platform will not be impacted.

If you already have a National College membership, the platform integration will allow users to seamlessly align individual appraisal objectives and training needs with content from the National College catalogue.

If you do not have an existing membership and would like to know more about The National College content and our integrated packages, simply get in touch with our Sales team.

If you do not wish to integrate BlueSky with The National College, you do not need to do anything.

Existing BlueSky Learning members will continue to be able to access our online content.

The intention of this partnership is to empower schools to bring professional development to the centre of school improvement strategy. Joining BlueSky with The National College will deliver shared market expertise and resources to develop an integrated solution that will revolutionise school workforce development and appraisal, bringing together the very best in people development technologies to create a platform that will make a real difference in educators’ lives.

Good to know

Will this affect how we currently use BlueSky Education?

No – all of the features and functionality of BlueSky Education will remain. The only change that this integration will bring is the ability to access The National College CPD content through your BlueSky account if you have a The National College licence.

You will be able to search The National College library, select a course, webinars or guides, and then the overview and intended outcomes of the CPD activity will be automatically pre-populated in your CPD activity.

What does this integration mean if we already have The National College?

If your school already has The National College membership, you will be able to seamlessly access the CPD content through the BlueSky platform and link CPD to appraisal objectives, quality assurance and school priorities.

You will also be able to create CPD activity records from The National College and flood fill CPD if you choose to.

Your subscription to both BlueSky and The National College will continue under the existing terms until your renewal date. At this point, you can talk to our Sales team about renewal options, as we will be able to offer a range of packages to support your school’s appraisal, professional development and compliance needs.

What does this mean if we have BlueSky Learning?

If you are an existing BlueSky Learning member, your access to our online library will continue.

If your membership is due to renew soon and you would like to explore the option to move to The National College instead, please get in touch with our Sales team to arrange a free demo.
We will not be offering BlueSky Learning memberships to new customers. In time, BlueSky Learning content will be made available through The National College Platform.

If we are interested in The National College membership for our school, how can we find out more?

Talk to our Sales team today to arrange a free demo of The National College platform and learn about membership packages and the integration benefits. We offer a range of packages to support your school’s appraisal, professional development and compliance needs.

What is the cost to add this?

There is no cost for the platform upgrade. If you have an existing membership of BlueSky and The National College, there will be no additional cost for the integration.

If you do not currently have membership of The National College, talk to our Sales team today to arrange a free demo of The National College platform and learn about our membership benefits and packages.

How do we link our BlueSky account with an existing The National College account?'

If you use the same email address to login to BlueSky and The National College, your accounts will be linked automatically, and you will not need to take any further action in order to sync content from The National College to your CPD activity.

If this is not the case, you will need to make sure that you are using the same email address for both accounts.

However, if you have not logged in to your The National College account through BlueSky, you can still add a link to content from their platform in the BlueSky CPD area.

When will the integration be available?

We intend for the integration to be available from the beginning of September, in time for the new academic year when schools and staff begin planning their appraisal and professional development objectives.

The update will be applied automatically via the BlueSky platform so you will not need to do anything.

Who should I contact if we have a technical issue with the integration?

If you have a technical issue with the platform, you can get in touch with the BlueSky team as usual via the usual Support email address or our contact form.

Please contact us if you have any other questions. Simply fill in the form below and a member of our team will get back to you ASAP.

BlueSky Education, teacher performance management software, performance management in schools, performance management

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