Dave Gibbs
Education Lead
Education Development Trust (edt) is an international not-for-profit organisation that works to increase the life chances of individuals around the world via improved education and skills. Through detailed research and evidence-based insight, they deliver tailored programmes designed to make a measurable difference to education systems globally.
The Early Career Training Programme (ECTP) is a national learning programme for the Department for Education (DfE).
This statutory initiative supports thousands of teachers in their first two years post-qualification through core learning content and mentorship.
BuildEmpire has supported edt with a number of learning projects. Looking at the tender for this new program with the DfE, they knew there would be a normal of challenges.
edt had already created a programme like this for early career teachers (ECTs), and the plan was to create something better following feedback, results and ongoing iterations of previous platforms.
The challenge with this was being able to track all of the relevant data needed to share with DfE, and also to provide a sense of personalisation through statutory training in a way that gave the ECT ownership of their own progression. On top of that, they need a platform that would accommodate a wide range of users (known as delivery partners), from ‘power users’ who had really detailed requirements to meet, as well as completely new delivery partners who would need a simple and user-friendly interface.
With BuildEmpire, the edt team utilised the full Totara Suite (Learn, Engage and Perform) to move beyond a standard LMS, creating a bespoke suite of learning that adapts to every user.
Prior to its creation, they engaged with their delivery partners via roundtables, discussions, forums, and brainstorming sessions to build out a keen idea of the learning design. The brief was clear, they wanted the platform to fit the programme, not the programme to fit the platform.
Key aspects of their platform involved:
Each delivery partner resides in their own tenant, providing isolated data security and regional control.
BuildEmpire developed bespoke reporting dashboards that allow mentors and regional admins to see actionable insights, such as learner pace and engagement, without needing a “degree in data science” to understand the numbers.
Regarding the mentor and ECT relationship, edt requested an option for a dual-pathway system within Perform. The mentor could choose to ‘consolidate’ or ‘extend’ the learning of their ECT on a module by module basis, allowing the learner to learn just what was needed, or to engage in further content.
This was really important as some ECTs will have learnt a lot of this content earlier in their learning journey, so for some, it was a case of enhancing their knowledge while for others it was a case of a reminder of the core concepts.
In order to aid this personalised learning, edt’s platform combined:
The program features a unique Instructional Coaching cycle powered by Totara Perform.
Unlike competitors who use restrictive drop-down lists for action steps, BuildEmpire enabled open-field professional dialogue. This empowers mentors to co-create specific, agentic goals with their ECTs, directly linking performance conversations to the evidence-based learning on the platform.
To meet DfE auditing standards, BuildEmpire built a custom API with edt’s CRM that captured incoming and outgoing webhooks to allow edt to create a manage users, as well as receive activity data on a granular level from viewing a resource to completing a quiz. All of this data was related from DfE through to the LMS, and back again.
To maintain platform performance during peak evening hours, the team implemented intelligent batching and queuing, ensuring a smooth user experience even during high-volume data moves.
edt successfully "fitted the platform to the programme," rather than compromising their learning design to fit a rigid system.
The robust data pipeline provides edt with the evidence needed for Ofsted inspections and DfE quality assurance.
By involving delivery partners from the start, edt achieved immediate buy-in and a high "maturity model" of usage.
The extended enterprise options available in Totara have allowed edt to set a new standard for ECT training.
The system manages the complex lifecycle of teachers, including those on maternity leave or working part-time, ensuring no learner is left behind
