AFTER just a year of trading, a Stonehouse company which produces business training software has been shortlisted for an industry award.

ELearning247, based at the Bonds Mill trading estate, now has customers across the globe.

In fact it has started to challenge bigger rivals after being shortlisted for the 2013 e-Learning Awards for most innovative new software.

The idea for a company which would allow companies and individuals to develop their own computer-based training for staff came from founder Neil Hyde who noticed a gap in the market.

“There was nothing out there available for companies who wanted to develop their own training programmes,” said Neil, who asked former colleague Joe Jarlett, who at the time was designing websites for the CIRCA research centre in the Amazon basin, to help make his vision a reality.

“We wanted to create software that would be easy for anyone to use whether they were a big organisation which needed training for thousands of employees or an individual who wanted to create a training programme for only one or two people.”

The company now has nearly 50 companies using its software, including British Gymnastics, the UK national governing body for the sport, who has chosen eLearning247 as their partner to develop a safeguarding course for 16 and 17 year olds who are coaching young children.

Forest adventure company Go Ape! has also used the software to create an online training programme for its entire staff.

The team at Bonds Mill has already tripled in size with seven people now working for the company with the expectation for this number to double within the next year.

“Business owners better than anyone know the sorts of things their staff need to learn so why shouldn’t they be the ones creating the training programmes,” said Neil.

To find out more go to www.elearning247.com/.