Bespoke E-Learning for ITV’s “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!”

by Kate Lindop | Dec 3, 2020 | News, Blog, News and Updates

REALSENSE looks back at its Bespoke E-Learning for ITV’s Top Rated TV Show

Since 2002, ITV has livened up our winter nights with its popular TV show “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!” being beamed live into our living rooms. The show needs no introduction – bush tucker trials, creepy crawlies and the campsite shower have all become TV gold. However, have you ever thought how many people it takes to get the show on the road – and onto our screens?

In the earlier years, the production team was primarily made up of over 600 people from the UK, Europe and Australia, many of whom would need to be on site for up to 3 months before filming began – a large team all needing health and safety training. Achieving this was in some ways even more challenging than some of the trials faced by the show’s celebrities.

The challenges of training in the jungle

Initially, the crew would undertake an induction session upon arrival on site in Australia. The on-site health and safety team, headed up by Bob McCarron, medical supervisor for the show, delivered training on a face to face basis. Trying to co-ordinate the training of personnel in groups of 1 to 15 without adversely affecting set-up was a real challenge. On occasions, training could result in significant lost time up to as much as an entire working week. Training suffered from busy schedules and personnel spread over multiple locations with some crew members not able to complete their training effectively, putting themselves and others at greater risk.

The key issues to address

There were a number of considerations and points to address:

1. the risk associated with crew members working on site before receiving induction training
2. all personnel were having to be trained on site by the health and safety team on arrival
3. time taken to deliver training was lengthy
4. training records needed to be logged and recorded so compliance could be monitored
5. the training had to fit in and around setup and production schedules
6. existing learning resources were ideally to be used and evolved where possible
7. the knowledge and expertise from existing induction needed to be an integral part of the solution.

Creating site safety e-learning for a production team

Online learning was an obvious fit, and the design of the site safety induction started to take shape. The aim being to enable staff to access and complete the training prior to arriving on site.

REALSENSE worked alongside Health and Safety specialists Praxis42 to put together a bespoke e-learning solution that could be delivered to all of ITV’s production team around the world prior to arrival on site.

It was important to ensure that the training was meaningful, memorable and measurable. Whilst many people may associate general health and safety training as quite dull and boring and not particularly user-friendly – we turned our attention to producing an engaging learning experience. The bespoke e-learning solution comprised of interactions that built on the fun themes of the show and attractive challenges that tested the transfer of knowledge and retention of the learnings.

We took time to understand what ITV was looking to achieve and then designed a way to incorporate those elements into the training. The learning was presented with easy to use navigation- sections logically presented relating to all elements of jungle life, focusing on hazards and issues the crew could face on site. The course addressed hazards identified in the environment, from fires, weather, animals and insects and environmental issues as well as all the necessary health and safety requirements needed to ensure the safety of the team and compliance associated with all of the safety points.

Positive Feedback

We were delighted with the feedback we received for this project, ITV reported that their crew arrived on site fully trained, with detailed knowledge of the major risks of the jungle and the site safety procedures. This saved significant time and money, with ITV reporting that by using the bespoke e-learning they had saved money on their overall training budget too.

The training was delivered successfully, with an increase in uptake of approx. 25% over previous face-to-face training. It is always rewarding to have a satisfied customer and in this case a safe and happy production team, with some feeding back that it was “the best training we’ve ever done”.

REALSENSE at the E-Learning Awards

In 2015, we were excited (and proud!) for the bespoke e-learning solution to be shortlisted for the E-Learning Awards alongside ITV and Praxis42, in the category “Best use of e-learning to ensure compliance with external regulations or internal policies”.

REALSENSE nominated for E-Learning Awards with ITV and Praxis42 in the category of “Best use of e-learning to ensure compliance with external regulations or internal policies” for its work on ITV’s “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!”

The teams enjoyed a great night at the awards and although we were just pipped to the winner’s prize, we were delighted with the recognition for our bespoke work.

Bespoke E-Learning from REALSENSE

Our work with ITV is one of many examples of our bespoke work. Whether it’s compliance, induction, system or product training, our bespoke solutions are designed to fulfill our customer’s training needs, their culture and brand.

We inolve our customers throughout our production process – whether delivering accessible content to impaired learners, providing multi-lingual learning on multiple devices or as with ITV, delivering bespoke e-learning that addresses unique requirements – we build learning that drives change and achieves goals.

The real value of our bespoke solutions can be seen by the positive impact it has on our client’s learners and the transformations their organisations have seen.

Ground up development or evolving existing resources

Whether ‘starting from scratch’ or building on existing training resources, we collaborate with customer teams and subject matter experts to identify and define clear learning objectives. We’ll plan content, design storyboards and evolve a look and feel that delivers quality e-learning, on time and to budget.

Our experience shows that good collaboration delivers greatest results so we involve our clients throughout all stages of production to ensure we maximise the potential of our solutions. You can take a closer look at some examples of our work in our bespoke e-learning section.