From learn-to-swim schemes to football or tennis coaching, course programming is the bread-and-butter of any successful sport and leisure business.

As most operators will tell you, the challenges of administering and co-ordinating these schemes can stretch even the most efficient management teams to their limit. It’s not only the logistical burden of keeping track of multiple joiners, leavers and movers; it’s also trying to keep parents and participants up to date with their progress, which impacts greatly on retention.

But thanks to Gladstone’s Learn2 course management tool, many operators are now meeting these challenges much more effectively.

Rather than requiring receptionists to send out re-enrolment letters, Learn2 automatically emails and/or texts parents to let them know when their child is ready to move up to the next class or needs to pay for the next set of lessons. It then further reduces the pressure on your staff by allowing customers to re-enrol their child themselves using the internet-based Home Portal.

Instead of paper-based registers and competency check sheets, teachers work with a portable, waterproof, touch-screen device. This allows them to take registers and make real-time assessments of children during the lesson itself, drastically reducing the admin burden. And because the device connects and syncs wirelessly with Home Portal, over a secure wireless network, it’s easy for parents to stay up to date with their child’s progress online.

Also built into Learn2 is a tailored reporting feature, allowing you to access reports on your joiners, leavers, class movements and class occupancy, set against monthly targets and refined by date, centre, course or teacher.

“We developed Learn2 to simplify the administration process for swim-schools, which can often become very complicated and time-consuming,” says Tom Withers, Gladstone’s sales and marketing director.

“However, it’s been so successful that a number of leisure operators are now using Learn2 to manage dryside courses, as well as to increase revenues.”