"Top-performing employees in particular switch jobs quickly if we don't offer them opportunities ourselves," says Stephan Spies, Director of the Martha-Maria Training Center. To counteract fluctuations in the nursing and care sector, the Diakoniewerk Martha-Maria (organization for social welfare) in Nuremberg is focusing on professional qualifications and taking the initiative in further training.

In December 2012, Martha-Maria opened its own training center and integrated the existing nursing school. Until then, the training center had offered mostly shorter training courses for their own employees and external clients. But that was about to change. The education provider was going on the offensive for further training. "This will make the occupational profile more attractive and open up further career opportunities for nursing staff," says Stephan Spies, Director of the Training Center.

Mr. Spies knows what he's talking about. The 55-year-old is a trained nurse himself and went on to study Nursing Education. For many years, he worked as a nursing service manager and head of a nursing facility. Right from the start of the facility, the training center offered the "Martha-Maria management seminars" and shorter nursing training courses ranging from the palliative care seminar to the 120-hour course for nursing assistants. Mr. Spies and his team currently oversee approximately 1500 participants including the 90 nursing students. "Nurses and care providers have a greater impact on the reputation of hospitals and nursing and care homes than hospital management, for example," underlines the nursing educator. Therefore, it is important to invest in their education. He forecasts significant growth in the coming years – alone out of sheer necessity. "The demand for skilled workers in nursing professions is increasing. Now is the time to be sending out clear signals to get young people interested in these professions." So starting in December, the training center will launch further training courses for becoming a ward manager and will enable top performers to pursue new career opportunities. Consequently, the program will soon include courses for home coordinators, practical instructors or hygiene specialists.

The training center uses software from the Swabian IT provider, easySoft, to organize and carry out their increasing number of seminars. "With this software, we have a handle on all participants, instructors and rooms in one uniform database," explains Stephan Spies. According to him, being able to store the education history of each individual employee is one of the strengths of the modular program. "A great step forward," he explains. For example, if a ward manager had instructed the employees on the new Perfusor, the information was recorded in Word or Excel lists. However, the data often went missing even if employees only changed stations within the facility. "Soon, this will no longer happen because the information will be stored in the easySoft. Competence module," emphasizes Mr. Spies and perceives a further advantage.

Andreas Nau, Managing Director of easySoft, has also been observing the trend towards the systematic and individual advancement of employees for some time now. It's not just the health sector that is affected by the shortage of skilled workers. "HR managers in the industrial sector are also committed to improving the qualifications of their own employees," reports Andreas Nau. "Because it's always easier to equip a company's own talents for new tasks than to hire new talents at a great expense from a job market that has been swept clean." His company provides an excellent solution for this with its comprehensive training management and HR development software. Just recently, the easySoft. Competence module was awarded the "Best of 2014" rating as part of the Industry Prize 2014.

In a few weeks, a further new feature of the Martha-Maria Training Center will also provide greater comfort for the seminar participants and the center's employees. Currently, Stephan Spies is linking the event area of his website to easySoft via an interface. "Then interested parties can sign up directly from the Internet. We will be able to transfer the data error-free and send registration confirmations automatically," he explains the rationale. Course confirmations, participant lists, invoicing or evaluations ranging from course booking rates to seminar cost coverage are simplified significantly as well. "This will also enable us to cope with our future growth in terms of personnel," Mr. Spies is convinced.