To put it simply: Bluedrop is the company and SkillsPass is its software.
Bluedrop is has been around for 20+ years, with headquarters in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Our mandate is to lead niche markets where technology and learning can deliver new levels of operational success. We have focused on various workforce issues and in 2015 Bluedrop won a critical contract with WorkPlaceNL, the Workers' Compensation Board in NL. They were having significant pain tracking training records for their nine mandatory certifications. The SkillsPass platform was born. In addition to streamlining training data and ease of registration, the platform also introduced the digital certificate. The creation of a valid, digital certificate was a game changer for a fragmented industry that has historically relied on a worker keeping each safety certification issued manually by a training provider in their wallet and ready for inspection.
Today, SkillsPass can manage training expiration notifications for Training Providers, Workers and Employers; Workers have all their training history on one card, share with their employers, and can manage recertification and upcoming training; necessary stakeholders and supervisors can access valid training records with ease. MOL Inspectors will accept all safety training records presented to them via SkillsPass which can be directly from a worker’s phone where they can view individual certifications or scan the SkillsPass QR code. They will also accept printed versions of certifications from SkillsPass should workers choose to print.
A certificate that is electronic which can be displayed on your computer, smart phone, or tablet. The digital certificate is issued by the Training Provider via SkillsPass when a Worker passes safety training with a Training Provider on the SkillsPass network. The digital certificate populates in the Worker Portal and there is a copy in the Training Provider records as well.
As the world around us is constantly going paperless, SkillsPass empowers the Worker with a digital certificate that will never be lost or damaged and will follow him or her from jobsite to jobsite – especially attractive for the transient Worker. The digital certificate can be presented to an Inspector on a Worker’s phone using the SkillsPass QR code, displaying individual certifications on their phone. However, the Training Provider and / or Worker can still choose to print their certificate or SkillsPass card at any time!
Workers can share their safety training records with an Employer or Inspector at any time through their portal, via email.
Any data (i.e. training records and related trainee information, including name and email address) input by a Training Provider will belong to that Training Provider. The Training Provider and associated administrative users can see the data within their private SkillsPass view. The data is safely stored on a Canadian Amazon Cloud and can always be downloaded via a SkillsPass generated report into a csv / Excel file at any time.
SkillsPass uses a workers’ email for the following reasons:
- To Set Up Your SkillsPass Profile. Workers have full access to complete their profile and manage their safety records. A link will be emailed to the worker.
- As a Unique Identifier. When a worker returns for re-training, SkillsPass will find them with their unique email address along with their name.
- To Send Class Confirmations. We will send workers class schedule updates.
- To Issue Re-Training Notifications. Never worry about certifications expiring! SkillsPass will email trainees three notifications before their training is set to expire to ensure their certification does not expire unexpectedly.
Here are some of features Training Providers will utilize with SkillsPass
Booking classes, seat management, instructor assignment, taking attendance and ultimately issuing a digital cert (that can be printed; optional).
Automated record keeping gets rid of the stacks and stacks of manually inputted records, so pulling a worker’s training records on our cloud-based system is effortless and printing it is just as easy.
A unique advantage of SkillsPass is that it increases record access. There’s no calling around to confirm training or create a paper trail. Any authorized member of your organization can log in and view real-time credentials for anyone on their worksite or at the company.
Every stakeholder has an interest in maintaining safety training. SkillsPass notifications support you in that effort, enabling you to focus on the work, not the renewals. Safety training should never expire, and SkillsPass ensures everyone is reminded well before that can happen. We send out an expiry notification to the worker at 60 days, 30 days, and two weeks before the certificate is set to expire.
SkillsPass issues every worker their own unique QR code in the system. Anyone who scans this code can get a complete picture of that worker’s certifications in real-time. It is printable but also accessible by phone; a wallet card they won’t lose easily. You won’t have to dig up and mail out hard-copies of wallet cards.
SkillsPass assigns every worker their own profile. Instead of reducing credentials to some line item entry on some spreadsheet somewhere, their credentials really belong to them. So, they can move from employer to employer or training provider to training provider and not clog up your records with duplicate accounts or duplicate training.
SkillsPass is a solution for the entire safety training ecosystem. That means Employers, Training Providers, Workers, Unions, and yes, even Regulators. SkillsPass makes it possible for you to automate reporting to participating Regulators and Authorizers. You can spend less time on reports and more time on the Workers, their training, and the work you do together.
