NARMSCertify U Now Live!

Mark down March 2, 2010 as an important date in the history of NARMS. Yesterday, our NARMSCertify U field representative training tool went live. Training and education are critical to our members who operate a largely decentralized workforce to deliver expert at-retail merchandising and marketing services. Now, eight career building courses are available to provide marketing representatives with a simple, straightforward online learning experience. In addition, there will be a special workshop entitled, “NARMSCertify U and You,” at the NARMS Spring Conference on Sunday April 18th at the Saddlebrook Resort in Tampa.

NARMSCertify U is an online learning center offering certified career-building courses developed by industry experts for marketing service representatives. The online courses can be accessed by field representative anywhere and anytime, so they can learn at their own pace. Each course topic consists of a learning module with interactive screens, followed by a quiz to confirm knowledge transfer. Upon quiz completion, the representative will be awarded a certification of completion that will be posted on the representative’s NARMS.com profile. Course certificates provide representatives with higher visibility to job postings within NARMS.com.

Current courses include Train the Trainer, Merchandising Standards, Retail Visit Excellence, Team Lead Skills, Fixture Installation, Event Marketing, Demonstrations and Mystery Shopping with more to follow. Individual field reps can seek this knowledge on their own or member companies can utilize NARMSCertify U as their official, industry approved training tool to enhance their workforce quality and productivity.

NARMS member companies will benefit through workforce training that builds on industry standards to improve the quality of the workforce at the retail level. NARMSCertify U learning program is based on a Learning Management System, offering courses and testing using Adult Learning Principles, with administrative management and measurement features.

NARMSCertify U was developed in partnership with NARMS International and BDS Marketing, Inc. to benefit the at-retail services industry. As the parent sponsor, NARMS considers the NARMSCertify U program as the official learning center for member companies and their field representatives while BDS Marketing, Inc. will be responsible to design, develop, manage and promote the online learning system. To learn more about NARMS visit www.narms.com. To learn more about BDS Marketing, Inc. visit www.bdsmktg.com.