We have released a new feature called 'Availability Request'.

The 'Availability Request' feature allows organisations to quickly, easily and cheaply ask the trainers and assessors in their network if they can work on a certain date. This is very useful if trainers and assessors have not entered their time into their calendar. This article goes into more detail about what the request is and how it works.

The scenario is that a training coordinator wants to staff a course. When they look at their organisations Staff Calendar some of their trainers and assessors have not entered their availability into their calendars. The training coordinator can then bulk send availability requests to their trainers and assessors by email and / or SMS.

• To access the availability request screen the training coordinator goes to their organisations staff calendar. On the header of each day is the availability request icon:

• Clicking on the icon opens the Availability Request screen for that date:

• There are two delivery methods for an Availability Request Email & Sms.
  • The Sms option is only available if the trainer / assessor has entered their mobile phone number on their account and if you (the training coordinator) have purchased some Sms messages from our online shop. (£15 for 100 messages).
    A Sms message will be sent to the trainer / assessors phone and will contain text like this:
    
    "Can you work 22/Dec/08 08:00 to 22/Dec/08 10:15, reply STN PUS YES or STN PUS NO to 60300 to update your calendar"
    
    The trainer can then just reply using a standard text message which will then update their calendar on the website. They don't need to go near a computer which is great when they are out delivering courses all day!

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  • Email message, these are free to send. The email contains details of the date and times that we can to know if they can work. There are also two links back to the website. Clicking on one link confirms if they are available or not enters this into their calendar.
     
• Once people have replied then their calendars will have been updated and their availability visible to the training coordinator.

That is everything that is currently involved in this feature. Any questions please use the comments box below this post.