Since its launch a year ago, Fit Academy has been revolutionizing PLM & 3D software training for fashion, luxury goods and retail companies. Founded to meet the specific needs of these sectors in terms of adopting PLM and 3D technologies, the Fit Academy offers customized, high-quality training programs. After 1 year of existence, we wanted to take stock of the Fit Academy, tracing its progress from its creation, through its first achievements and difficulties, to its prospects for the future.
What is Fit Academy? 🤔
Historically, training at Fit Retail has always been at the heart of our HR concerns. With limited external training in our technological and sector expertise, we quickly developed in-house training courses. The aim is to ensure that our team of PLM consultants continue to develop their skills.
As part of the natural development of our service offering, we have been offering training courses to our customers since 2018. We support their digitalization projects, including the implementation of PLM software such as Centric Software or 3D design software such as Browzwear or evenClo3D.
Building on this experience, we decided to give a new impetus to this project by becoming a qualiopi-certified training organization last year, a qualiopi-certified training organization.
” The Fit Academy is unlike any other organization. As HR Manager, I often deplore the lack of professionalism in our training courses, which are far removed from the operational reality of our consultants. We invest time and money, and in the end it doesn’t meet the expectations and challenges of our teams. We have designed our offer with our “bad experiences” in mind, with the ambition of creating useful training courses adapted to learners’ professional realities. “. Carmel McDonald, HR & Marketing Manager
For companies in the fashion, luxury goods and retail sectors, we offer tailor-made programs to facilitate the adoption or development of best practices on PLM software such as PLM Centric Software, or on 3D design tools like Browzwear and Clo3D. Our personalized approach guarantees smooth integration of these technologies within business and support teams, while meeting the specific needs of each company.
“ It’s widely accepted that training is a performance driver for companies. I also believe that this is a complementary, if not essential, building block for the success of a digitalization project, and that unfortunately this stage is sometimes underestimated. ” Carmel McDonald, HR & Marketing Manager
What are the benefits of Fit Academy? 👀
The benefits of our training courses are many:
- They are built by expert technology consultants.
- We carry out an in-depth study of the needs expressed by our customers and learners in order to adapt each training program.
- Our experienced trainers guide participants through real-life use cases and concrete examples. This enables them to acquire skills that are directly applicable to their day-to-day work. Positive feedback from our customers testifies to the significant impact our training courses have had on their performance and competitiveness in the marketplace.
” I enjoyed discovering the tool and its many features. I also really appreciated the trainer’s patience, kindness, availability and professionalism. I thought it was very good that the training combined theory and practice, and above all that the practical part was adapted to our sector and our needs (because often in training it’s very vast and it’s hard to transpose for us. In this case, I found it very concrete). ” Faustine Q., Assistant Product Manager at Auchan
- Our in-house training offer is tailored to our consultants’ professions. Our multiple technological, functional and business backgrounds enable us to support the diversity of our profiles in the development of their skills.
💡 Fun Fact: Between 2018 and today, as part of our in-house training policy, we’ve gone from using 100% external organizations, to just 11% thanks to Fit Academy’s rich training offering.
” In just 5 years, we’ve become a true training organization for our teams! It’s a real success for us and a great business project. In my opinion, our ability to pass on our expertise, support each individual’s potential for growth and develop skills are real levers of success for Fit Retail. ” Carmel McDonald, HR & Marketing Manager
What were the highlights of the year? 🔎
In its first year, the Fit Academy achieved several important milestones:
- The creation of a dedicated team of experienced trainers, educational managers and training experts has ensured the quality and consistency of our programs.
- Obtaining Qualiopi certification certification attests to our commitment to excellence in the delivery of our training services.
- The release of our first training catalog…
And we’ve had our first successes! Our learners are satisfied with our training courses. Our feedback has been particularly positive. Congratulations once again to our trainers and educational managers, who have contributed greatly to this success.
In figures… 📈
Training for our customers :
- 18 training courses on Centric Software PLM, Browzwear, Clo 3D, Illustrator, Ai Centric Connector
- Average satisfaction rating in 2023: 8.8/10
- 100% of respondents recommend our training courses.
Training for our teams :
- 10 in-house training courses
- 100% of respondents recommend in-house training and trainers
- 9 trainers trained in our “Train the trainer” course.
” Learner satisfaction is our top priority. We work hard every day to offer quality training courses. Our fuel? See that our learners are satisfied and recommend our courses. I’m very proud of the work of our trainers and the quality of their training! “Carmel MC DONALD, HR & Marketing Manager
Although the figures are exceptional and reassuring, you need to take a step back to see the whole picture. As with all projects, not everything is perfect:
- Our trainers sometimes found it difficult to run certain training sessions (either because the audience was slow to respond, or because the preparation time required was underestimated…).
- We didn’t have enough time to roll out our communication plan around our training offer.
- Administrative procedures for Qualiopi have sometimes added to the cumbersome and time-consuming aspects of our day-to-day work.
- The driving rituals of our Fit Academy were not always guaranteed.
It wasn’t all plain sailing. This has enabled us to reinvent ourselves, to be creative and to advance our organization and our practices.
What are the prospects for Fit Academy? 🚀
As we look to the future, we remain convinced by our project and motivated to make the Fit Academy a success in the field of training for the fashion, luxury and retail sectors.
On the customer side, a new training catalog catalogue. The range of training courses has been enhanced with new programs, notably on :
- Centric Software PLM software: after more than a year’s work, Emmanuel GELLEE, our PLM training manager, was able to consolidate our training courses around administration, configuration, library management and rights management in Centric Software PLM.
- Browzwear 3D design software: thanks to their certifications as official Browzwear trainers and our close relationship with the publisher, our training consultants Elsa HUET & Alexandra BUOR have reviewed all the training courses offered on this theme.
Of course, we have many exciting projects in the pipeline, including the launch of new training programs focusing on the latest technological innovations and industry best practices in PLM & 3D software. We will also pass our renewal audit for the Qualiopi certification.
On the internal team side, we will continue to invest in skills development, offering training programs tailored to the specific needs of our teams.
” Our desire is to continue to enrich our training offerings and provide the best possible experience for learners! ” Carmel McDonald, HR & Marketing Manager
To sum up… ✏️
Fit Academy’s first year of operation has been one of growth and achievement. We’re proud of how far we’ve come, and grateful to our customers. We would also like to thank our teams for their trust and commitment. We look forward to continuing this adventure together and achieving new successes in the years to come.
Interested in ourtraining organization? Take a look at our new catalog orcontact us today to find out how Fit Academy can help you achieve your goals.
