Leading Pizza franchise, Papa John’s, has announced it has completed the UK roll out of a new E-learning portal for its franchisees.

Business owners and store personnel access the system, called ULearn, over the internet via a PC or store terminal and it now offers a key ingredient of the blended learning approach to training, advocated at Papa John’s.

“ULearn is divided into 12 core modules designed to cover every essential aspect of the franchise,” confirms Gavin Lilley, director of training, Papa John’s GB Ltd. “From new team member orientation to developing delivery driver skills, the visual and audio presentations provide franchisees with a valuable, additional tool to train their staff. We have also enhanced the UK version of the portal to enable staff to complete the Food Safety Level 2 certification.

“Naturally, staff training is an on-going task,” continues Lilley. “However, because personnel are certified once they have successfully passed the test at the end of each learning module, ULearn also helps franchise owners monitor the progress training easily. This is particularly helpful for some of our multi-store franchisees who are managing multiple teams.

“Because it is online, the system is also easily updatable,” explains Lilley. “This is important when we are introducing new recipes for example. It allows us to communicate to all staff how to make the new pizza on a step-by-step basis, ensuring the consistent high-quality of our products.”

First pioneered in the USA, the Papa John’s concept of only using the highest quality ingredients and 100% fresh dough to create a top quality pizza with a better natural flavour has proved incredibly popular in the UK. The company currently has 88 UK franchisees operating 189 outlets and is on target to reach a goal of over 200 by the year end.

Papa John’s is one of the largest pizza companies in the world, with over 3900 stores worldwide and is rapidly expanding in 33 markets around the globe. Papa John’s, which is renowned for its product quality, has opportunities for potential franchisees throughout the UK including the key locations of Yorkshire, Manchester, West Midlands, East Midlands, South West, North East, Wales & Scotland.