How Share Turned Learning into Their Most Valuable Member Benefit 

Share is a Scottish charity with forty years of experience providing learning and development for the housing sector. Their members include housing associations, RSLs, local authorities, and charities across Scotland — organisations of all sizes, from small teams of four or five staff to large bodies with thousands. 

What unites them? A need for affordable, relevant professional development that most couldn't access on their own. 

Before Access LMS Evo, Share used a basic platform shared across multiple public bodies. It was originally developed by the NHS - which meant the pre-loaded content included courses on phlebotomy and resuscitation. Not exactly relevant for housing professionals. 

But the real problem wasn't the content. It was the model. 

Member organisations had no control. They couldn't assign courses to their own staff. They couldn't upload their own policies or documents. They couldn't track their team's CPD. The platform felt like someone else's - because it was. 

The result? Dismal engagement. 400 users per year was a good year. Most years, it was closer to 100-200. 

Share knew they needed something different. They evaluated over 20 platforms before finding one that understood what membership organisations actually need. 

Share chose Access LMS Evo and built something genuinely different: a learning platform designed around membership, not employment. 

The key insight? Members aren't employees. You can't mandate their engagement. You have to earn it. 

"We're providing the platform as part of our membership for free. All of our members — all housing associations — get access. Paying into a membership and us providing that learning as a major benefit... that's why they stay with us." - Debra Campbell, Share 

White-Labelling: Making It Theirs 

Share branded the platform as "The Share Learning Management System" - their logo, their colours, their identity. When members log in, they see Share. When their staff log in, they see their own organisation. 

This sense of ownership proved critical for engagement. 

"Our members think it's our product. We've purchased it from Access, we've made it ours by putting our branding on it. From their perspective, it's their Housing Association's platform — and that drives engagement." - Debra Campbell, Share 

Empowering Member Admins 

Each member organisation has their own admin with real control over their learning environment. They can assign courses, upload documents, create pathways, and track CPD — all within their own branded space. 

"We said to admins: you support your team, and we'll support you. If you don't know how to do something, come to us. That puts them in the driver's seat. They love the control." - Catriona McKeitch, Share 

As admins grew confident, they started doing more - uploading policies as mandatory reads, building induction pathways, tracking who's engaged and who hasn't. 

"Maybe they've got new policies coming out - they upload it to the platform and send it out as training. They can see who's read it, who hasn't, assign it by a due date. Rather than just pinging out an email and hoping for the best." - Catriona McKeitch, Share 

Keeping Members Coming Back 

Share focused on building genuine value that members couldn't get elsewhere: bespoke Scottish housing courses, the full Access eLearning catalogue, CPD tracking, and now accredited qualifications, all in one place. 

"They're not just getting one type of CPD. They can cover everything. The CPD logs mean they can use it as a one-stop shop — even adding training they've done elsewhere." - Catriona McKeitch, Share 

The transformation has been remarkable. Share went from 400 users per year to over 1,000 users per month. 

"In one month, we beat three years of our previous platform. For us, that's a success story." - Debra Campbell, Share 

But the real measure isn't logins: it's member value. And members are noticing. 

"I was at a meeting the other day and someone said they wouldn't want to lose Share because we're so important for learning and development. We're one of the only places in Scotland that offers certain types of training — and this platform is included in your membership. You don't pay anything extra." - Debra Campbell, Share 

Share received this unsolicited feedback from a member organisation: 

"Our housing organisation is an active user of the eL-learning system. We have found it simple to use. Training is short, sharp, and has a great variety of topics that cover compliance, health and safety, tenancy, and estate management. This is supported by very accessible admin staff who are happy to have a quick call through Teams if there are any issues. The support given by admin has enabled us to create mandatory reads, particularly around our new policy launches and reviews. The CPD record tool is fantastic and allows us to track training, learning, and development. A great tool and support — strongly recommended." -  Share Member 

Running a membership site requires a different kind of support. Share praised their Customer Success Manager, James, for understanding their unique model. 

"The support we've been getting is obviously good. You're always coming back to us. We know we're a small fish in a large pond, but you've been able to add things for us at no additional cost — which is great." - Debra Campbell, Share 

That partnership gave Share the confidence to renew for another three years. 

Share's vision for the next three years is ambitious: move nearly all training onto the platform, help members build their own induction programmes, expand accredited qualifications, and grow the user base even further. 

"We want to come back to James and say: we need another thousand licenses because we're up. We've already added more and more people — that was unheard of with our last platform." - Debra Campbell, Share 

For membership bodies considering a similar approach, Share offered this advice: 

"Know what you want to use it for. Plan out how you're going to use it, who's going to be on it, what roles people are going to play. Test your courses before you launch. If we were going to do it again, that's what we would do: a proper plan." - Debra Campbell, Share 

1. Position learning as a benefit, not a burden. Members choose to engage — make it worth their while. 

2. White-label for ownership. When members see it as 'their' platform, engagement follows. 

3. Empower member admins. Give them control to assign, upload, and track for their own teams. 

4. Build a one-stop shop. CPD tracking, policy reads, qualifications — the more value, the more essential you become. 

5. Plan your rollout. Map out how members will use it before you launch.