One Development

Once again, belatedly, national Government has seen that training can provide a few answers to some of the issues facing us in the current economic climate... and as a trainer I welcome these, but with some reservations and more than a touch of deja vu . As so often it is too late and unplanned: a knee jerk reaction with with a distinct whiff of panic. Ill thought out initiatives encourage trainers to rush into preparing courses to answer these 'needs'. And there is the key point... who identifies these needs and by what mechanisms? I still deal with clients in the private sectors who identify real skill shortages and I ask them if they have ever been approached by representatives of Government with respect to these needs? I assume (charitably) that consultation is constantly taking place with the main industry bodies. Of course it makes sense to look at where the big numbers are. But I still can't avoid an eerie feeling that behind locked doors someone is deciding what i...

What do we mean by creativity? Often it is confused with the obviously 'creative' professions, such as media, arts and music etc. But this is only the application of creative thinking to a particular set of disciplines. I worked for a long time in advertising and we had the so-called ' creatives ' including the writers and art directors (yes, I was one for a while) but it was the way people moved from discipline to discipline that flagged up the fact that it was a way of thinking not a label that matters. I have met many scientists and engineers who are amazing creative thinkers. Look at some of our leading businessmen and women: it requires a high level of creative thought to come up with an original business idea or model and build a whole structure to carry that forward. Accepting that it is a way of thinking, an approach to problem solving, means that it can be taught. Of course people's aptitude varies, but creative thinking is a skill all can learn... and yes...

Back in February I wrote on digital media training and in particular writing for the web. This has become quite an issue recently with clients increasingly opting for websites with content management systems ( CMS ). Web copy not only dictates how well you communicate your offer, but how well your site performs in organic listings on search engines. So extracted from my writing for the web training package, here are 10 key points to bear in mind. Remember how you read websites - look and learn from sites you think do it well. Don't expect your visitor to read what you won't read yourself. Customers only listen to one radio station WIIFM - 'what's in it for me'. Talk about benefits to them... don't talk about yourself. Vary descriptions: people use different terms to describe most things, so consider the terms they may search your site on. For example, I was working for a vehicle hire company, but visitors might search on truck rental, truck hire, contract hire,...

Part of the reason I got into training in the first place is because I love the interaction with people. And I think there is no better way of developing quality training and coaching than face to face. However, with transport costs, fuel costs and the environmental costs, alternatives have to be found. I have been working on and developing online training modules for parts of courses - these work very well to add another dimension to face to face sessions. And they are useful for academic, quantifiable lessons, especially where assessment is needed. But there seemed little substitute for the interactive, participatory dimension: however over past months I have bee exploring the options provided by social networking sites, particularly Second Life. It was about a year ago that I got interested in the psychological aspects of virtual worlds as research suggests that in general people behave the same in virtual worlds as the would in the real world. This does not mean that they will pl...

I was talking to a colleague the other day who develops in-house training. She had a new, specialist function to train a small group to operate. Out of interest, in her pre -training questionnaire she asked what type of training would they like and in what format. Universally they came back with 'classroom style, chalk and talk', rather than any form of participatory workshop or interactive training. Fundamentally what the participants were saying was they didn't want to put in any work or effort but be magically trained sitting in a room doing nothing. But, what we know from feedback, evaluations , de -briefing and ultimately performance , is that delegates in general prefer participatory training. Evaluations usually show higher levels of boredom and dissatisfaction from classroom style training. So people don't always know what's best for them in advance... but know what was best for them, after the event.

With a predicted recession we can expect the usual impact on trainin budgets - just when training becomes more important then ever, budgets are likely to be cut. However, on top of this we now have the problem of massive and unprecidented increases in fuel costs and the implications these bring to training. Travel cost now represent a massive proportion of training course costs and may be a major disincentive to companies to send delegates any distance. Maybe the watchword is; 'don't commute - communicate'. Online training, both self administrated and facilitated over live links while no substitute for face to face delivery, can be a an important component of any programme. Trainers need to consider carefully how programmes can be restructured to make use of technology in coordination with personal delivery to provide quality, effective training in tight economic environments.

This is a serious question, because we don't know. The new England rugby coach has undoubted game skills and experience, tremendous leadership skills and presence and an inspirational record. But as he admitted himself, he has no coaching experience. This is an extreme example, I know, but it does illustrate a point that we tend to think (a) that coaching skills are unimportant and can be learned on the job and (b) that training seems to be seen as less important the higher you climb the management ladder. An employee may need an NVQ before they will be considered for a job in their local leisure centre but it's okay to choose a top coach with no previous coaching training or qualification and keep our fingers crossed that he is a 'natural'.