Talking TAP
The TAP Qualified Professional Newsletter
In This Issue
Monthly Features
- TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Yvonne English
- TAP Partner of the Month
- Article of the Month: Interview with Nigel Ross, Samaritans
- Subscription details
Contact us
www.tap-training.com
c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com
Dates for your diary
Every year The Training Foundation takes part in a wide range of Learning and Development related events. TAP Qualified Professional LinkedIn members will receive advance notice and special registration privileges. Jot these dates in your diary!
CIPD HRD Conference and Exhibition,
21st to 23rd April 2009, ExCeL, Docklands, London
Welcome from Claire Brookes
I’m pleased to welcome you to the Easter 2009 issue of Talking TAP. The TAP Qualified Professional Group on Linked In is still growing rapidly and the forum is generating some interesting discussions, feel free to post questions about any challenges you are currently facing. I am sure fellow members will be happy to assist if they can.
Clive Shepherd shares his experiences of Twittering.
Our TAP Qualified Professional of the Month is Yvonne English, the UK & EMEA IT Technical Trainer at Discovery Channel.
We are delighted to announce BT as the TAP Partner of the Month.
And finally, in the Article of the Month, we look at Nigel Ross from the Samaritans who works on a very restricted budget, organising and delivering training for staff and volunteers at charity the Samaritans.
Best wishes and enjoy your Easter break
Claire.
Three months a-Twittering
Back at Online Educa in Berlin last December, I made the decision to undertake a three month trial of Twitter. I must admit I didn't really get it, but I was encouraged by the enthusiasm of Jane Hart, Josie Fraser and others, and decided to give it a go. Well, the three months are now up and it's time to reflect on my experience. Do I continue or call it a day?
The stats show a reasonable amount of activity: I am following 107 others, 286 are following me and I have made 343 tweets, which works out at about 3 or 4 a day. In practice, some days I don't tweet at all, on others I suddenly remember Twitter and issue a bombardment of tweets, and on those days when I'm able to keep online continuously, I approach what I imagine to be normal Twitter behaviour, i.e. occasional tweets throughout the day. I've discovered I need some tools, in my case Twhirl, a Twitter client for my PC, and Twibble, which does the same for my Nokia N series phone. Technically all this has worked fine and cost me nothing.
Typically those who don't use Twitter find it hard to understand why anyone would want to tweet and what they would find to tweet about, and that's quite understandable because tweeting is not normal human behaviour, at least not for me. Twitter itself suggests that you answer the question 'what are you doing?' in 140 characters or less, and that's where most people start. This is a bit like a Facebook status posting so, like many people, I configured Facebook to pick up my tweets and display them on my profile page.
Sometimes what you are doing is interesting to other people, not because they need to know but because what you do gives away a great deal about what it's like to be you. From the early days of Facebook, I have been fascinated by what people have for dinner, watch on TV, read in the bath, do at weekends, etc., just as much as I want to know what they're up to professionally. You don't get this information from a presentation, a report, even a blog, yet somehow it brings you much closer to the real person - you feel like friends, even if you've never met.
Once you have a relationship with your Twitter network, you can start to be a little more demanding. In my case that means asking questions - how do you do this? what is your experience of that? Replies come back in minutes and certainly much more quickly than you'd expect from a blog or forum posting, but you need quite a large network to maximise your chances of receiving useful responses.
Of course this works two ways and the old cliche that you only get out of anything what you are prepared to put in certainly applies here. When someone asks a question and you can contribute a useful answer then of course you must. And if you've found a gem of a website, blog posting, video or whatever then you should share it.
As a learning and development professional it is obligatory to ask whether Twitter has potential as a learning tool. I'm not sure. It doesn't, for me at least, have the power that blogging does as a stimulus for reflection. It doesn't offer the potential for collaborative work that a wiki can provide. Nor is it likely to be as helpful in locating and sharing expertise as an enterprise social networking tool. But I'm sure it can work alongside all these and other tools and I would certainly never discourage the use of Twitter in a learning context.
In summary, Twitter is providing me with plenty of value, so I'm sticking with it. As someone who works from home, it keeps me in touch with a wide range of like-minded professionals. Whether the benefits I've found are universal, I couldn't possibly say. So, if you're not already tweeting, then you're going to have to find out the same way I did.
TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Yvonne English
Yvonne is a ‘gadget’ person and is always looking to learn something new both in and out of work, and loves the feeling she gets when showing people something new and you see in their face or body language that they’ve got it!
Yvonne is happy to turn her hand to all aspects of training from getting hold of a new product or system, and pressing all the buttons then writing the documentation to make it easier for others to understand, and of course working with the users to ensure that they are comfortable with using it for themselves.
Yvonne has worked with MS Office since the days of ‘DOS’ [that’s pre-windows operating system for those of you a tiny bit younger then her!], and also various other office style suites both prior and post MS Office days. Before officially becoming a trainer around 9 years ago - Yvonne just helped people before that – Yvonne was responsible for the creation and maintenance of multi-language websites, also having had a short period for time working within a marketing department and a technical writing department. Yvonne started her working life with various PA/admin roles.
Yvonne’s been lucky enough in her last and current jobs to train people around the world, her favourite being a difficult choice between Hong Kong and Dubai.
Yvonne started her training career with Intertek Testing Service when the opportunity to move into the training department was made available. Yvonne took the opportunity to apply and has never looked back since.
Yvonne’s main scope of work is training on technology systems and software, new and old technology, out-of-the-box and bespoke systems. Whilst working with Intertek Yvonne had the opportunity to build on her career creating and delivering training material on a large be-spoke pre-shipment inspection certification system. This included user training and train-the-trainer sessions, often where English was not the trainee’s main language.
Almost three and a half years ago Yvonne moved to the Discovery Channel as their UK & EMEA Technology trainer initially working within the IT department, and now based within the Learning & Development Team as the International Learning & Development Technology Consultant. Yvonne plays a key part within IT and other business areas in determining the style of training best suited to individual projects, and will quite happily take part in UAT with a ‘users hat on’ pre-system release. Yvonne is also along with her colleagues in the US responsible for creating user documentation, classroom and/or e-learning materials, as well as delivering the classroom elements of a course.
A key part in enabling Yvonne to grow in her role was the opportunity proved and funded by Discovery to attend a number of the TAP certification courses since October 2007. Initial Yvonne attended the Training Delivery Skills certification in October 07 and quickly followed this up with Facilitation Skills certification in November 07, and Training Design & Development certification in December 07.
At the start of 2008 Yvonne decided that e-learning was a direction she would like to learn more about, so once again turned to the TAP methodolgy, having found this to be a training style that suited and enhanced her previous learning. Yvonne initially took the Blended Learning Certificate in Feb 08, followed by the e-learning Development skills in July 08, e-learning Facilitation certification in Oct 08 and e-learning Implementaion in Jan 09.
Yvonne has now gained the TAP Blended Learning Diploma and the TAP e-learning Diploma, with only her work based project to complete to gain the TAP Diploma in Learning & Development.
To find out more about Yvonne or add her as a LinkedIn connection, please visither profile at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/8a1/885
If you are interested in becoming the TAP Qualified Professional of the Month please get in touch with Claire Brookes at The Training Foundation.
TAP Partner of the Month
BT Expedite, the Retail Specialist Division of BT, is one of the world's leading providers of software application solutions to the retail sector.
The company was formed in January 2004, when BT acquired the UK assets, operations and distribution rights of global retail software supplier NSB. It now works with the leading retailers throughout the UK, Europe and North America, helping them to streamline processes, optimise information and meet the evolving merchandise and service expectations of multi-channel shoppers.
To download the full case study click here (1.54MB - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Article of the Month: Interview with Nigel Ross, Samaritans
Nigel Ross works on a very restricted budget, organising and delivering training for staff and volunteers at charity the Samaritans.
What are the challenges in your job?
As a charity, our funds are restricted so the main challenge is to find cost-effective solutions to deliver training to our 16,500 volunteers. They are spread over a wide geographical area across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
You are addressing e-learning provision: why?
E-learning is a relatively new initiative for the Samaritans, as it does not easily lend itself to the listening skills training that is such a significant part of our role. It is ideal for delivering training to the specialist roles within our branches and we are developing a training package for our trustees and specialist roles such as branch treasurers and marketing officers.
What's your view on open source platform Moodle as a vehicle for e-learning?
I am very impressed with the tools and ease of use that Moodle offers. I would recommend readers make use of consultants, such as Ray Lawrence at HowToMoodle, to explain how to maximise Moodle's features.
What's the best or most memorable training event you've attended?
The Training Foundation's Certificate in Blended Learning. It is an extremely informative and motivating course covering a wide range of learning concepts.
What's key to putting on a successful course?
Be clear about what you want to achieve and pick the most appropriate method to deliver those aims. Make sure you cater for preferred learning styles and be realistic about how much delegates can realistically absorb in the time allowed.
Where do you see yourself in five years' time?
I hope to be still with the Samaritans. I have moved around quite a lot in my career, and it is great to finally be working for an organisation that I am so passionate about. It has such a vital role in society but also offers so much to those who volunteer for it.
What, in life generally, really annoys you?
The way some people seem to live their lives bullying and belittling others, the unfairness and inequality that exists in society and animal cruelty.
What was the first record you bought?
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
What book are you currently reading?
Scarred by Sophie Andrews.
Who's your hero?
The Samaritans' founder Chad Varah. The emotional support lifeline that he put in place in 1953 was revolutionary for the times. He had no formal psychiatric training but he found that if a person in the depths of despair could be given the time to be listened to, in confidence, they could start to find a way through emotional distress.
What's the best piece of training/L&D advice you've been given?
Don't be over-dependent on PowerPoint. Use it as a backdrop to enhance your presentation, not a script to direct it.
How do you relax?
I really enjoy socialising. I am a people person and my ideal way to relax is a night out with a group of friends.
Nigel Ross is training and development officer at charity the Samaritans. He works in its central office in Ewell, Surrey, and also from home in Stoke-on-Trent.
This article was supplied by Personnel Today www.personneltoday.com