Talking TAP

Winter welcome from Claire Brookes

Hello all and welcome to the Winter 2009 / 2010 issue of the Talking TAP Newsletter. 

In this issue our CEO, Nick Mitchell, delivers an end of year review together with an exclusive press release just for Talking TAP – so read on to hear the good news!

Jayne Bolstridge reviews our TAP Partner Learning Forum that took place on the 19th November, and our TAP Partner of the month, Datix (the first UK based risk management & patient safety software) explain how the TAP Learning System, enhances the effectiveness of their training service.

Our TAP qualified professional of the month is Phil Pryce,  who explains how gaining the TAP Master Diploma in Learning & Development has benefited him, and how he next aims to achieve the TAP Diploma in L&D Consultancy.

In this special end of year issue we Celebrate Success- not only celebrating all those delegates who’s hard work has resulted in being awarded a TAP Diploma, but also all of the companies who have joined us  as TAP Partner!

We hope that you enjoy reading this special Winter issue of Talking TAP and
we wish you all the best for a prosperous 2010!
All the best
Claire

(Above: a winter view of the duck pond from Technology House, taken by Mark Johnson)

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End of Year Review - from our CEO Nick Mitchell

For many of us, 2009 has been an annus horribilis if ever there was one. The financial crisis has – as usual – hit the L&D community harder than most. There have been many lay-offs and short-time working is now commonplace. More than two thirds of employers have cut training budgets and activities; how short-sighted they are.

For the team at The Training Foundation, 2009 has been challenging but by no means disastrous. Whilst our numbers are a little down year on year, we have in other respects made great progress. Let me briefly outline one or two.

First, in January we carried out the sector’s biggest survey of L&D practitioners ever conducted. The 2009 TAP Survey Report was participated in by 724 of you, representing 379 employers. The results were absolutely astounding – even we were impressed!  Perhaps more importantly, it attracted the attention of some significant organisations. One of these was the University of Chester – more about that later!

One of the benefits of the Survey was the feedback you gave us as to how we could enhance the Programme. We took due note of this and several substantial changes have been made. One of the key things we heard was the need for a more role-based approach to qualifications. Following further consultation with some of our major clients, in August we announced a remodelling of TAP Qualifications for L&D professionals into a role-based Diploma structure. Your reaction to this has been uniformly positive and already a number of major employers have told us that they are adopting this framework for their future L&D strategic developments.

During 2009, we have also been continuing our development of CHOICE, the employee engagement model. For L&D practitioners this is reflected in the ‘Trainer-of-CHOICE’ course which is fast becoming your most popular course to attend with us. However, there’s more to it than that. CHOICE is an engagement model for the whole organisation and of especial relevance to line managers. The Manager-of-CHOICE programme has generated terrific results for the early adopters and is now attracting widespread interest. I feel that 2010 will be the year that CHOICE really takes off; it has the potential to transform organisational performance.

There’s much more I could add, but time precludes. However, I did promise to return to Chester University, and indeed I have saved the best till last!

Impressed by the TAP Survey results, Chester University approached us to enquire whether we would be interested in developing a Foundation Degree in Learning & Development Practice, based entirely on the TAP methodologies and to be delivered in full by The Training Foundation under the auspices of the University. Students would be in full-time employment but would earn the Degree by a mix of formal courses and work-based learning. Were we interested? Is the Pope Catholic!

Following a huge amount of work from both parties over the last eight months or so, we finally signed a Partnership Agreement with the University this Tuesday, 15^th December.

(Left: Tim Wheeler, Vice-Chancellor, University of Chester and Nick Mitchell CEO The Training Foundation signing the Partnership Agreement)

This is wonderful news for the sector as, for the very first time, an HE qualification will demonstrate the professionalism of the holder. L&D is being professionalised! ‘And not before time’ I hear you say. Indeed – perhaps it will eventually mean that when the next financial crisis hits, it won’t be L&D that is the first to be adversely affected. There’s much more to say about the Foundation Degree, but that will have to wait till next month....in the meantime, I wish you a great Christmas and a peaceful and successful new year.

Nick Mitchell
CEO - The Training Foundation

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Review of TAP Learning Forum 2009

On the 19th November The Training Foundation held the first TAP Learning Forum which was attended by over 50 L&D Professionals from many different organisations. As well as having a fabulous opportunity to network, delegates discussed the key issues and challenges facing L&D and were involved in interactive sessions on e-learning, an e-Learning knowledge cafe and employee engagement.

Tom Adams and Peter Kirk from Police service Northern Ireland flew over especially to attend and  were presented with their GOLD TAP Partner Certificate from Ron Mackrell Director, TAP Partners Programme:

The Training Foundation was also pleased to announce plans for 2010 and especially the linkage with a Chester University as part of a new Foundation Degree in Learning and Development Practice.

Feedback from all of the delegates was that they would attend again and also recommend similar events to their fellow training professionals. Therefore, we will be running another event in about 6 months time and we look forward to seeing you there.

Please contact Jayne Bolstridge for further information j.bolstridge@trainingfoundation.com

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Free Virtual Classroom Tours

Classroom trainers … are your feet killing you?  Want to learn how to Enhance your Skills & Increase your employability? ... Then join in our free virtual classroom tour

Experience the look, sound and feel of participating in a web-based training session enjoy a fun, interactive, virtual classroom session using tools such as whiteboard, text chat, application sharing amaze yourself by what you can achieve using this medium transfer your current training skills to a virtual classroom environment easily...all this from the comfort of your own desk!

Session are 45 minutes -  Limited to 8 places per session - Open to all TAP trainers - No previous experience required.  You will need:

• Computer & Internet connection
• Speakers or headset

For 2010 dates, please E-mail Laura Crank info@trainingfoundation.com

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TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Phil Pryce

BAE Systems is a multi-national organisation within the defence industry, located near Preston in Lancashire. It ranges from manufacturing through to providing through-life support to various military organisations. Warton deals with the military air side of the business.

The structure of the training organisation within the company is quite complex in that each project has a team of dedicated trainers.  A mixture of training designers and instructors in maintenance and operator training of the company’s aircraft to various customers. At Warton there is a custom-built training facility, including an aircraft hangar that is used for training. In some cases training is provided to foreign nationals in their own country.

I work at Warton, as a Lead Training Specialist (Learning and Development). I’ve been at Warton since February 1998; joining from the Royal Air Force where I served as an Avionics Engineering Technician for 26 years. Six of those years were as a course designer and instructor on the Tornado at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland.

My first job at Warton was a Training Specialist, as part of a team designing the maintenance training for the Nimrod MRA4. At that time we were using a TNA & Instructional Design application for which I became the administrator.

In 2006 I moved into my current role. This ranged from developing our training capabilities to providing guidance and advice on learning and development to our training community. I became a Lead Training Specialist (Learning & Development) in 2007 in recognition of my training knowledge and skills.

From a training perspective some of the key business issues are the usual, such as competition and finances. More specifically, the military air sector and its training design and delivery have become much more regulated and safety-conscious. Recent news has highlighted those issues and much of my work is based on that element of training design; including the development of a Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance course.

There are also cross-project, functional Lead Training Specialists (of whom I am one) who look after work on training capability and governance. Increasingly this area has been used as a training consultancy in the design of training for our engineering capabilities as they look to have a robust structure in how staff are being trained.

Quality in training is vitally important within our business as profits depend on customer satisfaction. Recent issues though have meant a huge emphasis on quality and the governance that is applied to it; and that quality is undeniably tied to safety of training. I am involved with developing and implementing a set of training design standards and also developing the safety requirements for training design projects.

I first found out about the Training Foundation when, some years ago in 2003 through the website www.tap-training.com. When I needed a training design course to upgrade my skills it seemed a good idea to talk to them first.

When I first attended a TAP course in September 2003 I started with training design. This was due to the work I was doing with the TNA/Instructional Design application we were using. Subsequently I put together an instructional design course for the other members of the team. Because my instructional skills were rusty, I attended the 3 Day Fast-track TAP Certificate in Training Delivery Skills and eventually getting my Diploma in Learning & Facilitation in 2005. Recently, having just completed the Certificate in E-Learning Design I have achieved my TAP Master Diploma in Learning & Development.

Without any doubt TAP has directly benefited me and the company. My current role, particularly with its training consultancy element, has been achieved through the TAP Diploma set-up. The consultancy work for the engineering capability development has come from my skills and knowledge being available. 

 (Right: Phil Pryce being presented his TAP Diploma in L&D by Frances Day, The Training Foundation's Training Director)

As for the future, I am booked on to the TAP certificate in L&D Consultancy course in January 2010 which is all I need for my TAP Diploma in L&D Consultancy. There is still the E-learning Diploma and the use of technology is a hot topic so that might be something else to follow up. However, the proposed Foundation Degree course looks to be a natural progression and being work-based fits in with what I want from it.

For me, the Training Foundation and TAP Learning System have pretty much done what it says on the tin and provided me with the sound foundations to build my training skills and knowledge and hence my career.

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TAP Partner of the Month, Datix

Those in the picture are (from left to right): Robert Blake, David Tobias, Paul Tarling, Dawn Elwell-Sutton (The Training Foundation), Suleiman Banian, Frank Jacobs.

Datix becomes the first UK based Risk Management and Patient Safety software provider to join the TAP Partner Program
Since its foundation in 1986, Datix has been dedicated to improving safety and quality in healthcare.  Datix Patient Safety and Risk Management software is now used by over 70% of the NHS throughout the UK, a number of provinces in Canada and some of the world’s largest private healthcare providers.  
Datix is also being rolled out by the United States Department of Defense in its Military Health System, one of the largest healthcare providers in the USA.

First in the UK
Datix became the first UK based risk management and patient safety software provider to join the TAP Partner Program in commitment to Training Delivery. This commitment means that all training provided by Datix will be facilitated by a professional trainer holding a TAP Certificate in Delivery Skills.

Frank Jacobs, Training and Consultancy Manager at Datix explained, “TAP certification is one of many initiatives intended to bring our service in line with best practice training methodologies. Datix was attracted to the unique, holistic framework for organisational learning provided by the TAP Learning System, which we believe will enhance the effectiveness of our training service and provide the best value for money.

“A further benefit of the TAP Learning System is that it is based on a methodology which has proved to be extremely successful within the UK healthcare sector.  It also provides the flexibility to   cater for other diverse markets both domestic and international.

“The TAP Delivery Skills course came at just the right time to help us actively enhance our training product. The sessions gave us added motivation and set us on the right path to reach both our team and personal goals.”

The course was professionally facilitated by an experienced and passionate trainer, Dawn Elwell-Sutton.  The Datix trainers have praised the course for the great insight it has given them into developing their training skills.  

“Our next goal is to upgrade to become a Gold TAP Partner, where we will be enhancing the effectiveness of our courses by applying advanced design techniques. We believe we have found the ideal professional partner in training and look forward to working alongside them in years to come” concluded Frank Jacobs.  

Further information about Datix can be found on the following website:
www.datix.co.uk

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Celebrate Success

As always this section of the newsletter is dedicated to those hardworking Learning & Development professionals who were awarded the a Diploma over the past
month – our congratulations go out to:

Over the past year through continued relationships with our key customers, and we have welcome the following companies who became TAP Partners in 2009:

If you feel that all of your training events are led by personnel who hold a TAP certificate in Delivery Skills, your organisation can become a Silver TAP Partner.  Contact Dave Hickling, the TAP Partner Co-ordinator,  for further details on: d.hickling@trainingfoundation.com      

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Coffee Break Brain Teaser- TAP L&D Crossword

Just solve these 12 brain teasers to complete the L&D related crossword below.

 
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Down:
4: What is highest level of our TAP Partnership? (4 letters)
5: Where is the training foundation based? (8 letters)
2: All of our TAP Diplomas are now re designed to be  _ _ _ _   _ _ _ _ _ to tie in to
your specific job role. (4 and 5 letters)
8: What is the brand name of our qualifications? (3 letters)
10: When is the next TAP Partner Learning Forum planned? (6 letters)
12: Who is this month’s TAP Partner of the month? (5 letters)

Across:
1:  complete this anagram “The  Indignation Of a Turn”  (3 letters, 8 letters, 10 letters) 
7: who is this months TAP Qualified Professional of the month? (4 letters and 4 letters)
9: What prestigious award did The Training Foundation win in 2005? (6 letters and 5 letters)
6: What TAP qualification is aimed at helping trainers engage with their learners and to create an empathic learner centered climate? (7 letters, 2 letters, 6 letters)
3: who was the TAP Qualified Professional of the month for November? (5 letters 6 letters)

Hints:
If you are having trouble finding the solutions these can be found below:

Trainer of Choice, Spring, TAP, Queens Award, Datix, Phil Pryce, Gold, The Training Foundation, Coventry, Role Based, Sukhy Bhogal

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