Talking TAP

May Welcome from Claire Brookes

Hello once again and welcome to the May issue of the Talking TAP Newsletter.  This issue is packed full!  Firstly we are proud to announce the new Professional Certificates that lead towards the Foundation Degree.

We focus on e-Learning this month as Dawn Johnson, our TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, explains the benefits of achieving the TAP Diploma in E-Learning. 

So far this year we have all incurred so much disruption what with volcanic ash, horrific snow storms - whatever next!  We can now provide 3 of our TAP e-Learning certificates to be delivered wholly online.  This is designed to save costs by eliminating travel and accommodation expense and ensuring that courses go ahead whatever the disruption and location of delegates.

Don't forget our Website Watch section, here you can find links to May's Training Tips of the Month as well as links to join and post discussions on our Linkedin Group.

...and finally we have our very popular Brain Teaser feature, go on - test those grey cells over a cup of coffee!

All the best and enjoy the sunshine, the wildlife around our training centre certainly is! Pictured here is this year's baby fox playing with mum taken from Foundation House.  So if you are at our training centre in the next few weeks you might get to see a glimpse of them frolicking in the sunshine!!

Claire 

Back to top

The Training Foundation and Chester University collaborate on new Professional Certificates

At last you can gain professional and academic recognition for the labour you have put into delivering, designing and/or managing L&D in your organisation, the efforts you have put into your personal development and the hard work you have put into gaining your existing TAP qualifications.

The Training Foundation joined forces with the University of Chester in December 2009 to offer a new qualification - The Foundation Degree in Learning & Development Practice - that finally offers those working in L&D an opportunity to match their achievements in the workplace with a prestigious academic qualification.

The Professional Certificates that go to make up the degree utilise the academic expertise of the University of Chester allied with the skills and application expertise of the TAP qualifications from The Training Foundation.

The modular approach building towards the Foundation Degree is typical of the credit structure operated throughout the Higher Education (HE) sectors in the UK.  The learner selects individual modules along pre-designated pathways leading initially to a Professional Certificate, and in time lead to a Certificate in Higher Education and ultimately a Foundation Degree.

Take a look at this link of the Graduation Ceremony in Chester Cathedral in March 2010 http://graduation.chester.ac.uk/streaming.php.  L&D professionals can now stand shoulder to shoulder with other professionals from the fields of accountancy, law, human resources etc.  And quite rightly so!  It has been a long time coming.

So how do I get a Professional Certificate?

Watch this space...

For more details about the Professional Certificates contact me at: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com and I'll be happy to help.

Back to top

Website Watch

Here we draw your attention to all the updates and new developments on the TAP website www.tap-training.com:

• Check out May's Training Tips of the month:
  http://www.tap-training.com/page/communities/trainingtip.html

• View our 1,000th Online testimonial:
  http://www.tap-training.com/page/article.html 

• Follow this link to view our thought of the month, and see the difference a really engaged employee can make:
  http://www.stservicemovie.com/

• Why not join our group on LinkedIn that's designed for TAP Qualified L&D Professionals? 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Here you can start discussion forums with fellow L&D Professionals to help with any queries you may have:
  http://www.tap-training.com/page.php?name=linkedin&type=level2

Back to top

TAP Event in London

TAP courses go regional again!  We are delivering the 3 day TAP Certificate in Learner Engagement in London, at Thomson's Online Benefits, our Silver TAP Partner's premises.

The date of the event is 16th to 18th June 2010. 

This TAP course focuses on building trainers' self-awareness and skills to create an empathic learner-centred climate.  This course is also an essential component of the TAP Diploma in Learning Facilitation.

If you would like to attend this regional course in London or to enquire about current availability, please email Dave Hickling:

d.hickling@trainingfoundation.com

Back to top

TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Dawn Johnson

I joined Teignbridge District Council in 2004 as the IT Training Officer.  Between then and 2007 we were delivering our IT Training and ECDL programmes by way of traditional tutor led training and open workshops.  

By 2007 it was becoming clear to us that we needed to start looking at more innovative, efficient and effective ways of delivering blended learning to engage learners and “keep in touch” with our students to follow progress. We could see that the quality of e-Learning training materials had improved and it appeared to be an effective learning tool.

We introduced a VLE for our ECDL students.   We developed learning resources and set up communication links to keep in touch with our students as they progressed through their programmes.  This became a portal for all things ECDL! 

We were delighted as we found that our students took to this method quickly and easily, it complemented the tutor led training and workshops, exam results were excellent, our students loved the flexibility of the learning and we saw a reduction in requests for tutor led courses which reflected well on our budget. As a result of all of this, e-Learning was accepted as an effective means of learning within our organisation.

We began to look at how we could develop the e-Learning further and it was at this point, that I signed up for the TAP Diploma in e-Learning with The Training Foundation.

In 2008 I started to work towards the TAP Certificate in Blended Learning.   This coincided with the roll out of an upgrade to an internal system and as a result of the knowledge gained from this Certificate; we implemented the upgrade using a blended option.  

I then progressed to the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Facilitation and learnt how we could support and coach our students, making the learning a two way process.

I consider the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design essential for anyone involved in developing e-Learning.  For although I had many years experience of developing training materials, I learned invaluable skills and methods for developing interactive and effective e-Learning.

The skills learned when studying for the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Implementation also proved invaluable, as they are now being used to develop an e-Learning Strategy.

To complete my Diploma I did a ‘Work Based Project’, which enabled me to reflect on what I had learned over the 18 month period.  I was able to demonstrate what had been implemented, our progress and how we see e-Learning developing and growing for the benefit of the organisation and staff.

The whole experience has been excellent.   Expanding into e-Learning has meant learning new skills and the Diploma has more than met my objectives. I believe I have developed the knowledge, skills and a level of confidence needed to offer further benefits to the organisation through e-Learning.

My course tutor, Louise Talbot, was excellent.   Her knowledge of the subject and ability to pass on that knowledge is tremendous, and her support throughout has been first class! 

Thank you once again,
Dawn

Back to top

My Training Nightmares - and How I Overcame Them

We hope that you enjoy our Training Nightmares feature, I find that they are compulsive reading! 

On one particular session in the midst of training a group of delegates, I noticed a young boy's face peering at us through the window in the doorway. My initial reaction was that a member of staff had brought their son into work. Nothing too unusual in that I thought so I smiled at him then carried on. Not a moment later he ran into the room along with his buddy and together they starting tearing their way around the training room laughing and skipping along the way. One of them tripped over a laptop cable, the laptop went flying and then one of the delegates eventually managed to chase the boys out of the training room. It was only later I found out that this was a regular occurrence and that the boys were part of a nearby 'gang' who were sent in to scout out if any equipment was worth stealing and generally out to cause havoc. Needless to say the laptops were taken off-site for storage! It was certainly an episode that I won't forget and no training session has ever been as bizarre since!

Nada Al-Ashbal
Information Technology and Services (IT&S)
BP International Limited

Should you wish to add your own training horror stories email me on c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com:

Back to top

Case Study of the Month, Dumfries & Galloway College

You may be unaware of a Corporate Social Responsibilityprogramme run by The Training Foundation;  an online employability skills training programme for young people (under 25). This is the Ready for Work programme, which is available free of charge to all in full-time education.

With every job applied for by young people now apparently attracting 40+ applicants, being able to evidence a level of commercial awareness and understanding is proving extremely valuable to young people seeking employment – as following Case Study confirms:

Dumfries & Galloway College is leading the way in helping its students towards employment, with the help of the Ready for Work programme from The Training Foundation.

The Ready for Work programme is an on-line, self-study programme, developed and hosted by The Training Foundation.  It is designed to help young people make a successful transition from education into employment, and provides them with a base level of knowledge on key workplace issues such as diversity, data protection and drugs and alcohol.

Before recommending the programme for use in the college the lead tutor on the programme, Robert Brown,  he undertook all of the 12 modules himself, and was very pleasantly surprised to find how user-friendly it was.  Of particular importance to him is that the language used is just right for the target audience, and that the content is at the appropriate level.  The automatic logging oflearners’ progress also appealed, given the large numbers of students in his care.

The Ready for Work programme is introduced towards the end of the academic year and helps them to confirm that they are indeed ‘Ready for Work’. The nature of the Ready for Work programme is such that it encourages independent learning, so the students are encouraged to complete the modules at their own pace.

Tracey Mackintosh, an engineering student, observed “I found the course easy to use and gained a lot of new knowledge”.  She spent about an hour a day on the programme, working really hard to complete it in around two weeks altogether.  The modules that she found most useful were ‘Health and safety in the office’ and ‘Data protection at work’, both of which provided lots of information.  Tracey had no qualifications prior to starting her course at Dumfries and Galloway, and feels that this certificate is truly a step forward which will help her to find employment.

Despite not having much experience with computers, sports student Lee Donaldson found that she really enjoyed learning on-line, especially the quizzes which proved to her how much she had progressed.  She too found the ‘Data protection at work’ module one of the most useful, along with ‘Thriving in diversity’.

Robert Brown, remains understandably proud of his group of students for their success in the Ready for Work programme, and is now actively recommending it to other departments within Dumfries and Galloway.  Robert says “I would be happy to recommend the Ready for Work programme to students in other organisations because it helps the learner to focus on the transition from course work studies to employability as they prepare for progression into the workplace".

You can review the programme and the courses at www.readyforwork.org

If you would like to access to the Ready for Work programme for your younger employees to help them gain valuable employability skills please contact Matthew Hancocks our Ready for Work programme Manager: m.hancocks@trainingfoundation.com

Back to top

Qualification of the Month

How much disruption did the Volcanic Ash cause you? Did you have to re schedule classroom courses because of stranded trainers and/ or delegates?

This year we have incurred much disruption from volcanic ash, snow storms etc. - whatever next? So now we are offering three of our TAP e-Learning Certificates wholly online.  This initiative will help our customers make their training budgets go further by eliminating travel costs and ensuring value for money as the courses will go ahead whatever the weather!

These courses are: 

• TAP Certificate in Blended Learning
• TAP Certificate in e-Learning Facilitation
• TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design

Each course runs as a 5 week online event  using a combination of tutor-led WebEx sessions (our web-conferencing tool ) and resources and activities in Moodle (our virtual learning environment).   Each student will need to set aside approximately 4-5 hours of study per week which includes online tutor-led sessions, research, self–study and submitting assignments. The course is fully supported by an e-tutor who will support you at every stage of the course programme using the telephone, email, forums and web-conferencing.

Currently our customer, a credit insurance organisation based in Cardiff, have adopted the 5 week online TAP Certificate in e-Learning Facilitation. 

They specifically requested the online version to enable their team who are based in Germany, Holland and Wales to attend this course due to their different locations. Also since the skills we are training them in are how to deliver engaging and effective online sessions it is great experience for students to learn these skills in an online environment.

Please email me to receive further details on these online courses, and to recieve a 20% discount  if booked by 31st May 2010 on: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com

Back to top

Celebrate success

As a regular Monthly Feature here we celebrate the hard work and dedication shown by delegates who have achieved a role-based TAP Diploma.  This month we congratulate the following:

We also celebrate the Aviva & Royal Bank of Scotland joint venture, and Computershare Voucher Services who have upgraded from Silver to Gold TAP Partner. Well done - we hope that you enjoy displaying the Gold TAP Partners Logo!!!

This month we are also proud to announce Cardiff & Vale University Health Board are a new Silver TAP Partner as all their team have achieved the TAP Certificate in Training Delivery Skills.

well done!  

Back to top

Brain Teaser

May's Brain Teaser was suggested by Chris Applebee, ICT Training Manager, South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Yvonne Carter, Training Officer, University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust.

The brain teaser is called The Photographer

"A wildlife photographer leaves his cabin and walks 10 miles South.  He then changes direction and walks 10 miles East where he spies and photographs a wild bear.  He then walks 10 miles North, where he finds himself back at his cabin.

 What colour was the bear that the wildlife explorer found?"

Send in your ideas (or call for the solution!!) to me at: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com.  As always I will list all correct responses in June's Newsletter - so you may just see your name in print next month!

The solution to last month's Brain Teaser 'Friday' is that the man travels in to town (and leaves 48 hours later) on a horse called Friday.  Well done to the following readers of the newsletter who successfully identified the solution:
 

I was particularly amused by this suggestion from David Johnson, Trainer, The Financial Services Authority: “I think it is a special town where the days ofthe week are Friday and Saturday!”

As you hold a TAP Qualification, or are head of an L&D Team, you are entitled to receive a copy of this free Talking TAP Newsletter each month.  This will be forwarded to your email on a monthly basis.  If, however, you no longer wish to receive the Talking TAP Newsletter simply reply to the mail with the words remove in the subject line.

Many Thanks
The Training Foundation

Back to top