Talking TAP

July Welcome from Claire Brookes

Welcome to the July issue of the Talking TAP Newsletter.  In this issue our CEO, Nick Mitchell, details the new challenge facing almost all UK employers.  That challenge is the current crisis in employee engagement – or should it be disengagement? Read the 'The Next Challenge!' article to learn more about the exciting portfolio of tools we have developed to address it.

Alison Church from the World of Learning Exhibition details the  highlights of this year's World of Learning event.

Jake Pellow is our TAP qualified L&D Professional of the Month, who shares his experiences from achieving 2 TAP qualifications; TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design and the TAP Certificate in Facilitation Skills.

We are proud to announce Capita as our TAP Partner of the Month.  Stuart Lowry, head of the L&D team at Capita, explains the benefit of adopting TAP, and shares his next steps for his training team's development, the TAP Certificate in Learner Engagement.

Our Website Watch feature provides several useful links to help you keep up to date.  Don't forget to look at our Training Tip's link, to see if July's Training Tip can benefit you.   We have the answers to last months Brain Teaser, and a brand new one to keep you guessing, as donated by Lyn Tilman from NHS Birmingham North & East.

As always enjoy reading through this issue of the Talking TAP Newsletter - if you would like to donate a Training Nightmare, a Brain Teaser or a new feature suggestion please feel free to email me at: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com

All the best
Claire

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The Next Challenge!

As you will know, The Training Foundation has been focused on improving the quality and effectiveness of learning for more than a decade. During that time, more than 20,000 TAP certificates have been issued following successful assessment of relevant skills. TAP methodologies are in use at more than 1,200 employers and we believe that the new role-based Diplomas and Foundation Degree will firmly establish TAP as the de facto L&D qualifications standard for many years to come.

However, there is now an even bigger challenge facing almost all UK employers and we have been working intensively for more than three years now to develop a portfolio of tools to address it. That challenge is the current crisis in employee engagement – or should it be disengagement? 

Our journey has led us to discover new insights in neuroscience (how the mind works) and genetics (how the DNA is framed) which explain what employers are generally doing wrong, and what they need to do to fully engage the hearts and minds of their people.

You can review our engagement initiatives from the home page of www.trainingfoundation.com.   If the subject interests you, you’ll find our white paper, The Rules of Engagement, fascinating. It will be formally launched on 14^th July at an Employee Engagement workshop day here, with more than 100 in attendance. (if you or a colleague would like to attend such an event in future, please email Claire.)

Also, our employer service, www.employers-of-choice.org demonstrates how seriously we are taking this issue.

The MAP  Programme- Motivation And Performance

Resulting from our research in this area, we realised that traditional management development programmes have been missing a core component; engagement skills, knowing how to bring out the best in people. Following an intensive two year development, piloted with a number of our strategic partners, we are now formally introducing a new programme, one that will complement TAP but is addressed to managers.  This is MAP - Motivation And Performance, perhaps the most exciting innovation since we first introduced TAP in 1998! We will be hosting launch days at Coventry in the coming months. If you, or colleagues involved in management development or employee engagement, would like to attend one of these events – or if you would like more information -do let Claire know by emailing her on c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com tel: +44(0) 2476 411 288.

Nick Mitchell
CEO The Training Foundation

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Learning Seminar Programme Announced for World of Learning Exhibition

The World of Learning Exhibition 2010 features a series of free educational seminars designed to offer new ideas and inspiration for your L&D activities. It has proved so popular in previous years, it has been extended to incorporate more seminars than ever!

These presentations offer you the chance to benefit from the experiences of other learning practitioners through fascinating case studies and examples on the key aspects of running an L&D function in tough times when budgets and time are tight and the pressure to deliver is on.

See below for seminar highlights, or view the full programme online at http://www.learnevents.com/free-seminars.php

Seminar programme highlights

Tuesday 28 September 2010

• Blended learning successes from Europe - the latest update on industry successes
• Achieving better results through talent management practices
• Recovery and building a future high performance culture - the path to sustainable success
• Ten rules for designing and delivering e-learning that works

Wednesday 29 September 2010

• Solving the ROI challenge - 10 fundamental tips to making ROI efficient and manageable
• Utilising internal resources to deliver inhouse training
• Motivating your employees to learn online - tools and tricks to engage and retain different types of professional
• Integrating coaching as a fundamental part of leadership and management style - improve employee engagement, motivation, business relationships and results

View the full seminar programme at http://www.learnevents.com/free-seminars.php

The World of Learning Conference & Exhibition takes place on 28 & 29 September 2010 at the NEC Birmingham.   The World of Learning Exhibition is free to attend - register now for fast-track entry and avoid the queues on the day at http://www.learnevents.com/register-now.php

Alison Church

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Website Watch

Welcome to the Website Watch feature.  Here we update you with any new developments on our website: www.tap-training.com.

Take a look at July's training tips by following this link:
http://www.tap-training.com/page/communities/trainingtip.html

To view our up-to-date testimonials for our TAP Qualifications click here:
http://www.tap-training.com/page/testimonials.html

View our 2010 TAP Prospectus follow this link:
http://www.tap-training.com/docs/2010_skills_programme.pdf

Wondering where your favourite Word 2003 commands are located in the Word 2007 abd 2010 interface, follow this useful link to help you out:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/interactive-word-2003-to-word-2007-command-reference-guide-HA010074432.aspx?pid=CH100487431033  

You can review our engagement initiatives from our home page:
www.trainingfoundation.com

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TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Jake Pellow

My name is Jake Pellow and I am a Training Apprentice for Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust.  I have currently achieved two TAP qualifications that have transformed me personally and professionally.  They are the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design in December 2009 and the TAP Certificate in Facilitation Skills in May 2010.

I feel that the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design is an excellent course to give me the skills to be able to develop engaging e-Learning storyboards. As a result the course made me feel confident and comfortable at designing e-Learning programmes. 

This helps me in my job role greatly because I was tasked to re-vamp our existing in-house Child Protection level 1 e-Learning course previously delivered face-to-face.  The course material was originally in a Power Point format without any interaction or user friendly guidelines. 

With the skills I have learnt from the TAP Certificate in e-Learning Design I have updated this course into an informative, interactive and appealing course with sensitivity to the course subject; for which good feedback was received.  I also successfully produced a Captivate project which engages with a wide range of learners and encourages them to be involved in the world of e-learning. This course is now part of our e-Learning compulsory training package.

Over time I have been tasked with facilitating more events, workshops and briefings.  As I had never facilitated such events, the thought filled me with dread.  I was so nervous...

So to help me gain the appropriate skills Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust enrolled me on to the TAP Certificate in Facilitation Skills which was delivered by Marie Dolan.  And once again The Training Foundation amazed me with the level of professionalism and social acceptance.  I have, and never will, attend a course with as many benefits, or such an incredible facilitator.

The TAP Certificate in Facilitation Skills made me feel confident, ecstatic and most importantly valued.  Thank you so much for the best 3 days of my life! 

The course introduced me to an inspirational group of fellow delegates (that I will always admire).  Marie Dolan who is the most professional facilitator, with a heart of gold, who has more experience and knowledge than anyone I've ever met.  I'm sure I speak for everyone when I compliment The Training Foundation’s excellent facilities and staff for creating a harmonious, social, yet educational atmosphere.

Thank you!!
Jake Pellow

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My Training Nightmares - and How I Overcame Them

On the final day of delivering a TAP Certificate in Training Delivery course we had a power cut on the Science Park. 

The delegates were all raring to go... so we made arrangements to use a room belonging to another business on the Science Park that had escaped having their electricity cable being cut.  We loaded PCs, projectors, flipcharts and printers into several cars and set up at the new venue. 

I kept smiling and positive throughout, keeping them updated of plans, using the waiting time as practice time.  All the delegates were amazingly tolerant and supportive of the efforts made to keep the show on the road.

Dawn Elwell-Sutton
The Training Foundation

 If you feel that others will benefit from your training experiences please send your 'Training Nightmares', and detail how you overcame, them to c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com

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TAP Partner of The Month, Capita Learning & Development

Capita Learning and Development adopts TAP to enhance its value proposition

Capita Learning & Development (L&D) is a part of The Capita Group plc, the UK's leading outsource company.  Listed on the FTSE 100, it provides a broad range of business processes for its customers such as IT, HR and payroll.

Stuart Lowry heads the team that provides L&D services, both internally within The Capita Group and externally to a broad range of public & private sector customers.  In addition to providing classroom and e-Learning solutions, they also offer a training consultancy service. 

Stuart and his team of around 25 trainers, have been working with The Training Foundation for the past 4 years to ensure that the training services they provide are of the highest quality and surpass the best practice standards across the industry.  The open catalogue of face-to-face classroom courses includes Management, IT, Secretarial, Sales & Marketing and Personal Development.  Capita L&D also run closed in-house programmes – recent customers include local government, retailers and the automotive industry.  They also deliver training overseas in locations such as the Middle East, Nigeria and Malaysia.

Passion, Participation, Play and Pride are the four key words that express the values that the team live by and train by.  They believe that training should be about the learners, and encourage openness and participation throughout with plenty of opportunity for the learners to share their own experiences.  This view is shared by The Training Foundation, where a learner-centred approach is considered key to all forms of learning.

The TAP Learning System has helped the team provide the structure and consistency considered vital for the learners, while still encouraging flexibility for the trainers to develop their own style.  Attendance on the Training Delivery Skills and the Training Design & Development programmes led the team to ensure that clear objectives are in place for each course, which has given clarity to the learning and improved the evaluation process.

Stuart himself is now a TAP assessor, allowing him to use the TAP principles to monitor the progress of his team and ensure that their high standards are maintained.  He comments “it enables me to give much more objective feedback - I can say exactly what I've seen".  Following their participation in the TAP programme, the trainers themselves are much more self-aware and focussed, and are able to analyse and improve their own performance.

Capita L&D is a TAP Silver Partner, which means that all training is led by personnel holding a TAP Certificate in Delivery or Facilitation Skills.  This means that anyone considering whether to undertake any sort of training with Capita L&D can be assured that they will be getting the very best available. This quality assurance has added immense commercial value when tendering for new contracts, as the organisation has a proven process for benchmarking and assessing of training - something many customers consider essential.

The relationship that Stuart and his trainers have built with the team from The Training Foundation is something that he is particularly proud of.  He has been impressed with all the trainers and support staff that he has worked with, and is pleased to know that he can rely on their support whenever it's needed. 

To continue the already impressive development of his team, Stuart is considering the new role-based diploma structure recently introduced at The Training Foundation.  There are also plans to enroll the team on the TAP Certificate in Learner Engagement programme, which explores emotional engagement in a learning environment and encourages trainers to focus on what is truly important to the learners. 

All the best
Stuart Lowry

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Celebrate Success

Each month we celebrate the success of our hard working delegates who have achieved one of our role-based TAP Diplomas.  This month we congratulate the following individuals:

TAP Master Diploma in Learning & Development
Hazel Trevarthen, Southwest One

TAP Diploma in Learning Facilitation
Neil Hart, University of Oxford
John Willoughby, AWE
Funke Solademi, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Hazel Trevarthen, Southwest One

TAP Diploma in Learning Design
Hazel Trevarthen, Southwest One
Alison Martin, Gilead Sciences International           

TAP Diploma in L&D Consultancy
Marie McLaughlin, Santander UK
Kerry Hawkins, Southwest One

TAP Diploma in L&D Management
Kerry Hawkins Southwest One

TAP Diploma in Performance Management
Kerry Hawkins Southwest One

TAP Diploma in Learning & Development
Neil Wilson      EMB Consultancy

We also welcome NHS Forth Valley as a new Silver TAP Partner.  We are sure that their training team will benefit from their new TAP Partner Status.

Dave Hickling
TAP Partners Programme Co-ordinator 

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Brain Teaser

This month's Brain Teaser was nominated by Lyn Tilman from NHS Birmingham North & East:

The Man in the Bar

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man.

The man says “Thank You” and walks out.

What was wrong with the man?

Send your solutions to c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com, and put The Man in the Bar
in the subject line of the email.

The solution to June's Brain Teaser entitled 'An Intelligent Woman' was a tricky one, and only a select few correctly identified this solution!  The woman kept her word by putting all his money into her account and wrote him a cheque & placed the cheque in his coffin!!  Congratulations to:

Grazyna Whalley, University of Sheffield 
Jonathan Grant, Cogent Law
Richard Havard, National Assembly for Wales
David  Merrison, ATIL
Roseanne Dougan, City Hospitals Sunderland
Jill Mitton, Somerset County Council
Julian Jones, Penningtons Solicitors
Lesley Wood, McGrigors LLP
Rene Garcia-Evans,Allianz Retail
Rebecca Radics, Nottingham Trent University
Helen Tyson, Clinical Solutions
Paul Edmondson, The Training Foundation

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.  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

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