Talking TAP

August Welcome From Claire Brookes, Editor

Welcome to the August issue of the Talking TAP Newsletter.  This issue is packed full of the regular features, such as the TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, our Celebrate Success item as well as the ever popular Brain Teaser!

You can also see how TAP is adopted overseas by our Partner of the Month, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).  NNPC explain the benefits of having TAP qualified trainers in their highly regulated Oil and Gas industry.

We have formally launched our new initiative – helping our customers to improve their employee engagement.  Read our CEO's article to see how you can help to get our message across.

Our very own Jayne Bolstridge snapped this pic of a wetland bird enjoying the summer sunshine at the duck pond between our two training centres... if you look closely you might just spot a grey heron hiding in the reeds. 

Should you have any suggestions for the Newsletter or if you wish to be a TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, or to nominate your organisation to be a Partner of the Month do let me know just drop me an email at: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com.

Enjoy the summer -
Claire 

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Can You Help Us Get Our NEW Messages Across?

As the TAP programme evolved over the years into a complete toolkit for a learning organisation, in 2007 we started thinking about what organisations need to really benefit from it.  The answer is, of course, engaged learners! Training disengaged hearts and minds is a waste of time and money.  This started us on a long R&D journey, which this month has resulted in the launch of a new initiative – helping our customers to improve their employee engagement.

We believe that our new services can really add value to engagement strategies, including the unique engagement skills programme for managers, MAP (Motivation And Performance).  You can find out more on this by visiting our revamped website, www.trainingfoundation.com.  Do take a good look round; there’s lots of useful material, including our recently published white paper, The Rules of Engagement.

For the first time, we feel that our product set has real appeal for HR people too, especially those with Organisational Development or Leadership responsibilities.  If you would kindly forward our website URL to the right person in HR that would be much appreciated.

Of course, if you’d like to discuss these services with us yourself, we’d be pleased to hear from you!

Regards
Nick Mitchell, CEO
The Training Foundation

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Train To Gain Cuts Divide L&D Industry

Train To Gain cuts divide L&D industry according to survey from the World of Learning 2010.  More than half of UK L&D professionals disagree with the Government’s new plan, announced in late May, to cut £200 million from the Train To Gain scheme and use £150 million of this to create 50,000 extra apprenticeships. 

That is the key finding from a survey carried out recently by the World of Learning Conference & Exhibition, the L&D industry’s essential event, which will take place at NEC Birmingham on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 September 2010.

While 48.4% disagree with the government cutbacks, because they think that both Train To Gain and apprenticeships are very important and both need substantial investment, a further 2.5 % also disagree, but instead believe that Train To Gain is a more important programme than creating more apprenticeships and that investment levels in Train to Gain should be maintained.  The remaining half of industry members agree with the Government’s cutback plans, an issue that is clearly dividing the L&D market.

Andrew Gee, Senior Project Manager for the World of Learning Conference & Exhibition, commented: “The Government has clearly divided the learning & development community on this issue, as more than half – 50.9 % altogether – disagree with its cuts.  Yet, with almost half also dissatisfied with Train To Gain as it is and agreeing with the plans to change it, the industry is split almost down the middle.  This suggests that there may be some interesting debates in the near future about the implementation of these changes.”

L&D professionals will be able to discuss such topics, as well as source the latest products, solutions, advice and learning theories at the renowned World of Learning Conference & Exhibition this September.  Now in its 18^th year, the event has a long history of providing industry members with invaluable insight into key issues, challenges and developments in the industry, as well as providing cost-efficient solutions for organisations of all sizes.

This year, employee engagement, leadership, informal learning, tendering, the business case for L&D, and the use of technology to deliver more efficient L&D programmes will be among the many key subjects addressed.  Event highlights include:

• Free seminars
• New specialised zones
• The Workplace Wellness Zone
•  Experiential Learning Zone
• World of Learning Conference

To register for free entry to the World of Learning Exhibition, or to book your place on the World of Learning Conference, visit www.learnevents.com or call +44 (0)20 8394 5171.

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Website Watch

Welcome to the Website Watch feature, here we update you with new developments on our website.

* View the revamped Training Foundation website to see our work on Employee Engagement: www.trainingfoundation.com

 * To take a look at August's Training Tips, follow this link: http://www.tap-training.com/page/communities/trainingtip.html

* See this motivational video clip about change, you may be able to use it in a training session: http://www.changeisgoodmovie.com/

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TAP Qualified Professional of the Month, Anna Quinlan

Hi my name is Anna Quinlan, I am an Information Systems (IS) Learning Executive at Grant Thornton UK LLP (website: www.grant-thornton.co.uk).

We are one of the UK’s leading financial and business advisers providing personalised assurance, tax and specialist advisory services to a wide range of clients.  We have around 4,000 employees based in 28 offices around the country.

I’ve been working for Grant Thornton for just over 4.5years.  For the past 2 years my role has been as an IS Learning  Executive which sees me deliver training to the firms employees on all of our core IT Applications and Systems.  We provide a blended approach with various learning solutions on offer as well as 'traditional' classroom based training.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton I had a rich tapestry of differing careers, studies and living abroad.  One of my jobs whilst living in Greece was as an English Communications Teacher to Greek children aged 8-18.  I was very pleased to see all my students pass the Cambridge Proficiency oral exams in English language in the year I spent with them.  It was one of the most rewarding jobs I have done, which is why I was then drawn back into helping others to learn.

I was recommended to consider TAP by a colleague who has previously attended TAP Courses with The Training Foundation.  Having spoken to The Training Foundation’s team I was soon enrolled onto the TAP Certificate in Training Delivery Skills Course being delivered by The Training Foundation’s  Laura Layton-James in June 2010:www.tap-training.com/page/courses/training_delivery_skills.html

I feel that on completing of the course, it has equipped me with both new techniques and a fresh outlook on how to deliver training.  I have found the TAP activity structure profile extremely helpful and a great guideline to follow.  It has given me a new focus when I'm both planning & delivering training.  

When I delivered my first course back at work after the TAP Course I found that using the TAP Methodology enabled me to place a greater emphasis on questioning the delegates rather than simply instructing them.  At the end of the 3 hour workshop the delegates checked their watches and exclaimed how quickly the time had passed - they seemed genuinely flabbergasted!  

On both a personal and professional level I feel gaining the TAP Certificate in Training Delivery Skills has increased my confidence and helped to fine-tune my delivery skills to suit the business needs.  It has also helped me to increase the learners motivation and engagement.  Witnessing this and seeing the tangible benefits of applying the TAP Methodology with my own delegates has added to my own motivation as a Professional Trainer.

I’m also looking forward to further developing myself personally and professionally should I be given the opportunity to attend similar courses in the future.

Thank you!!!
Anna Quinlan

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Training Nightmare - How I Overcame Them

MY TRAINING NIGHTMARE (or one of them...) Whilst in the RAF I had just been posted to a support helicopter squadron in the mid-1980s, and even in those days they were liable to spend some 9 months of the year away on various deployments.  And I was about to get married as well.

As luck would have it, a friend of mine telephoned to offer me a posting to a course design team at RAF Cottesmore.  Steady hours and no deployments...I had to accept; it was an offer too good to refuse (and possibly an offer too good to be true?).

For about a year the six of us toiled happily in designing the training course. I had in-depth knowledge and experience of the avionic equipment that I had to design training for and I had a settled family life.  All we had to do was hand over the training to an instructor when it was finished and we would get a ‘nice posting’ after that (or so we were promised).

At this point came the news that we would have to teach the pilot course.  I was not keen on that idea, but it was only a one-off.  Then came the day to stand up in front of the class of eight RAF Avionic technicians; and there were some strong characters in amongst them.

Did I mention that I had not had any training or practice in instructional techniques or even in instructional design?  Apart from two, the other four of us had been working in blissful ignorance for well over a year.

When it came to my turn I stood in front of the class and absolutely bombed.  A complete and utter disaster; worse than a nightmare as I had five days of it to endure.

Before the next time came to teach, I went on the RAF Instructional Techniques course (I never believed in the ‘nice posting’ line anyway).  Two weeks of intensive learning with 4 assessed lessons (and less than a month before one of my children was due to be born). Suddenly  though, I started to understand what training was about and I soon started to enjoy instructing. I stayed there for 6 years in all...

And here I am, some 20 years later TAP Qualified and still in training.  What did I learn from that? Apart from do not trust the promises of a Warrant Officer, I realised that the saying, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach!” is so very wrong.

Phil Pryce, Lead Training Specialist
BAE Systems,
Warton
Lancashire

To donate your Training Nightmare - just email Claire at: c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com

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TAP Partner of the Month, The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is an Oil and Gas Company that prospect, produce, refine, distribute and sell Oil and Gas products. Our main sites are located at Port Harcourt, Warri, Lagos, Kaduna, Mosimi and Gombe all in Nigeria, Africa.

The principal site is Abuja where the Corporate Headquarter is located.  Our key business issues are; mainly how to increase production of petroleum products, how to market our petroleum products in such a very competitive environment, and how to fund our projects.

The companies commitment to people development is high.  As such there is a policy which provides for the training of no less than 30% of the staff population annually.  The Human Resources department, who are tasked to administer this vast training need.

There are a total six sections in the Training Dept.  These are broken down in to technical learning and non technical learning.  The four sections within technical learning are; The Leadership Development and Learning, the Knowledge Management and the Technical and Operations Learning.  These departments are located at the Corporate Headquarters, Abuja in Nigeria. 

Whilst the Non-Technical Learning  focuses on two sections; Business Learning and Logistics Learning.  These training departments are at The Corporate Training Centre, Mosimi in Nigerian.

NNPC have sixty five members of staff within the department running these training sections as well as On-the-Job-Training, Induction as well as Student and Working Experience training.  NNPC key priorities are to improve the in design and delivery of our courses and to develop a learning plan and learning objectives.

Some of the issues they face as a training department is tracking transfer of learning to enable quantify ROI and ensure that both individuals and the company are benefitting from training.  Quality assurance of training provision is important.  It is quite easy to derail from a subject, and once the objectives of a training programme are not met, it is as good as not done.  Invariably there will be no return on investment.  Change is also inevitable and technology within the oil and gas industry is changing at an unprecedented speed.  For NNPC developing people is a must if a company wants to move with the tide of development and a company that is not ready for change will go into extinction.

NNPC initially heard about The Training Foundation from searching Internet for a suitable training provider.  And after reading the testimonials listed on the website we decided that the 2 day Foundation Award in Training Delivery Skills and the 2 day Foundation Award in Training Design and Development would meet our requirements.

To date all 65 members of NNPC’s learning community have attended these two courses at The Training Foundation in Coventry, England.  To enable the best form of learning for our trainers The Training Foundation offered to deliver these training sessions as closed courses.  These would run at The Training Foundation’s centre, but just for NNPC delegates.  The HR department explains; “We had a maximum of six delegates on the course to ensure best practice standards and to ensure maximum learning, Those that attended fully appreciated the programme and are now applying the skills and learning plans to their training sessions that they design and deliver back in Nigeria.  As a result the departments are now able to develop learning objectives and also vet those courses designed for us by other consultants.  We are now more confident to deliver programmes”.

TAP encourages hands-on skills based training, and the team as a whole are now better equipped for more challenges in training.  It was very practical and the different types of Questions Techniques were very valuable

As a result of the training commitment NNPC have now successfully achieved Gold TAP Partner Status, committing that all training is designed and facilitated by personnel who hold the appropriate TAP Qualifications.

Ron Mackrell the Director of TAP Partner Programmes presented NNPC delegates, Mr Ayodeji Akinlosotu, Mr Malthus Timothy Ekpe, Mr Bassey Warrie Essiet, Mr Sani Isa Ibrahim  and Mr Nsan Ojong Tiku  with the Gold TAP Partner Certificate in June 2010.  (Please see above photo).

Please follow this link to learn more about NNPC: http://www.nnpcgroup.com/

Regards
Rotimi Feyisitan
NNPC

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Celebrate success

Each month we are very proud to 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:

Diploma in Learning Facilitation
Angela Maher, Avery Dennison Materials
Karla Greasley, NFU Mutual
Lindsey Screen, Admiral Insurance
Ffion Thomas, Admiral Insurance
Darren Slater, Aviva

Diploma in Learning Design
Graham Morley, NG Bailey
Steve Ricks, AWE
Karla Greasley, NFU Mutual

Master Diploma in Learning & Development
Karla Greasley, NFU Mutual

We also use this feature to celebrate the success of our customers who have adopted TAP to such a level that they can join as a TAP Partner.  This month we have two new TAP Partners this they are:

• Alacer Software Ltd  (www.alacer.co.uk) who have signed up as a Gold TAP Partner
• The Health Informatics Service who have signed up as a Silver TAP Partner

All of our Silver TAP Partners are given an opportunity to develop their training team further by taking advantage of the 10% partner discount, which they can use to become a Gold TAP partner.   This level of  Partnership shows that organisations have adopted both the TAP Certificate in Training Delivery and the TAP Certificate in Training Design and Development.

Therefore we are also pleased to announce two TAP Partners who have upgraded from Silver to Gold level TAP Partnership.  They are:

• Barclays Cash Management
• Datix Ltd (www.datix.co.uk).  Frank Jacobs the Training Manager at Datix comments: 

"We have wholeheartedly adopted the TAP approach to Learning and Development essentially due to its cutting edge yet realistic approach to skills development.  The skills provided have helped us create effective and enjoyable training programs that are directly linked to our business needs.
The TAP training methodologies offer the highest quality and add significant value to us and our clients.  TAP provided our trainers with a thorough development program that consistently meets their individual and professional training needs thereby instilling a greater sense of pride and self-confidence in the existing abilities"

Please see our TAP Partners website page for more information on our Partners: http://www.tap-training.com/page/about/partners.html 

If you would like to learn more information on the TAP Partners Programme please call me on +44(0) 2476 411 288

Kind Regards
Dave Hickling
TAP Partners Programme Co-ordinator

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Brain Teaser

This month we have a tricky Brain Teaser to keep you guessing.  It was suggested by Eoin Garland from IS Oxford:

A Clever Girl...

 A landlord is threatening to evict a father and his young daughter, unless she agrees to marry him.

In a false gesture of sincerity and in front of witnesses, he offers her an opportunity for her and her father to remain in the house, without marrying him.

He has a silk bag in which he says he has placed a white and a black stone from the footpath on which they're standing.

If she picks the white stone from the bag, without looking, she wins; if she picks the black, she loses.

However, the young girl saw him place two black stones in the bag. She can't expose him in front of the witnesses without angering him and making things worse.

How does the clever girl win?

Send your solutions (or requests for the answer) to me at c.brookes@trainingfoundation.com, and put Clever Girl in the subject line.  If you solve this energiser we'll put your name in print in next month's TAP Newsletter!

The solution to July's Brain Teaser, entitled "The man in the Bar" is that man had hiccups, and asked for a glass of water to cure them.  The barman noticing this tried to shock the man (in order to cure the hiccups) by pointing the gun at him.  Everyone who thought hard to correctly solve the Brain Teaser are listed below:

Paul Edmondson, The Training Foundation
David Wills, New Mind
Eric Jones, NATS
Lisa Whiteman, Lease & Loan Insurance Services Ltd
Ian Morton , Aviation Training Int Ltd
Jim Beard, Hoya Lens UK Ltd
Debbie Szul, Clinical Coding Department
Tony Duff, Aviva
Phil Wheeliker
Kerry Young, BAE Systems - Submarine Solutions
Carol Ware, Land Registry Head Office
Ross Phillips, NHS Lothian
Charles Allen, Berkshire NPfIT programme
Yvonne English, Discovery Communications International Limited
Julian Jones, Penningtons Solicitors LLP
Aby Vondee, Enfield & Haringey Health Informatics Service
Greg Curno, Babcock International Group
Tony Spirrett, BT Global Services
Dee Rodrigues, LU IM Training
John McGhee, Gem Upgrades
David Tyldesley, National Air Traffic Control
Jenny Thatcher, Santander PLC
Ben Williams, The Hyde Group
Roseanne Dougan, City Hospitals Sunderland
Eoin Garland, IS Oxford
Peter Langley, Warrington Primary Care Trust
Hannah Playle, NHS North East Essex
Jo Dillon, Northamptonshire County Council
Patricia Pritchard, Hereford PCT
Melonie Waddingham, DIAGEO
Vanessa Tuthill, Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
Wayne Jones, SMS Management & Technology
Frank Jacobs, Datix

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 hit the unsubscribe button.

Many Thanks - The Training Foundation

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