Talking TAP
The TAP Qualified Professional Newsletter
In This Issue
- TAP Marches On!
- 'TAP Learning System In the Workplace Survey' results due on March 17th
- Announcing the 150th TAP Partner Organisation
- Capita Learning & Development achieves Silver TAP Partner status
Monthly Features
- TAP Qualified Professional of the Month
- Article of the month: TAP lessons in blended learning made in-NESC-capable!
- 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!
23rd to 25th March 2009, London
Click here for more information
CIPD HRD Conference and Exhibition,
21st to 23rd April 2009, ExCeL, Docklands, London
TAP Marches On!
As the Editor, I’m pleased to welcome you to the March 2009 issue of Talking TAP, which celebrates the fact that Buckinghamshire County Council has become our 150th TAP Partner Organisation!
The TAP Qualified Professional Group on Linked In is still growing rapidly and the forum is generating some interesting discussions. One item about recent changes to IITT membership policy attracted over 30 comments. If you have not already done so, then why not drop by to see what fellow members have to say. This group exists to provide a useful networking resource so 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.
A new innovation this month is the launch of the 'Jobs' section of the forum, which allows Group members to post information about organisations seeking to recruit TAP qualified Learning and Development Professionals. If you would like a refresher on how to get the most out of your Group membership, then why not drop by at the LinkedIn Learning Centre:
http://learn.linkedin.com/
Our TAP Qualified Professional of the Month is Michelle Kaye, IT Trainer at Westfield Shoppingtowns, who has managed to build a career in diamonds, retailing and the law!
In the Article of the Month, we look at the work of Alison Wright, E-learning Programme Manager within NHS Education South Central's Quality, Practice Learning Team as she works to develop the local capacity and capability to deliver e-learning.
Best wishes
Claire
'TAP Learning System In the Workplace Survey' results due on March 17th
As many members of the Linked In Group will already be aware The Training Foundation has commissioned a major piece of new research , called the ‘TAP Learning System in the Workplace’ survey. If you attended a TAP course last year then you will no doubt have received an invitation to participate.
This finally attracted over 700 on-line responses to an extensive set of questions. Everyone who submitted a response will receive a full copy of the report, which represents a compelling snapshot of the skills needs of modern learning and development professionals across the UK, working in both the public and private sectors.
A respected academic and awarding body moderator is currently carrying out a full independent academic review of the survey methodology and the full dataset.The full survey results will be announced at an Connect event organised by The British Institute for Learning & Development (The BILD) which is taking place at The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Edinburgh, Scotland on 17th March.
The event title is 'Qualifications in Learning and Development: where are we now?'
The speaker list will include representatives from The Training Foundation, the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland.
Further information and booking details are available via Linked In events at:http://events.linkedin.com/BILD-Connect-Event-Qualifications/pub/38408
Announcing the 150th TAP Partner Organisation
The TAP Partners programme has just welcomed the 150th organisation to achieve TAP Partner status
Ron Mackrell, Director of the TAP® Partners programme commented: “I would like to extend a my congratulations to Buckinghamshire County Council which has just become our 150th TAP® Partner organisation.”
Sarah Barnes, Training Manager for Buckinghamshire County Council commented: “TAP® has enabled us to demonstrate that quality is driven through the whole training life cycle – from development to delivery and we firmly believe that it has assisted us in our drive for continual business excellence.”
The Buckinghamshire County Council ICT Training team are committed to delivering high quality training solutions to their user community of 4000+ employees plus school-based staff. The team of seven TAP trainers, plus two ICT Support Assistants, supports users on desktop applications which include: SAP, Microsoft, LiveSite, and two bespoke Social Care Applications Swift and Protocol. A schedule of open courses is published every quarter with the team running on average 20 courses a week in one of five fully equipped training rooms or on delegate site if preferred. On top of this, the team runs specific closed courses for teams and other organisations as well as offering 1-1 support at the desk.
When making the announcement Ron Mackrell commented “The attractiveness of TAP® partnership continues to grow and around six new organisations per month are currently joining the programme. This growing popularity reflects the unique nature of the TAP® Partners programme, which provides an external endorsement of the skills of those charged with delivering learning services, rather than of the underpinning back-office structures and processes.”
“There has been a proliferation of Accreditation Schemes in recent years. Some organisations tell us that they are have become disillusioned with annual reviews looking at the same internal structures and processes, most of which have not changed for years. Any organisation that adopts fairly standard quality management processes is more than capable of successfully achieving multiple accreditations. However such accreditations have a very limited bearing on the nature and quality of the learner experience.”
By contrast the TAP® Partners programme demonstrates an organisation’s commitment to learning excellence ‘at the sharp end’ through a commitment to solely utilise the services of suitably qualified learning and development specialists. Unlike an accreditation scheme, there is no fee for becoming or remaining a TAP® Partner. Organisations simply need to maintain their commitment to the TAP® standard.
The range of TAP® Partner organisations is rapidly growing, taking in the public and private sector, as well as a huge range of industries. A listing of current TAP® Partners can be reviewed at The Training Foundation website:
http://www.tap-training.com/page/about/partners.html
Capita Learning & Development achieves Silver TAP Partner status
Another major UK learning provider has announced a policy commitment to the TAP® Learning System.
Nick Mitchell, CEO of The Training Foundation commented: "Capita Learning & Development is in the top bracket of premier league learning providers. When organisations of this stature adopt the TAP methodologies as a standard, it sends a very loud message. We have been demonstrating the effectiveness of TAP to Capita Group companies for a long time and it is extremely rewarding to now see this recognised by this partner relationship."
Capita Learning & Development is a leading provider of commercial training services and learning solutions to clients across the private and public sector. The company provides face-to-face training courses, blended and e-learning solutions and consultancy services, covering a broad spectrum of flexible learning paths across all subject areas of organisational development.
Capita L&D's Training Development Director Stuart Lowry commented "The TAP® Partnership is a demonstration of our commitment to providing the highest quality standards in our training delivery. It is also an indication of how important we see the ongoing professional development of our learning professionals."
"The Training Foundation has been instrumental in leading the drive for standards in training and has really driven the agenda. We have run a number of TAP® Delivery Skills sessions and the feedback has been incredible. All trainers have very much valued the importance of creating measurable objectives, the structure and the testing associated with the TAP® qualifications. Together with the in-depth feedback, our trainers have found the TAP® accreditation challenging and worthwhile."
"As a result of our partnership with The Training Foundation, we look forward to further driving professionalism and standards in the training room and ensuring that our delegates can apply their learning immediately and truly make a difference to their organisations."
Ron Mackrell Director of the TAP® Partner programme commented "Only a couple of weeks ago we were pleased to be able to announce that the 150th organisation had joined the programme. This reflects TAP's unique ability to assess and certify the skills of those charged with delivering learning services."
Speaking in January 2007 Iain Lovett, Chief Executive of another leading premier league learning provider, Hemsley Fraser expressed similar enthusiasm for the TAP® Partner initiative when he announced that his organisation had just become a Silver TAP® Partner. "The TAP® skills certification programme, introduced by The Training Foundation in 1998, is important to us because it is increasingly becoming the certification of choice for many of our major clients. We have long believed that the learning sector is in need of recognised professional standards to safeguard quality and value for money for clients. The Training Foundation is taking on an invaluable role in setting these standards, with Hemsley Fraser as an early adopter".
TAP Qualified Professional of the Month
There are not many careers where you can successfully combine trainers, shopping, diamonds and the law unless you start throwing bricks through jeweller shop windows. But Michelle Kaye, IT Trainer at Westfield Shoppingtowns has!
Where the idea of becoming a ‘Trainer’ came from, Michelle still doesn’t know, but some time between College and leaving University, her career choice had been made. In her 14 years of experience as an IT Trainer, Michelle is one of the very few people who made a positive career choice at the outset, rather than ‘floating’ into the role.
The journey began at College, helping friends on the course and moving on after the HND into temporary admin roles where she had her “big” break. At that point Michelle was offered a sole trainer role working for a micro-system computer manufacturer. This involved delivering training in their proprietary word processor and spreadsheet applications.
Michelle’s skills joined Premier IT Training, as a junior trainer. Her time at Premier saw her build her training skills and “portfolio” of applications (including MS Outlook 98, Lotus SmartSuite and WordPerfect!). Michelle then progressed up the career ladder to become a Senior Trainer at the company.
By 2000, Michelle had become the sole IT trainer for DeBeers UK, part of the world's leading diamond company with unrivalled expertise in the exploration, mining and marketing of diamonds. It was in this glittering environment that she first heard about the TAP Learning System. Being curious by nature, and fortunate in her choice of employer Michelle was able to indulge her passion for learning by working through most of the Training Foundation's courses over the next few years.
DeBeers gave Michelle the freedom and support to try new things and so some of her greatest achievements ensued. She completed an entire company upgrade training from Lotus cc:Mail to Outlook 2000 – which involved training some 1,000 staff members and floorwalking to support them. She also completely re-designed the training programme, offering topic-focused sessions instead of the standard whole day "introductory intermediate and advanced" approach. She also managing and ran a very successful ECDL Test Centre, where over 150 people ultimately passed their assessments.
More recently Michelle has been working for a leading legal firm where she helped to redesign their induction training. Bringing the story up to date she now has the role of IT Training Manager at Westfield Shoppingtowns Limited, otherwise known as the glitzy new shopping centre in Shepherds Bush, London!
As a new-build operation Westfield was a clean slate, so Michelle’s job was to set everything up, and provide training for staff located in London, Tunbridge Wells, Derby, Merry Hill, Belfast, and a few other places.
In the 14 months since taking up the role with Westfield, Michelle has written handouts for Office 2003, organised a whole range of training events, learned a lot of new software, written course and handouts for the new software, become first line support for the new facilities management system – and second line support for other systems. In between doing all this she helped setup training rooms, and even got to help with the opening of the new shopping centre!
Article of the month: TAP lessons in blended learning made in-NESC-capable!
Alison Wright is E-learning Programme Manager within NHS Education South Central's Quality, Practice Learning Team. In this new case study she explains why the TAP Certificate in Blended Learning perfectly matched NESC's aspirations to move from a position of patchy, undeveloped provision to a far more coherent, integrated approach to the exploitation of new learning technologies.
As the training and education arm of South Central Strategic Health Authority, NHS Education South Central(NESC) is responsible for ensuring that health service staff across the region's 24 NHS and Primary Care Trusts have the continually updated and improved skills to deliver the highest standards of patient care.
Serving the education and training needs of tens of thousands of staff across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire is quite a challenge. And this challenge is only accentuated by the need to meet the transformational change agenda designed to drive improvements in patient care and safety. Providing access to best value training without compromising quality is paramount. It is not surprising, then, that NESC has been reviewing the potential for new technologies to enhance both the learning experience and process.
Alison Wright is E-learning Programme Manager within NESC's Quality, Practice Learning(QPL)Team. While developing the capacity and capability to deliver e-learning to staff and students is key to NHS South Central's strategic objectives, Alison stresses that e-learning must not be viewed as a standalone panacea, but another tool in the Learning and Development armoury. "When there's so much pressure to deliver training to such vast numbers of employees there can be a tendency to choose the media without giving proper consideration to the bigger picture: what's the learning need? What are the constraints of the target audience? What's the best learning strategy to meet the need? E-learning delivers thebest results when it's used as part of a blend."
The priority for Alison, tasked with supporting Trusts to make appropriate and effective use of e-learning, was to develop an approach that supported capacity and capability building, skills development and an understanding of how to embed e-learning into relevant learning blends with a direct applicability to the workplace.
E-learning has a potentially significant role to play in supporting LaD across all career pathways throughout the region, for all staff whether in clinical, management or support roles. The first step was to conduct a three-month
scoping project early in 2008, which provided a revealing snapshot of current and emerging e-learning activity across NHS South Central. The findings confirmed that Trusts and PCTs were at widely differing stages in their efforts to embed e-learning into their learning infrastructure.
Half the organisations were delivering some e-learning to staff, 38% were in the embryonic stages of introducing e-learning, while the remainder had not yet got off the starting blocks.
"It was clear that staff in many organisations were finding it difficult to know where to start with e-learning," comments Alison. "While some trusts had whole teams skilled in putting together multimedia L&D courses, a general lack of skills and confidence both in ICT and e-learning, combined with limitations in local IT infrastructures and sharing of resources, expertise and experience were proving to be major obstacles."
Alison was looking for a very particular approach to addressing these issues. A number of options were dismissed because they were simply too technical and 'medium' focused. One offering stood head and shoulders above others, however. The TAP® Certificate in Blended Learning corresponded perfectly with NESC's aspirations to move from a position of patchy, undeveloped provision to a far more coherent, integrated approach to exploiting the potential of new technologies.
Another great selling point was that The Training Foundation offered a 'season ticket' facility, which effectively allowed a large cohort of individuals with widely varying roles from disparate locations to undertake the certificate any time, any place, anywhere - online or in the classroom - within a 12 month period.
"I really liked the flexibility of this, not only for immediate needs but also for future progression training," says Alison. "It was also completely stress-free for me because I simply forwarded all interested candidates to Matt Hancocks at The Training Foundation, who did a superb job handling all the booking arrangements."
Another essential requirement was that the content of the course should be widely relevant, no matter what the role or how experienced or inexperienced the candidate. The 50-strong cohort ranged from heads of L&D, IT trainers, librarians, heads of e-learning and e-learning developers, to those with more specialist roles such as clinical pharmacists, medical device trainers and dental educators.
The TAP Certificate in Blended Learning offered something to everyone. Although a formal evaluation had yet to be completed at the time of going to press, Alison was delighted with the positive and enthusiastic feedback from course participants.
"They were really energised and reported greater levels of confidence in their abilities to apply what they'd learned back in the workplace," she comments. "They uploaded some fascinating proposals of their intentions on the tap trainer virtual learning environment; the real proof of the success of the course will be to what extent it was a catalyst for implementing a blend within their own contexts."
Paula Sands, a librarian based at St Mary's Hospital in Portsmouth, is responsible for developing and promoting resource support for University of Southampton nursing and midwifery students across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. She opted for doing the Certificate in Blended Learning in the classroom in September 2008 and not only found the experience thoroughly enjoyable, but also entirely expedient.
"I wanted to find out how a blended approach could improve awareness and availability of resources from the NHS and the University, as well as access," she explains.
"Creativity was another issue. I wanted a more impactful way of reinforcing learning than simply relying on handouts. Because we're in the middle of reviewing delivery of our services, the course was particularly timely."
With plans to make resource-related information more interactive, the course enlightened her on what was possible and, significantly, the importance of not going down the e-learning route for the sake of it.
"I completed the course knowing that you have to start with the learning need and objectives, not the medium and that was a crucial learning point."
A year ago Alison faced a significant challenge. "There weren't the skills, understanding and confidence out there and we were running the risk of duplicated effort and expenditure," she says. The fact that we have that all important shared understanding of the fundamentals across the region now should not only give coherence to future e-learning development and delivery, but also inject the partnership ethos that will result in essential economies and efficiencies."