At the HRD 2001 show last week, we picked up a copy of the full list of courses now being offered by the government's learndirect. Although learndirect provides access to information on courses for other providers (around half a million in total, according to LearnDirect), it also offers around 400 courses developed by providers specifically for learndirect.
Course topics are split into four main areas:
- Information and Communications Technology - courses at beginner, advanced or expert level in Microsoft Packages including Excel, Access and Word, along with Lotus WordPro, 1-2-3, Freelance and Approach
- Reading, Writing and Working with Numbers - basic skills tuition, available free-of-charge, including skills checks and English for Speakers of Other Languages
- General Business and Management courses - including personal development, key communication skills, people management (teamwork, appraisal, coaching), customer care and finance
- Specialist Business and Management courses - retail, improving productivity and courses related to the car industry
Of the 400 courses currently on offer from learndirect, more than 70 per cent are online. The University for Industry, which is overseeing the learndirect initiative, appointed a number of suppliers to produce the course materials, including NETg, Maxim Training, Xebec McGraw-Hill, and M2S. However, courses can only currently be accessed through the network of LearnDirect centres which has been set up around the country.
TrainingZONE is interested to hear from anyone who's tried any of courses - we've seen a preview of an induction course for basic skills, but would like to find out what users think about the other courses on offer. E-mail us with your experiences.
