So far in this series we've had free team building and management and business training resources. In this latest instalment, Cheryl Taylor picks the best of the rest – resources that defy categorisation, other than they are useful, useable and, of course, free. If we've missed any gems, post a comment below or send an email to news@trainingzone.co.uk
Flexible Learning Framework
To protect themselves from potential litigation, teachers and trainers must have sufficient knowledge of copyright law and legal obligations. Copyright Kitchen, a free online resource for vocational education and training (VET) practitioners, provides a guide to the legal loopholes and pitfalls of copyright law. Get the low-down on common copyright and intellectual property issues, including copyright exceptions and licences, and how to apply for them. Information is broken up based on the user’s role, their organisation or the task they’re undertaking.
The content can be used to populate the users ‘recipe book’, containing answers to their copyright questions and information about situations they encounter in their day-to-day work. The ‘recipe book’ can then be downloaded from Copyright Kitchen onto their computer for easy future access.
QED Training Services
Specialists in equality laws and diversity issues, QED Training have not insulated these subjects from all the technical, managerial and soft skills needed in this changing world. An A to Z, one-stop training shop is offered in almost every subject except finance.
Free products and resources include: 'How to say no!'; 'How to deal with interruptions' and 'Giving feedback so that the other person does 60% of the talking'. Also, briefing sheets about communication protocols and body language on almost every group in the community, including Muslims, Chinese, Gypsies, Transgender pople and Christians.
Blackboard
Blackboard offers the latest in distance learning. The courses are mostly taught by teachers at universities. Many of the courses are free, others require nominal tuition.
Mud Valley – Advanced SWOT
SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a popular method of analysis. The SWOT analysis is closely related to the McKinsey Matrix (market attraction vs. competitive advantage). Indeed, one is based on the other, although it’s unknown which one was based on which.
SWOT analyses tend to go in strong and come out bland. The representation of the results does not reflect the passion of the content. By adding in two McKinsey Matrix analyses, present and future, you not only enhance the content of the SWOT analysis, but you also generate scatter plots showing relative market attraction and relative competitive advantage - a much richer representation of only a little more work. So here is Enhanced SWOT.
SumTotal.com
Provides hundreds of online training courses with an emphasis in computer and information technology trainings. Training courses range from those for the novice to those for the expert. There are also expert and novice user ratings for many of the courses. Free downloads and a 21 day toolbox trial
FindTutorials.com
An online listing of many free tutorials in varying degrees of technical difficulty. This service is more of a tutorials search engine.
Free-Ed.Net
Free-Ed.net offers free online education with no books to buy and no hidden fees. Complete courses and tutorials for more than 120 different vocational and academic disciplines.
Page Tutor
Lots of things to help you learn how to develop web sites, including: free html tutorials, tables, frames and forms tutorials, a MouseOver tutorial, a solid javascript tutorial, password
protection script and lots of resources for the beginning and advanced HTML author and webdesigner.
The Cyber Learning Centre
The user-friendly courses are either self-study or instructor-led. They cover many different computer related topics. Free IT training is available for the first 5,000 applicants. A National Education Foundation project, the CyberLearning Center is offering $2,000 full tuition scholarships to take any and all of its 400+ online courses. There is a small registration fee. Click on “FREE IT” Courses.
Microsoft Seminars Online
Microsoft offers a plethora of free online seminars on Microsoft products, networking and web integration.
CNET Web Building
CNET offers a host of online trainings, tutorials and resources to help you build an effective web site. Most of these resources are free.
LearnLots
A part of Service911.com, LearnLots offers hundreds of free basic tutorials on software applications, web building, networking, and computer repair.
Finding Information on the Internet
Provided by the University of California/Berkeley, this free tutorial provides information on how to utilize the internet for research.
TrainerActive
This useful site provides hundreds of training resources available on-demand, 24/7. All the training activities have been designed by professional trainers and are fully tried and tested saving you hours of your preparation time. Not completely free, the site does offer new members a free 30-day trial.
Jewish Vocational Services
Jewish Vocational Services offer many programs in computer training from software engineering to AutoCAD drafting. They also provide free access to computers, free career counselling, and information on writing resumes.
Free IT Training and Certification
Free courses in A+ certification, Microsoft certification, MOS training, Comptia certification and MCSR offering online training, including HTMLand DHTML training.
Hypnosis Training Resources
Download free hypnosis scripts and hypnotherapy patter scripts, including Stop Smoking, Weight loss/overeating problems, Stop Snoring and Sleep Disturbance.
