By Jeffrey Brooks. Director.

The launch of ITOL in February of this year represented an act of faith by a small group of trainers who had met informally over many years to aid our own development. We had become increasingly frustrated by what we saw as a lack of support and encouragement for the recognition and development of training as a distinct profession rather than a subsumed and minor part of HR Management.

We had also become aware of wider rumblings of discontent about these issues from other trainers – and after waiting in vain for others to take the initiative – we were forced to conclude that we would have to take the initiative ourselves.

So what is different about ITOL and what would encourage others to join us?

I suppose the first thing that needs to be said is that we believe ITOL is the only body of its kind in the UK solely committed to trainers and development practitioners. This means that our membership may be drawn from people working as trainers in industry, commerce, the public sector or the armed forces, from training and development consultants and from those working in vocational education in further or higher education. We aim to create an institution which is “by the members, for the members”. By that we mean we are trying to create a real learning climate within which our members can grow and develop, by encouraging members to assist the development of other members.

Membership is growing fast – we now have members in virtually every sector of industry, commerce, private, public, voluntary organisations and academia. Our members have been very active in many areas of ITOL’s development and there is certainly no lack of opportunity for involvement!

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP

• A high quality Journal which carries in-depth practitioner articles, academic research, conference papers and case studies.
  
• Access to an exclusive range of substantial discounts on training and learning related publications and training materials.
  
• Access to our members only website forums:
  - Members Discussion Forum
  - News From ITOL
  - Members Introductions
  - Leslie’s Book Reviews
  - Special Discounts
  - Articles Library
  
• Access to our ‘Ask an Expert’ helplines.
  
• News of Tenders and Contracts
  
• Conference speaking opportunities.
  
• Conference discounts.
  
• Opportunities for involvement in our ‘virtual’ working parties.
  
• A free copy of ITOL’s ‘Glossary of UK Training and Occupational Learning Terms’.
  
• Professional recognition.

SIGNIFICANT MILESTONES IN OUR DEVELOPMENT

1999. Establish office, systems, website, create first Journal etc.
16 February 2000. ‘Official’ launch of the new Institute.
6 March. First new members welcomed into membership.
20 March. First member’s ‘virtual’ working party established (ITOL qualifications)
12 May. New ITOL Certificate and Diploma developed.
15 May. Member’s working party on alternative entry routes established.
26 June. ‘Portfolio’ route to membership developed.
19 July. Secretary of State grants ITOL approval to the title ‘Institute’.
9 August. Member’s working party on a new ‘Glossary of Terms’ established.
25 August. First ITOL ‘Accredited Centre’ appointed (Certificate level)
16 October. ‘Article’ route to membership developed.

WHO JOINS ITOL?
Some statistics about our membership

Fellows 43%
Members 51%
Associate Members 6%

Age Distribution
Under 25 - 2%
25 to 34 - 12%
35 to 50 - 69%
over 50 - 17%

Employment Sector
Industry/Commerce - 34%
Public Sector - 19%
Self Employed - 30%
Academia - 12%
Voluntary Sector - 5%

Other Institute Membership
CIPD - 65%
IIM - 11%
BPS - 7%
IOSH - 5%
IITT - 4%
Other institutions - 55%

Qualifications
Members holding a Training and Development qualification at Certificate level or higher - 98%
% holding a first degree -63%
% holding a post graduate level qualification - 62%

Job roles
ITOL members undertake a wide variety of job roles. However, the most common are:
Training Consultant - 22%
Training & Development Manager - 18%
Director of Training/Learning - 8%
Training Officer - 9%
Senior Lecturer - 6%

Locations
Scotland - 9%
North of England - 27%
Midlands & Wales - 12%
South East - 9%
London & South - 22%
South West - 16%
Overseas - 5%

THE ITOL JOURNAL

All members receive the Journal as an inclusive part of their annual subscription fee. The Journal may also be purchased by non-members at the retail price of £15 per issue. It aims to promote issues and trends by publishing practitioner articles, academic research, conference papers and case studies.

Contents of recent issues.

Old, New, Borrowed, True?
Some questions about the rise of Emotional Intelligence.

Is it useful to know your preferred Learning Style?

A beginners guide to Assessment & Development Centres.

Are Universities Learning Organisations?

Becoming a ‘Learning’ Local Authority.

Investors in People: Encouraging the Learning Organisation.

Humour in Training.

Learning from Failure: A case study of networked learning.

Action Learning, Teams and the Learning Company.

Action Learning Sets: a versatile development process.

The effective functioning of Training and Development.

Encouraging professionalism in Learning and Development.

Evaluation experiences: a case study.

Preparing for practice: assessing personal knowledge.

Facilitating lifelong learning between executives and academics:
the PETIS experience.

ACCREDITED CENTRES

We are now actively seeking to appoint Accredited Centres for the delivery of the Certificate and Diploma’s in Training and Occupational Learning. The first Centre has been appointed and we hope to develop a nation-wide network within the near future.

MORE INFORMATION?

If you want to know more about ITOL and membership, please contact us at:

ITOL
PO Box 69
Hazel Grove
Stockport. SK7 4FR
UK

Tel: 0161 483 4577
Fax: 0161 484 0576
E-mail: admin@itol.co.uk