LearningWire #80 - 20 December 1999

TrainingZone

LearningWire #80 – 20 December 1999

By TrainingZone

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LearningWIRE #80 20 December 1999
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk The Learning Community
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THIS WEEK FEATURING -
- New Learning and Skills Council prospectus
- A look back at 1999
- Our Christmas free gift for you!
- Job opportunities in training
- More effective search engines

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A look back at 1999
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As befits the last year of the century, it's been quite a year. The TrainingZone team highlight a few of the most significant trends and events as we see them affecting the world of training, development and HR over the past year:

- Lifelong learning is here to stay. The language of learning is increasingly around us. Institutes demand it in the form of CPD. Employers need it. Individuals insist on it. The government regards it as a central plank in the drive to combat social exclusion. The most significant single event in the UK which reinforces lifelong learning was the publication of proposals in 'Succeed to Learn' in June (followed up by the recent legislative bill to introduce such changes as the Learning and Skills Council). Also significant has been the emergence of UfI in its newly branded form of LearnDirect and the associated creation of the first local learning centres. There's a lot more to come in 2000 which we'll be covering in depth.

- The Internet really is going to make an impact. A year ago, many people were sceptical. Now an estimated 17 million people in the UK have access to email. Around 800 million pages of information are thought to be available online (more than double the volume a year ago). More than 'if you're not connected, you're losing out', the phrase of the year might turn out to be 'if you're not learning online by 2002, you're unemployable'. The trend is clear. Online Learning has made big inroads - whilst still having an enormous distance to go to become really relevant and accessible to the vast majority of learners. We'll keep it covered next year too.

- Emotional intelligence comes of age. In achieving organisational development, a more mature view is evolving. Despite the hype and spin of the panacea merchants, people are at last coming to recognise that the development of individuals and their workplace is a complex, multi-faceted affair in which the intangible and sub-conscious aspects of the workplace are at least as important, if not more so, that the quantifiable and visible. Our publication this year of 'Toolkit for Managers' offers one way of integrating this approach, whilst emotional intelligence may well be the model of the future.

Other groups have been reviewing the past twelve months too. Here are a few of our favourite ones:

- Online Leaning News has published its forecast of where technology-led learning is going. Their predictions can be seen at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=10362&d=1

- A selection of ideas about developing leadership from the-shelf.com. William Benn presents twelve principles of effective leadership. Concentrate on one per month in 2000, and see how YOU can make a bigger and better impact at work!
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=10332&d=1

- In its review of the past 100 years, the TrainingSuperSite focus on just six areas, mostly with a humourous touch. Entitled 'So long 20th Century', the section on Best Mission Statements rings some bells - whilst the Best Quotes is definitely tongue in cheek! You'll need to visit to learn more!
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9734&d=1

Our first issue of 2000 will offer some predictions for the year ahead. Why not email us with your suggestions for what lies ahead?

We plan to publish LearningWire next week with a short issue to entertain anyone having to work between the holidays. Assuming that the world doesn't end at midnight on 31 December, and that the Y2K fuss was all for naught, we'll see everyone again next year. However you plan to celebrate, the TrainingZone team wishes you fun and relaxation.

ADVERTISEMENT: Christmas free gift from TrainingZone
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If you run a website, make it more fun and interactive with our special free gizmo. Put a live news ticker onto your site. We've got a free news ticker to give you, complete with all the HTML coding you'll need to make it work and a working demonstration at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/news/syndicatednews.html

Latest News
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Send us news for inclusion on https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/news

Prospectus for new Learning and Skills Council
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Speaking to a business audience about the new Learning and Skills Council at 10 Downing Street breakfast, David Blunkett said that the proposals for the Council, (included in the legislative programme for the current parliament) would slash bureaucracy, put £50 million savings into front-line learning, and tackle decades of poor performance in the skills delivery system.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9738&d=1

Local authorities encouraged to develop adult learning
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Education and Employment Minister Malcolm Wicks told local authorities they must play an important role in delivering post 16 education and implementing Lifelong Learning Plans to make adult learning a top priority.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9676&d=1

UfI publishes learning standards materials
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The UfI has recently published standards documents about the learning interface requirements for suppliers of learning materials. These standards can be downloaded from their site for material developers.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9736&d=1

Success factors for introducing learning technologies
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The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) has partnered with the Masie Centre to initiate a programme of research into organisational factors which contribute to the successful introduction of new forms of technology-based learning within the workplace. The research began last month and is scheduled to run for some time, but the research topics seem particularly relevant to this fast-growing area of organisational development
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9740&d=1

Working globally: training and advice
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As the global economy continues to grow, and our communications with worldwide neighbours become more frequent and flexible, there is now an even greater need to understand the cultures of others around us. From a US base, but with all-round relevance, The Web of Culture seeks to inform business professionals on the topic of cross-cultural communications.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9757&d=1

Moving to north west England?
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Another look at relocation and cultural adjustments, this one from a UK perspective. "The complete relocation resource offering a tailor-made service designed to meet all or some of your relocation requirements. Dedicated to providing a personal, professional and friendly service. We aim to take the stress out of your move to the North West [of England]."
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9760&d=1

New free source of HR news
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As the blurb puts it: "Staying on top of current news and trends in recruiting and the workplace in today's labour market can be a job in itself. The links on this page will take you to current HR news articles from a sampling of over 10,000 newspapers and trade journals." Evident danger: information overload ahead.... but it's a treat to find a news source that says "feel free to browse or print"!
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9768&d=1

Call for papers on CPD
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The online Journal on Continuing Professional Development has issued an invitation to authors to submit articles for next year's issues. This is probably the largest publication devoted to this theme in the UK and all submission are scrutinised by a group of peer reviewers. More information at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=10356&d=1

Any Answers?
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Post your own question direct to Any Answers? by clicking the Post a Question button on the page. All replies are automatically emailed to you. You're virtually guaranteed a reply!.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/anyanswers

Here are a selection of new questions:

** Where can I find Training Standards Council reports?

** Would you consider a new stress management technique in your workplace?

** Do you have anything really different on personal presentation skills?

** Definition and statistics of on-line learning required

** Does anyone know about any Documentation Standards that exist, particularly for IT?

All the questions and all the answers can be found at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/anyanswers

Tenders 2000 Challenge
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Our Challenge is to promote open and competitive tendering for training and consultancy work. You can publish your contract opportunities completely free of charge. Feedback from users indicates a high quality response from tenders promoted this way. This week's opportunities include:

** Trainers wanted for telecoms company with knowledge of communications technologies.

** Could you champion Quantum Reading?

Check out the latest opportunities and invitations to tender at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk

10,000 professionals engaged in training, learning and HR will use TrainingZone this week. For details on reaching this audience:
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/help/advertise.html

WebWatch
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The best training and HR resources from website around the world are featured at https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/webwatch

TrainingZone is a free community - please help us keep it that way. If you like LearningWire and the website please forward this newswire to a friend and suggest they register for their own copy.

Search engines revisited
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Leading search engine, Alta Vista has recently undergone a full makeover and now appears to be even better than before. Alta Vista claims to offer the largest index to the World Wide Web. While this is difficult to verify, the new look interface and improved features make it one of the front runners. One especially helpful new feature is the automatic grouping of results - all search hits relating to the same site are grouped together, making the results screen easier to follow.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9683&d=101

A new tech company has solved the riddle of parallel processing and is now indexing the entire world wide web which has about 800 million URLs. They are just now approaching 300 Million URLs catelogued and should have all the searchable URLs on the Internet totally indexed by August of 2000. This means no duplicates or bad links.
http://www.alltheweb.com

'Expat exchange'
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Expat Exchange has been building an online community to help expats share information and advice with their peers around the world. This has now grown into a valuable source of information and advice both for expats themselves and for HR managers.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=9767&d=1

BBC for Business
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The BBC makes available a series of training videos and accompanying resource materials, based upon its programming output. This aspect of the corporation's activities is handled by the BBC for Business offshoot. The web catalogue currently lists around 50 titles. The annoying aspect of the site is that you have to enter name and email details before you can get beyond the front page.
http://www.bbcworldwide.com/bbc4biz

Last minute Christmas cards
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The popularity of e-greetings is rising compared with previous years, as more people gain web access and discover its benefits. A recent NOP survey commissioned by BT's talk21 showed that online Britons expect to e-mail an average of 11 electronic cards to share their Yuletide cheer in the run up to Christmas, more than a quarter of the total number of cards they expect to send out. Using e-mail, a dialogue can begin that can kick a friendship back to life. So if you have forgotten to send someone a card check out the following electronic greetings card sites.
http://www.cybercard.co.uk
http://www.north-pole.com
http://www.bluemountain.com
http://www.123greetings.com

PressZone
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The place where you can publish your own news and press releases, this week features:

- ISM, Acorns and Longden sponsored Challenge Shield

- ISM Aspire to train North Oxford staff

- City Trucks win ISM award again

- Buckholdt research shows how Emotional Intelligence improves with age.

All these, and other press stories at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/presszone

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