News website Ananova reports that Doncaster Council has left employees in the dark over the thinking behind a series of training courses covering how to change a lightbulb.

Ananova says that a number of half-day sessions were run for maintenance staff on identifying and fitting different bulbs, with another 94 staff attending sessions on how to climb a ladder.

An obviously disgruntled school caretaker who went on the lightbulb course is quoted as saying: "It was like a scene from a comedy film. An official stood in front of us with different bulbs and insisted on showing us how to fit them all. I felt like a complete idiot."

Doncaster independent councillor Martin Williams is quoted as responding: "The council needs to switch on to the fact that it is a laughing stock. This is just a crazy waste of time and effort. What will be next? Floor cleaning courses?" We're guessing that Mr Williams is unaware of the existence of the NVQ qualification in Cleaning Building Interiors, successfully acheived by many cleaning staff around the country...

TrainingZONE says: It's difficult to get to the bottom of this one. Maybe the training was needed for health and safety reasons, to meet the requirements of legislation - a spokesperson for Doncaster Council has commented that it takes its health and safety responsibilities seriously. It seems probable the 'light bulb training' was part of a session covering other aspects of maintenance work - most would struggle to design a course covering half a day on that single topic! The course obviously had one or two attendees who definitely didn't want to be there, which isn't unusual. If you know the truth about Doncaster Council's training strategy, let us know!