Mind Mapping: Are you making the most of it?
Mind mapping isn’t new, but John Edmonds asks whether enough people being given the opportunity to learn using this technique to help them to solve problems and make decisions. How many times have you been on a training course which is instantly forgettable? That’s because training isn’t a ‘one size fits’ all solution. Different people […]
Harrods to offer degrees to staff
Harrods has become the latest employer to devise a tailored degree course for its staff in conjunction with a university in what appears to be a growing trend. The move follows the announcement last month that the University of Portsmouth had developed a bespoke workplace learning programme in Strategic Quality Management with high-tech giant Hewlett-Packard […]
Top Tips for Learning at Work Day
Learning at Work Day is a great opportunity to re-energise the way your promote learning and development in your workplace. The Campaign for Learning’s Juila Wright gives us her top tips– they also apply for special learning and development promotions all year round. 1. Create a theme A strong theme for your Learning at Work Day can capture […]
British Gas opens green skills training centre in South Wales
British Gas has opened a green skills training centre in South Wales, with the aim of equipping 1,300 local long-term unemployed and its own engineers with the necessary expertise to handle the emerging technology. The centre, which was opened by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government, is based in Tredegar in […]
New L&D degree launches to help professionalise the sector
The University of Chester has got together with the Training Foundation to offer practitioners a Foundation Degree in Learning and Development Practice in a bid to help professionalise the sector. The two-year long part-time degree will be delivered by facilitators from private sector course provider, the Training Foundation (TF), under the supervision of the University […]
Top 10 tips for flexible and tailored learning
Allan Pettman gives his top 10 tips on how to use Web 2.0 tools to go ‘beyond the classroom’. 1. Embed practical applications within the course design People need practical experience and not just theory – otherwise organisations can’t demonstrate or justify a return on investment. Offering hands-on experience also makes the training course […]
The future’s bright; the future’s mobile
Britain is becoming increasingly reliant on mobile technology. We are now witnessing a mobile population that is looking beyond existing learning methodologies. Gareth Murran and Lynda Donovan look to the future of mobile learning and ask; what is needed to structure a learning environment that allows learners to access content when, where and how they […]
Successful save for popular industry qualifications
The campaign to keep NVQs in the construction industry’s qualification structure has been successful thanks to its Sector Skills Council, ConstuctionSkills. This year, the government attempted to scrap NVQs as part of the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), but constant efforts by the council, named ConstructionSkills; now means that industry standard qualifications are set […]
Call for employers to shape qualifications
A new website is set to increase employer involvement in vocational reform. SkillsActive this week has called on the active leisure, learning and well-being sector employers to shape the future of vocational qualifications. The sector has urged employers to visit a new website recently launched, to raise awareness of a large overhaul of sector-based qualifications. […]
TED Talks: The knowledge ecosystem
This week's TED Talks features Professor Richard Baraniuk who explains the vision behind Connexions, his open-source, online education system. Richard Baraniuk is founder of Connexions, a free, open-source, global clearinghouse of course materials. People in some 200 countries tap into its vast store of texts on everything from engineering to ornithology to music, adapting the […]
TED Talks: Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
This week's TED Talks features Kiran Bir Sethi, the founder of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad in India. She shows how her groundbreaking approach teaches kids life's most valuable lesson: "I can." Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents. Watch the other TZ picks […]
Are degrees useless?
One in 10 employers say degrees are ‘pointless’, whilst three in five choose experience over qualification, reveals study. A report has found that 61% of recruiting businesses value experience in the industry over qualification, whilst 8% say degrees are ‘pointless’ given the number of people graduating with similar grades. Student-employer matchmaking site studentgems.com, conducted a […]
TAP achieves Degree status
TAP has today announced the launch of its Foundation Degree in Learning & Development Practice. The degree is based on completion of 11 modular TAP courses covering the spectrum of L&D skills, plus work-based projects. It is entirely and exclusively delivered by The Training Foundation under a formal Partnership Agreement with the University of […]
Who says you have a great L&D department?
Nigel Paine outlines four ways to rate your L&D department. Unfortunately it is usually the head who tells me how brilliant his or her learning and development operation is. ‘Evidence, please?’ I ask in my curmudgeonly way. The best I get is a mumble about budgets being sustained, or customer satisfaction being high. The worst is […]
What does your ideal L&D team look like in 2010?
With fresh challenges to contend with in the working world this year, ‘what skills should the ideal L&D team possess?’ asks Charles Jennings. If we’re to believe the experts, the second decade of the 21st Century doesn’t start until January 2011. However a multitude of calendar systems are still in use across the world today and we shouldn’t be […]
Students set to learn Mandarin in Labour language skills pledge
Secondary school pupils should be able to learn Mandarin, Arabic, Russian and Japanese the government announced yesterday. Schools can choose which languages to teach, but the government want the options to reflect the changing face of business. Last year a survey found 38% of firms wanted recruits who could speak Mandarin or Cantonese. One in […]
Planning and Strategy
Hi all, This is my first question on TZ. I am a Trainer for a New Media Agency and am looking for a Planning and Strategy course for a colleague and hoped that you might be able to help point me in the right direction? My colleague has very strong industry knowledge, a wealth of […]
Coming up clover: Elearning in 2010
After a blooming year for elearning, Bob Little predicts 2010 will be even rosier. The UK elearning market 2009 report published in December by Learning Light,Sheffield-based centre of excellence in the use of elearning and learning technologies in the workplace, paints an optimistic picture, stating that the sector is ‘flowering’ despite the recession. The principal […]
Book quiz winners announced!
We have been running the Bonanza Book Giveaway all week and now is time to reveal the winners – thanks to everyone who took part and congratulations to the successful members! Question 1: In March, expert coach Michael Bungay-Stainer wrote about the three truths of coaching – but what are they? The correct answer […]
Shibuya and the future of collaborative learning
What can the world-reknowned Shibuya University Network – one of the most innovative forms of informal learning teach us and and how can this be applied in the workplace? Francis Marshall reports. Shibuya, Tokyo’s youthful, bustling district and the backdrop for the acclaimed film ‘Lost in Translation’ is home to a very different system of […]
