The TrainingZone LearningWire - Issue 64

TrainingZone

The TrainingZone LearningWire – Issue 64

By TrainingZone

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The TrainingZONE LearningWIRE - Issue 64
30 August 1999
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk
The Learning Community
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Copyright (C) 1999 Sift plc. All rights reserved.
May be reproduced in any medium for non-commercial purposes as long as attribution is given.

Editor's Note
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Just how satisfied are you with your present Internet Service Provider? I ask the question because, as a loyal Demon customer, I suffered the huge frustrations of their failing mail servers over several days last week. Now this was a serious problem for Demon. Their engineers worked on it for seven days to identify and eliminate the problem. Meanwhile, customers trying to download email were constantly encountering error messages - unless you managed to get one of the limited access points to the system. Demon report that the fault was eventually traced to a single hyphen in a line of code. It's reassuring to know that the fault can be traced, but there must be many tens of thousands of customers who were hugely inconvenienced by this. ISP-switching is known as 'churn', and this incident persuaded me to transfer to BTinternet for a time. Now you might say "out of the frying pan, into the fire", but I've been pleasantly surprised. I get 56k, 64k and 128k access lines, dedicated Mac support, dedicated ISDN support, and - this is the real winner - a freephone access number for both 56k and 64k digital access throughout the weekend. This week, we've posted an open question about 'Can I find a better ISP?' at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6065&d=1
so you can add your own comments on the subject, post your questions, and learn of other people's experiences. I'm off to chase the sun (in Derbyshire?) this week, so please welcome Heather Serdar to the Editor's chair (mailto:[email protected]).

Tim Pickles, Editor
mailto:[email protected]

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LearningWire currently reaches over 2,800 professionals every week. Put your message before this focused audience of people engaged in training, learning and development.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/help/advertise.html

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WebWatch
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WebWatch brings you information about useful and relevant resources from other Internet sites around the world. Unless otherwise linked, all the following stories can be found at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/webwatch

LearningMatters.com
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This excellent site, run by Echelon, does a simple thing well. It offers more than 1,000 resources for training and personal development for purchase and download via the Internet. (You can also purchase most of the resources on CD-rom.) Prices range from 15 UKP for a single item, up to 200 UKP for complete suites of resources. There are samples of their materials to view before you buy and a reasonable search facility. By buying and downloading materials in this way, you have the benefit of instant access and use. Not quite the same as free (see the TrainingZone Toolkit), but not far off.
http://www.learningmatters.com

National Training Organisations
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National Training Organisations - or NTOs as they are commonly known - are the industry specific bodies responsible for defining standards in employee training in their respective areas. Each NTO goes through a formal recognition and approval by the government, and is thereafter responsible for establishing many of the standards which are delivered by training providers and employers through the vocational qualification system. To date, seventy NTO bodies have been formally recognised covering more than 90% of the labour force in this country. Around two-thirds of these have their own website. The national council of all NTOs can be found at
http://www.nto-nc.org
from where you can find parallel bodies representing NTOs in Wales and Scotland.
Training and development standards are all governed by the Employment NTO (- thanks to them for getting in touch this week) and for further information about NTO work in our professional field, you should browse through
http://www.empnto.co.uk
At TrainingZone, we've been building a new Links area containing all the NTO bodies, giving hyperlinks to all the websites we can find. The area will launch shortly, but if you think we might have missed yours, please do get in touch and point me to it.

Further information about all these sites, and hundreds of others, can be found at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/webwatch

Neuro-linguistic programming
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Following our full coverage of NLP sites of interest to trainers and developers in LearningWire Issue 59, Carol Harris has been in touch to reference the Asociation for Neuro-Linguistic Programming website which is at
http://www.anlp.org
The original feature article on the subject can be found at https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5401&d=1

The Online Trainer
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With the huge explosion in web-based training delivery, there's an urgent demand for skills in the field of designing and programming online training materials. The Institute of IT Training has responded with this new course which practices what it preaches. Aimed at designers and developers of online learning, the course includes 20 hours of interactive self-study modules, together with assignments and both tutor and peer coaching. The whole course is delivered across the Internet. The first 20 students are commencing now but the Institute anticipates great demand for this certificated course in the future. Cost is 900 UKP for members or 1,200 UKP for non-members, so its worth taking out membership for just 50 UKP. Further details at
http://www.online-training.com
On the same subject, an article in last week's issue of People Management magazine reported a story from the chief executive of KnowledgePool - a huge non-proprietary training company - arguing that online learning is becoming an absolutely essential component of any successful company's strategy to stay competitive through constant staff skill upgrading.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5988&d=1

Teaching and Learning Research Programme
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Staff at Exeter University have been awarded an Economic and Social Research Council grant to conduct a significant research programme into teaching, training and learning. The programme is designed to improve the quality of the learning experience for people of all ages.
http://www.ex.ac.uk/ESRC-TLRP

Online learning providers
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For some current examples of good online learning providers, have a look a the sites run by Intuition Publishing, who specialise in web-based training for financial markets specialists. Meanwhile KnowledgePool is the world's largest non-proprietary training company who provide several different styles of learning - with a very strong focus on Internet led training.
http://www.intuitionpublishing.com
http://www.knowledgepool.com

ADVERTISMENT

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Are you looking for a consultant or training provider?

You can advertise your full specification in our new
Tenders area and reach a huge audience of companies and
freelancers capable of responding to your needs
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/tenders

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HR News
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HR Web is our new area for posting news, resources and updates of interest to the HR profession. It includes personnel, employment and human resource management material.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/hrweb

HR management resources
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He's an excellent site to find with literally hundreds of links to all manner of HR issues, categorised by subjects. Once you start to dip into it, it becomes somewhat addictive - but a highly useful resource for professionals in the HR field providing free information about good practice. Just beware the US flavour of many of the references; the law differs beween countries and whilst the US may lead the way in many respects, it does not necessarily mean that the same situation pertains elsewhere.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5945&d=1

Should TECs be replaced?
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Following the announcement of the proposed Learning and Standards Council two months ago, attention is focusing again on the future of local Training and Enterprise Councils, many of whose functions will be taken over by the new bodies. TECs have rarely had a comfortable ride, but in an article in the current issue of People Management magazine, Peter Latchford argues that they have been prepared to take risks, which their successor bodies may be more loath to do.
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5986&d=1

CV Index
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Here's a UK site where you can post your own CV free and make it available to all the employers who use the service. Employers can search the site to identify candidates for work they may have available. There are more than 150 generic employment categories and the site encourages postings and searches in all employment fields. Useful if you're looking for work, or looking for the right candidate.
http://www.cvindex.com

Are you addicted to work?
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Britain may have around one million 'workaholics' working an average 60 hour week, according to a new report by the Institute of Personnel and Development. The "Living to Work?" report reveals that one in three people who work over 48 hours a week claim to be addicted to work. This represents about 3 per cent of the total UK workforce. However, it seems that self-confessed 'workaholics' were significantly more satisfied with their life in general than other 'long hours' workers interviewed by the IPD. So does this mean that the only way to be truly happy is to become a workaholic?
http://www.ipd.co.uk/1/toplevel/PBP/prof_policy/page147.asp#H

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International News
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We're extending our news coverage to bring more news, updates and developments through reciprocal postings from some of the best training and learning sites around the world. These will appear in our News area at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/news

From the US sites run by Bill Communications (Lakewood) we're able to bring you:

Online Learning News
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6121&d=1

The Training Director's Forum
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6122&d=1

And from the AusTrainer site, the latest issue of AusTrainer News which includes details of further additions to their regular ezine service, this time covering Team Development
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6124&d=1

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Any Answers?
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Your questions to the Editor on any aspect of training and development are posted here. If you have an answer, please visit the story and add your Comment at the end.

Can I find a better Internet Service Provider? Compare notes about your access provider and check out the experience of others at
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6065&d=1

I am looking for material on what is called the ' contribution model' - it looks at reward by assessing contribution rather than simply looking at outcomes or outputs. Has anyone come across this or direct me to sources
Peter Firkin
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6091&d=1

Keep sending new questions to the Editor
mailto:[email protected]

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Details from http://www.brathay.org.uk/youth/trainertrain.html
or from Jane Kissock on 015394 33041

Forthcoming courses include:
Facilitation of Ropes Courses 4 - 6 October
Evaluation for Development Training Programmes 21 - 22 October
Facilitating Learning Through Experience - Level 1 8 - 12 Nov
Facilitating Learning Through Experience - Level 2 30 Nov - 3 Dec
Reviewing, Action Planning and Transfer of Learning 13 - 17 Dec

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Product Reviews
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Every month we publish reviews by a team of active professionals of recent publications, resource materials and products. To have your products reviewed, check out
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/reviews

'Managing Change at Work: 54 approaches to Brickwall Management' by Michael Wash is reviewed for TrainingZone by Peter Martin. There's a special offer on this title for TrainingZone members reducing the purchase price to 5 UKP
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6090&d=1

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New postings in the PressZone
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The PressZone contains details of all the latest news and releases from training suppliers and providers. To become a member, see
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/presszone

Asymetrix Ships Librarian 6.11 Learning Management System with security enhancements
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5963&d=1

Buckholdt Associates: Add on service, EQ assessment, is giving consultancies an edge when looking for new business
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=5923&d=1

£333,000 ISM initiative promotes MCI Management Standards CPD for ISM members actively encouraged
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6088&d=1

ISM: Essential management training and accreditation
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=6089&d=1

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Editor: Tim Pickles mailto:[email protected]
Sift plc., The Mill House, Redcliff Backs, Bristol BS1 6LY
Tel:+44 (0)117 915 9600 Fax:+44 (0)117 915 9630
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk
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