Myths have a way of perpetuating themselves. There are quite a few related to training and learning too. Everyone seems to believe in them. So much so that they have become sacrosanct and no one even bothers to question them.  When Shalu Wasu heard some for the first time, it was in the context of a training program that he was going through. His first reaction was: ‘Wow! That sounds incredible.’ In the enthusiasm of the collective wows that were generated, he, like all of us,  accepted the myths as truth.

He soon realized he was not comfortable believing in them. Intuitively, Shalu Wasu knew they could not be true.  Now all these myths seemed to be backed up by solid research though and he wondered if he was being his usual arrogant self by questioning these supposed universal ‘truths’.  But he  started his probe anyway and what he found really warmed my heart! These were myths for sure, very similar to urban legends that get popularized without any sound basis. Below are three of the most common.

MYTH ONE: You remember 10% of what you read, 20% of what you hear, 30% of what you see and 90% of what you do.

This is a widely repeated statement by trainers all over the world. Maybe you’ve been subjected to this statement at some time as well. I hope you have not made it though.  The round figures are easily remembered but completely wrong.  The findings can be traced to one D.G. Treichler, an employee of Mobil Oil Company, who put forth these figures in 1967.  However, the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science has laid claim to the figures, saying they are based on research in the early sixties and bizarrely adding that ‘we no longer have – nor can we find – the original research that supports the numbers’.  Though, there are many arguments against these figures, one that is most obvious is that all the percentages are perfectly round. What research into human behaviour ever resulted in four different round numbers?

MYTH TWO: In communication, only 7% of the meaning is conveyed through the speaker’s words, 55% through his facial expressions and the rest 38% through tone of voice.

I am sure you have come across this lulu too, especially if you have attended communication or NLP programs. In one sweeping statement, words are reduced to an insignificant role in the great game of communication.  Yet, when we think about this deeply, the fallacies start becoming obvious. Is it really possible that if I get lost in Shanghai and ask a passer-by for directions, I’ll have to work out the correct route mostly from their facial expressions and tone of voice, and not from the words they use?  The findings are attributed to research done by Mehrabian but, in reality, they are just a distorted version of what Mehrabian himself has to say on his website. He expresses the results of his research in the form of an equation: Total liking = 7% verbal liking + 38% vocal liking + 55% facial liking.  He explains that “this and other equations regarding relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attitudes (i.e. like-dislike). Unless a communicator is talking about their feelings or attitudes, these equations are not applicable.”

MYTH THREE: We use 10% of our brain (or anywhere from 1% to 15% depending upon where you have read it).

This one is so popular, even Albert Einstein is usually roped in as one of the endorsers! The media too has played a role in orchestrating this myth. Many of us therefore look at it as given.  Scientists have tried for years to change this misconception. They have clearly stated that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that we use only 10% of our brains. In fact it is very hard to say what using just 10% of your brain means.  It could mean that I could cut 90% of my brain and be just fine or that I just use only one out of every ten nerve cells at any one time. Let’s attack this one with common sense.

First of all, it is obvious that the brain, like all other organs, has been shaped by natural selection. Brain tissue is metabolically expensive both to grow and to run.  It strains credulity to think that evolution would have permitted squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ.  Secondly, losing far less than 90 percent of the brain to accident or disease has catastrophic consequences. Various medical tests reveal that there does not seem to be any area of the brain that can be destroyed without leaving the patient with some kind of functional deficit.  Likewise, electrical stimulation of points in the brain during neurosurgery has failed so far to uncover any dormant areas where no percept, emotion or movement is elicited by applying these tiny currents.

Having dug hard and deep, I find no evidence at all to support this myth.  The most powerful lure of the myth is probably the idea that we might develop psychic abilities, or at least gain a leg up on the competition by improving our memory or concentration.  All this is available for the asking, the ads say, if we just tapped into our most incredible of organs, the brain. It is past time to put this myth to rest, although if it has survived at least a century so far, it will surely live on into the new millennium.  The next time you are subjected to this one, just ask the speaker politely “Oh? What part don’t you use?”

Source: Tickled by Life article by Shalu Wasu

Galway Independant – 14th May, 2008 – More than 350 secondary school students from Galway and Leitrim descended on Sligo IT last week to learn more about good financial habits for life in the extended learning workshop, Bank Your Future, the unique national financial education initiative by Junior Achievement, generously supported by Bank of America.

Students from Calasanctius College in Oranmore were among the 350 attendees. “Empowering young people with the skills surrounding the complex area of personal finance will allow these students not only a firm understanding of their future financial choices and responsibilities but also of the importance of their career choices and potential to create fulfilling and independent lives,” said Mr Ian O’Doherty, Ireland Country Executive, Bank of America, launching Bank Your Future.

More than 700 students across Dublin, Leitrim, Cork and Galway will this academic year participate in this new initiative developed to educate students on how to establish good financial habits to carry them through their adult lives. Bank Your Future is a six-week programme taught in the classroom by independent business volunteers from a variety of business backgrounds.

Bank Your Future programme includes:

• the importance of education and its role in improving potential earning power;
• balancing salary and expenditure;
• using credit and cash wisely;
• the importance of saving;
• the benefits of insurance;
• creating and analysing the performance of a share portfolio.

Bank of America is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. In Ireland Bank of America employs over 1,000 associates across its two facilities in Dublin and Carrick-on-Shannon providing financial products and services for individual customers and large corporations.

Junior Achievement, a worldwide organisation established in Ireland in 1995, brings enterprise education to young people throughout Ireland teaching them about the world of work, helping them to set goals, plan for their future and learn the skills necessary to succeed in a fast changing world. Junior Achievement aims to fill the gap where young people have no connection with business or a role model to inspire them to succeed in life. The organisation does this with the active and financial support of 150 leading Irish businesses across the commercial spectrum. Hands-on experiences help students to understand the economics of life. In partnership with businesses and educators, Junior Achievement brings the real world to young people, opening their minds to their potential.

It’s been a crazy few months between banks and stock markets and the big recession that is slowly gripping the world.  In an atmosphere like this it is up to everyone to improve their employability and career prospects by learning new skills and upskilling.  You don’t need to wait until your employer arranges this or even leave it so late that your social welfare officer arranges it.  Take the initiative and seek out the training that can make a difference for you.  If you want to keep up with the times, your old skills must be continually sharpened and new ones must be acquired.

Always keep in mind the following:

• There is no such thing as “Finished Learning.” One who stops learning, stops growing.  Work hard towards sharpening your Foundation and Transferable skills.  It pays to spend some time sharpening your axe before attempting to fell a tree.
• Keep an eye open for new skills and master them. At the same time, improve the ones you already have.
• Do some research to find out what skills are and will always be most valued in your industry.  Two sites that may help you here are ‘A Career Guide to Industries’ and ‘Tomorrow’s Jobs’.

Issues that people typically have include the following:

What can I do? – You can do whatever you want to. Right from cooking to eating, you will find information pertaining to any interest that you may have.

Where to look? – Keep your eyes and ears open. There’ll always be something happening in your locality to match your interest.

Universities/Colleges: – Usually, universities and colleges have clubs, societies and student groups which bring together students with similar interests. You can be sure to fit into at least one of them and learn from those who have more experience than you and build networks.

Leisure Centers & Gyms: – These are places where you will find people who like physical activity like hiking, swimming and traveling.

Evening Classes: – Collect details of all evening courses conducted in your area. Learn a language you don’t know, or get trained to do creative things like sewing or origami.

Volunteering: – Though not as glamorous as a lot of other things, the feel-good factor is immensely high! Giving something back to society is an amazing way to boost your morale. And of course, it looks impressive on your CV too and can be used to reinforce your skills and validate new ones.

Distance and Online Learning: – If you prefer to spend more time at home and if that’s the only hindrance you are facing to learning new skills, this is perfect for you. Learn Skills is one of the places where you can start hunting for relevant information about courses and as for online courses, it is the best place to start looking for what you want with a very comprehensive range of courses that cover both skills and compliance based training.  If you have any specific needs you can contact Learn Skills.

Source: CvTips.com article “Learn New Skills”.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the professional body for those involved in the management and development of people.  The 2008 Learning and Development survey provides data on current and emerging trends and issues in learning and development. This year CIPD focused on some important issues facing the profession: employee skills; current and future learning and development practices; perceptions of e-learning; and the role of coaching. They also provide benchmark information on trends in workplace learning and training spend.

Below I will outline the summary of key findings.

Employee Skills

• Two in five (39%) respondents feel their learning and development activity has been influenced by the Leitch Review of Skills: Prosperity for all in the global economy: world class skills (2006). Around two in five have also considered or would consider implementing initiatives such as Train to Gain (44%) and signing the Employer Skills Pledge (47%).
• More organisations feel it is the Government’s responsibility (87%) to raise educational standards among young people before they enter the workforce rather than employers’ responsibility to raise literacy/numeracy standards within the workforce (57%). Sixty-two per cent feel the Government should prioritise funding on basic/lower-level skills.
• Compared with two years ago, organisations are now requiring a broader range of skills (61%) and a higher level of skills (40%). The key skills that employers class as very important include interpersonal (79%) and communication skills (68%). However, 66% of organisations feel that new employees currently lack both communication/ interpersonal skills and management/leadership skills. Yet, these are also the same skills that organisations feel will be required to meet business objectives in the future.
• One-third of employers have a graduate training scheme. The main areas included in these schemes include coaching and/or mentoring (85%) and project assignments (81%).

Learning and development – the future

• The majority of organisations have experienced change over the last few years in delivering learning and development, with the most significant change concerning management development in the form of new programmes to develop the role of line managers (72%).
• Indeed, the crucial role of line managers highlighted in previous surveys is reinforced this year, with the majority being involved in determining learning and development needs (86%) and half predicting line managers will have greater responsibility for learning and development over the next five years (49%).
• On the whole, learning and development managers have accurately forecast changes in learning and development practices; e-learning, coaching/ mentoring and in-house development programmes were all previously highlighted as growth areas. In-house development programmes (61%) and coaching by line managers (53%) are both now used more than previously.
• However, the expected use of e-learning has possibly been overanticipated, with less than half (47%) using more e-learning and a quarter (26%) saying they don’t use or no longer use e-learning. This is possibly because few feel it is the most effective learning and development practice (7%).

E-Learning

• Nonetheless, over half (57%) of organisations use e-learning, while nearly half tend to agree that e-learning is the most important development in training in the past few decades. The vast majority (82%) of public sector organisations use e-learning compared with just 42% of private sector companies.
• There is some indication that e-learning will be increasingly used as a training tool, with 29% saying that in the next three years between 25% and 50% of all training will be delivered via e-learning.
• More than three-quarters (79%) of respondents feel e-learning is not a substitute for classroom-based learning, while the vast majority (92%) feel that e-learning demands a new attitude to learning on the part of learners.
• Almost all (95%) feel that e-learning is more effective when combined with other forms of learning.

Coaching

• Seventy-one per cent of organisations undertake coaching activities, with a similar proportion (72%) finding coaching to be an effective tool.
• However, the purpose of coaching would appear to vary according to whom coaching is offered. Thus, within organisations that offer coaching to all of their employees, the purpose of this coaching is demonstrably used for general personal development (79%) and to remedy poor performance (74%), whereas within organisations that offer coaching only to managers, the emphasis for the purpose of coaching shifts towards its positioning as part of a wider management and leadership development programme.
• The bulk of the responsibility for delivering coaching lies with line managers coaching those who report to them (36%) and to HR and/or learning, training and development specialists (30%).
• The main methods used for evaluating the effectiveness of coaching include: through observation of changes (42%) and reviews of objectives conducted with line managers, coach and coachee (42%).

Economic influences on learning and development

• More organisations report facing similar (44%) economic circumstances in the past 12 months than those reporting either worse (33%) or better (22%) circumstances.
• However, the public sector continues to be gloomier than the private sector, with 53% reporting worse economic circumstances in the past 12 months, 45% reporting a cut in training funds and only 13% experiencing an increase in funding.
• Larger organisations – that is, those with more than 5,000 employees – also have a gloomy outlook, with 44% reporting worse conditions and 39% saying they have received a decrease in funding.
• Seventy-seven per cent of voluntary sector respondents report that funding for training has remained stable or increased, compared with 75% in the private sector and 54% in the public sector.

Training Spends & Budgets

• Seventy-seven per cent of organisations have a training budget.
• Voluntary sector organisations continue to spend more per employee per year on training, compared with the private sector and with the public sector.
• Those employing less than 250 continue to spend far more per head on training than those with more than 5,000 employees.

The full report is available here and give us all the motivation we need to ensure that Learn Skills addresses a key need in the UK economy through the provision of web-based skills and compliance training for the workforce.

By Elizabeth Gardner

USA – 1st March, 2008 – Walk into a City Furniture store in Florida on a slow morning and you’re likely to find a store associate at his computer. It may look like he’s web surfing, but he’s probably brushing up on his knowledge of couch construction or crib safety standards using the retailer’s e-learning system. For the past year, the 15-store chain has been moving its employee training away from classrooms and paper manuals and onto the Internet.

With stores all over south Florida, City Furniture’s 1,100 employees are far flung. “Imagine how challenging it is to get people to come an hour north, or two hours south, or an hour west, for a full-day training session,” says Janet Wincko, director of recruiting and learning. “Every moment they’re driving here and sitting in a class, they’re not selling.” And for employees in the 24/7 distribution center, scheduling classroom training to fit everyone’s odd hours is an additional challenge.

With e-learning, employees can complete little chunks of training; anything from five minutes for a quick briefing on a new product to a 20-minute module on store procedures, whenever they have a spare moment. Their reward is anything from lavish praise to bonuses or promotions. City Furniture’s reward is more training completed at less expense and potentially lower employee turnover and higher sales.

Internet-based e-learning is transforming how stores train their employees, whether it’s how to fold a sweater, how to deal with an angry customer or how to work the point-of-sale system. And sometimes that point-of-sale screen carries the lesson of the day.

“First-tier retailers: those with more than $2 billion in annual sales, all have embraced e-learning”, says Sunita Gupta, executive vice president at the LakeWest Group, a retail consulting firm. It recently completed a survey of 100 top retailers, and more than 70% said better training of store personnel was their top priority.

“Among second tier retailers: those with $500 million to $2 billion in sales, adoption of e-learning varies, and it’s most often used to introduce new technologies or programs”, Gupta adds.

Because e-learning systems are often available as a hosted solution and companies can pay per user, retailers of any size can potentially benefit, says Don Cook, senior vice president of marketing at Learn.com Inc., which includes about 30 retailers, including City Furniture, among its 500 e-learning clients. “We target the mid-market, between 10,000 and 30,000 employees is our sweet spot, but our biggest growth area is companies with less than 1,000,” he says. “Small companies should take training seriously. When you have three stores, it’s easier to develop a training system than if you wait until you have 50 or 100.”

Computer-based training has been around since all screens were black with green letters. The rise of the commercial Internet has made networked computers ubiquitous and inexpensive, giving retailers the ability to easily link trainees with centralized training. And the evolution of Internet technology has spawned a toolbox of presentation techniques as useful for developing training materials as they are for creating flashy web sites. Course developers can choose online video, Internet gaming techniques and other tools that appeal to the young people who form the backbone of many retailers’ sales forces. And those forces can take their training at any Internet-connected computer whenever it’s convenient, whether during a lull at the store or at home in their jammies.

“Retailers realize that e-learning offers a better toolset than traditional training,” Gupta says. “It’s interactive. They can add remedial sections if someone is taking longer than usual to understand something. They can be creative with learning protocols. And they can test as they go to gauge a person’s progress.”

Last year, Hudson’s Bay Co., one of Canada’s largest retailers with more than 580 locations and 50,000 to 70,000 employees depending on the season, realized a two-fold increase in the number of online training courses completed by employees, says Jason Hubbard, senior manager of e-learning and virtual classroom.

His in-house staff of five has produced dozens of e-learning courses over the past four years, not only on specific products and store procedures but also on personal growth topics like dealing with stress and improving language skills. Each course takes about three weeks to create and 15 to 20 minutes for a learner to complete. Hudson’s Bay employees completed more than 160,000 courses in 2007.

And often they revisit those courses for a refresher. “Any trainer will tell you that when someone gets training for a whole day, they’re overwhelmed and don’t remember everything they’ve learned,” Hubbard says. “With this system, you can go online to review specific things. If I do a spreadsheet once a month and I’ve forgotten how to do a PivotTable, I can use the Excel course as a reference tool.”

The courses run on a learning management system from GeoLearning Inc. GeoLearning hosts the system, which provides a platform not only for delivering the courses but for tracking participation and assessing the overall “skill health” of individual employees. The learning management system can serve as a general employee development tool for human resources departments, says Will Hipwell, GeoLearning’s senior vice president of product development.

E-learning can help geographically dispersed organizations develop a common corporate identity, says Angela Vazquez, director of instructional design at AMC Theatres, which operates 300 movie theaters throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company has been using e-learning for about four years. Its system provides courses for about 2,700 employees, including line managers at theaters. Vazquez plans to roll out courses this year for the 20,000 crew-level employees, the ones who pop the popcorn and clean between the seats.

“Having a centralized training function at the home office really helps us standardize and share our culture with remote locations,” Vazquez says. Each course uses the same branded template to give a consistent look and feel.

Face to face?

However, some subjects are still best taught in person, especially if they involve role-playing or lots of personal interaction, says Hudson’s Bay’s Hubbard. But even then, e-learning can streamline the process.

“A class that might have run a full day before can now run half a day because you can play around with the material a little bit online before the course and do follow-up online,” he says. City Furniture, Hudson’s Bay and AMC all use some classroom training in addition to e-learning for a blended approach.

Costs for e-learning vary widely, and the return on investment is sometimes difficult to identify, especially in the first few years when a company is incurring substantial expenses to set up a system and develop courses.

When City Furniture’s Janet Wincko was selling management on e-learning, she stayed away from squishy projections on increased sales or reduced turnover and stuck to the obvious. “Paying a dollar to an instructional designer is comparable to paying a dollar to an instructor,” she says. “But I have to pay the instructor every time he teaches a class, and I only have to pay the designer once.”

For Hudson’s Bay, direct return on its overall e-learning investment isn’t a primary concern, Hubbard says. Sales and management staff have to be trained one way or another, and his most important metric is successful course completions (defined as not only being exposed to the course, but passing the post-course test with an 80% score or better). Nonetheless, he can point to cases where introducing a course on a specific product: for example, digital cameras has resulted in increased sales. “Associates are much more likely to sell something when they’re knowledgeable about the product.”

In general, benefits from e-learning are significant, especially when viewed enterprisewide, some experts say.

“It’s hard to measure what you get back from having sales associates who can actually assist customers,” says LakeWest Group’s Gupta. “But many corporate initiatives fail because the execution doesn’t happen at the store level.”

Source: InternetRetailer.com

Elizabeth Gardner is a Riverside, Ill.-based freelance business writer.

Learn Skills aims to have a comprehensive range of essential skills and compliance training for the Retail Sector available soon, for both individuals and large groups of employees and learners.

In an open world as ours, interactive communication technologies generate an impact which has an influence on both individual learners and the organisations administrating learning processes.

This new issue of eLearning Papers aims to contribute to the debate highlighting several articles which address the openness and changing world of learning as well as the pervasive nature of some related public policies.

Richard Straub argues that the idea of “openness” is emerging as a dominant attribute of key developments in our current economic and social fabric. Open systems are like living organisms with significant elements of self-organisation. But now, says Richard Straub, we have the necessary infrastructure and tools to operate in new ways in open systems. These new ways have a clear impact on business, employees, learners and innovation, and they require changes in our individual behaviours and institutional adjustments.

In this changing process, Web 2.0 has a significant role. Antonio Bartolomé offers a clear frame around the concept of “Web 2.0: ideas, technologies and implications for learning.” The article argues that Web 2.0 resources seem to have little impact on the structure and conception of the old learning paradigms on which today’s curricula are built. So, where are the new paradigms? The author says it is too early to speak of a new paradigm, but there are some elements that do not fit easily in the old eLearning models.

What about the changes at eLearning institutions due to Web.2.0? Juan Freire analyses this in the article “Universities and Web.2.0: Institutional challenges.” He describes a list of bottlenecks which constrain the institutional adoption of Web 2.0 when universities and their managers assume an active role to adapt to the new reality. The article concludes pointing out a set of elements for a Web 2.0 adoption in universities.

“Openness” is also associated with values such as tolerance, individual freedom, lifelong learning, intercultural cooperation and innovation. In the interview with Anna Kirah we appreciate her vision of innovative thinking and education. The first question invites us to read the rest: How did an anthropologist end up in teaching person-centred and innovative thinking to business managers?

We experience every day what openness means and the benefits it may offer. The article submitted by Aina Chabert and Monica Turrini describes an intergenerational learning experience and shows us an example of enhancing democratic values in the open world. The digital literacy and eInclusion of older citizens can be promoted with a help of “digital facilitators” and experiential learning, providing the elderly learners with real life experiences when learning to use ICT.

Source: elearningpapers

Becta, the education technology agency, is urging schools to improve the way they use technology to support learning, as evidence continues to build around the positive impact on GCSE results and grades.

Research reveals that schools that embrace technology see a significant improvement in GCSE results compared with those that do not. Key findings from six years of research by Becta include:

* school ‘e-maturity’ – where technology is integrated across the curriculum and wider school life – is statistically linked to lower absence rates and higher points and percentage A*-C grades at GCSE

* in GCSE science, the average gain from ICT use is 0.56 of a grade (in 2002, 52,484 pupils moved from grade D to C as a result of using technology in their learning)

* schools making good use of broadband and connectivity demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the percentage of pupils gaining 5+ A-Cs at GCSE in the year after broadband introduction

* a study of young people’s ICT use in the home showed a significant positive association between pupils’ home use of ICT for educational purposes and improved attainment in national tests for maths and English GCSE

* the introduction of interactive whiteboards results in pupils’ performance in national tests in English (particularly for low-achieving pupils and for writing), maths and science, improving more than that of pupils in schools without interactive whiteboards.

Stephen Crowne, Chief Executive of Becta said:
“The evidence is clear; when schools use technology effectively, it can have a direct impact on pupil attainment and results. As pupils across the country find out their GCSE results, schools need to think about whether grades could be improved even further by better use of technology. We know that currently only 20 per cent of schools are using technology effectively right across the curriculum, which means there is real potential out there to improve results and raise grades if schools take full advantage of the benefits technology can bring.

“Schools should make the most of the Internet, mobile phones, interactive whiteboards, school radio stations, blogs, podcasts and video conferencing, helping to create a stimulating and engaging environment for their students.”

It’s not just pupils that see the benefits of better use of technology. The majority of teachers feel that technology in the classroom has a positive impact on the engagement, motivation and achievement of their learners. Technology also has the potential to provide parents with more timely information about their children’s work and progress, for example via secure on-line access, so they can in turn support their children.

The research cited in this PublicTechnology.Net press release comes from the following evaluations and research studies on the impact of ICT use in schools:

* Butt, S and Cebulla, A (2006), E-maturity and school performance – A secondary analysis of COL evaluation data. London: National Centre for Social Research

* Harrison, C et al (2002), ImpaCT2: The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Pupils Learning and Attainment. ICT in Schools Research and Evaluation Series No.7

* Somekh, B et al (2007), Evaluation of the Primary Schools Whiteboard Expansion Project

* Underwood, J et al. (2005), The Impact of Broadband in Schools.

* Valentine, G, Marsh, J and Pattie, C (2005), Children and Young Peoples Home Use of ICT for Educational Purposes: The impact on attainment at key stages 1-4, DfES

“This research highlight the need to embrace technology in Education and also training to enhance performance and training outcomes”, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance training company.

Ireland – 15th May, 2008 – The skills challenge facing the Irish economy was the subject of a major seminar organised jointly by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), and held in Dublin on May 15.

The ‘Learning at Work’ seminar was chaired by NCPP director Lucy Fallon-Byrne and was addressed by Minister for Lifelong Learning Seán Haughey, Leo Casey of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching and Prof Chip Bruce, National College of Ireland.

Four national initiatives, designed to promote and encourage learning at work, were showcased also at the seminar, providing the 100-plus delegates with real-life examples of innovative responses to the future skills challenge.

Among the issues discussed at the seminar were:

• The role of workplace learning in driving and growing the Irish economy;
• The opportunities for, and obstacles to, workplace learning that exist in Ireland today;
• Effective ways of engaging employers and employees to ensure Ireland is equipped for the future skills challenge.

National College of Ireland president Paul Mooney said the message was simple:

“For Ireland Inc. to succeed, the barriers to workplace learning must be identified and systematically removed. To survive and prosper in a tougher global environment, we need to collectively up our game to out-think the competition.

“The highest performing companies of the future are the ones that are becoming engaged in workplace learning initiatives today. The time is now and there is zero room for complacency on this. The future is decided by those who sense change and actually start to do something to respond to this. For everyone else, the time bomb is ticking.”

A new DVD was launched by Minister Haughey. Produced by NCPP, the DVD profiles the practical experiences of five Irish public and private-sector organisations that have recognised and embraced workplace learning as an enabler of change. Their stories illustrate the value of promoting human talent and creativity in the workplace, and make a powerful business case for lifelong learning and workplace training and development.  Upskilling is now a necessity.

Copies of the DVD are available (free of charge) on request from the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.  Simply drop an email to Conor (conor@ncpp.ie) with your contact details, and he’ll post them out to you as soon as possible.

Source: Education MATTERS

Without a doubt, today’s world is knowledge-based and depends on the rapid exchange of information. Countries that are equipped with the technology and knowledge to participate in the new electronic world are major players in its socio-cultural and economic developments. Education is changing, too. With the advent of multimedia technologies and the Internet, it is now possible to reach people who would otherwise have no access to certain courses or educational opportunities.

Electronic learning, or e–Learning as it has come to be known, makes use of the Internet and digital technologies to deliver instruction synchronously or asynchronously to anyone who has access to a computer and an Internet connection.

By some estimates, between 800,000,000 and 1,500,000,000 people world-wide understand English. Approximately 350,000,000 people use English as their mother tongue (mainly in the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and South Africa). Some 400 million use English as a second language (in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, and the Philippines). At least another 150 million people use English with some degree of competence. Furthermore, it is an official language in more than 60 countries (Crystal 1992, p.121). With such a large number of people using English, it is not surprising that English has become the lingua franca of the modern world.

In the current state of affairs, the global dominance of English in commerce, science, and technology has created the need for an ever increasing number of people to learn to communicate in the English language. There is a market demand for English courses on a global scale, and the English language teaching industry is thriving.

As English is experienced across different linguistic contexts, it may be experienced primarily as a language of education, or higher education, as well as in official contexts, popular culture, and the local vernacular. It may be regarded as a language of social and economic advancement, or it may be seen as an imposition or a necessary evil. However it is seen, the English language is used across the globe in countless contexts to very different effects.

Thus, proficiency in English is seen as essential for participation in the global arena, particularly in the economic domain, in which transnational corporations conduct business and trade beyond the national borders. In addition, the global spread of the English language is further facilitated by American media products of mass communication such as videos, music, news, magazines, TV programs, and so on. The dominance of English on the Internet reinforces the flow of international information in English, and affirms the structure of global communication. English is the most widely used and taught language in the world, and it is accepted easily almost anywhere.

Second-language acquisition and intercultural learning can be greatly facilitated through e-Learning. At present, e-Learning is itself becoming an important global business not only in the commercial sector, but also in the support that national governments are giving to educational institutions to increase their export income. There is a drive for change brought on by technological innovation to which governments and institutions of higher learning are responding at a rapid pace.

Learn Skills aims to address these needs outlined above through the provision of web-based language learning in English initially, and then to expand this range.

Courtesy: In Global Peace Through The Global University System, 2003 Ed. by T. Varis, T. Utsumi, and W. R. Klem, University of Tampere, Hameenlinna, Finland

Why are more companies choosing e-Learning for corporate training?
“e-Learning delivers more training to more people for less money. e-Learning saves time, money, resources, and it delivers measurable, tangible results”, according to Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance based company.
Instant access to information is one of the driving factors in today’s Knowledge Economy. Lifelong learning is the key to a successful career. The key to this success is moving knowledge from the people who have it to the people who need it. e-Learning gives you the power to do exactly that. Virtually anyone can sharpen skills or develop new ones.
Key benefits associated with e-Learning with Learn Skills include:

• Inexpensive and Cost Savings: Without travel time or expenses, you’re putting more of your training budget into training, thus saving up to 40 to 60 percent. And students can access their courses as often as they need.
• Accessibility of Training: Deliver knowledge on-demand, with up-to-the-minute information. Learners can access training instantly, when and where they want or need it, either at the office or at home, 24/7.
• Flexibility: Students can choose from a variety of interactive self-paced courses, and they can take advantage of our extensive course listing. They have the option to complete a course in one session and split it into smaller chunks.
• Consistency: e-Learning is a more consistent delivery and not not reliant on the skills and knowledge of the trainer.
• Measurement: Learn Skills provides a selection of tools and applications to monitor learner’s progress, and produce detailed activity reports. You can easily monitor what employees have learned, when they’ve completed courses, how they performed, and their levels of improvement.
• Variety: Hundreds of in-depth courses are available instantly; covering everything from business skills and leadership to workplace safety and IT.

Learn Skills provides you with the learning environment that engages the unsupervised learner, resulting in employees who show more participation, more enthusiasm, and ultimately, greater learning success and increased productivity.

Our staff are ready to help you with any questions you may have, simply contact us.