TFPL Training - end of term report

Until relatively recently, many people viewed training as something that was 'done to them' or that they were passively sent to, rather than something that they directed.  The world of work has changed and workplace learning has changed with it.  We are all expected to take charge of our own learning and professional development, and this learning can take many forms.

In 2007 we began to offer delegates the opportunity to undertake one-to-one coaching with trainers.  We also developed courses that we call 'intensive' one-day sessions.  Not only is the training day itself longer, but delegates engage with the trainer both before and after the event to derive maximum benefit and develop customised outputs.  For other courses we created extranets ensuring that delegates have access to updated resources after the course itself is completed.

People Management Matters, which we launched in February 2007, was a ten-month long development programme for a group of delegates moving into more senior management roles.  Working together, and with their Programme Director, they have benefitted not only from monthly face-to-face sessions but from a dedicated online forum and from the supportive community that developed amongst the delegates.  This collaborative continuous learning model has been enormously successful and will be continued with a new group of delegates in 2008.

Next year we will increase the number of courses we offer on demand as coaching options which delegates can schedule to suit their own timetables.  We will also, of course, continue to launch new events, revise [or drop!] existing ones and work to keep in touch with the needs of the information, knowledge, records and web content professional.