Lucy Potter

There are many varied and wonderful names for the different e-learning and training platforms available today.   No longer do we have a training manager with one or two side kicks who take up an inordinate amount of your working day reading out the ‘how to do’ sections of the employee operational manual.  Things have most definitely moved on a tad.  There are VLE systems which to you and me is Virtual Learning Environment and LME, in English : Learning Management Environment both of which take a company training requirement and make it fully accessible by all members of the staff for their particular sector and where they are totally absorbed in that learning process during the task allocated time slot – the learning is controlled and measured.    The software is custom designed to suit each company – ensuring only the required effort is required and no extraneous interests are entered into.  Even the government has introduced a fully comprehensive online learning platform for children – all of whom are in total school lock down.

Learning Management software is a specialised area geerally used within businesses to ensure they can reach out to their workforce and keep them engaged with the in-house learning programmes.  If a company has workers i.e. learners spread all around a large geographic area, an online learning platform is ideal for them.  Each learner will have their own login and be able to carry out the distance learning without travelling to another site, there will be no travel cost or time to be considered.  The development programme can be delivered to all those who the leaders feel would most benefit or need to step up.  Their progress is monitored online and learners can be grouped together or set individual lerning goals.

All workers, colleagues, managers will benefit from any kind of learning scheme.  An inhouse programme for their particular area can be role focused and will help them feel more integrated and empowered.    In these days of self isolation and social distancing, learning a role focused course or general company specific learning will help keep everybody feel they still belong whlst remaining safe!

The history of learning and teaching pupils anything at all has of course been around since the ealiest cave men.  Those first few tentative lessons on how to hunt, prepare an animal, build houses etc. were the very basics and although we have moved on many centuries, the principal is still the same.  Knowledge is presented in a format conducive to the candidiate’s learning capability and if they work hard, that knowledge will be fed into the candidate via e-learning.  They can utilise a laptop, palm top, even mobile phone.  Prior to having internet, many students coudl only rely on manuals, CD-ROMS and a gammit of other somewhat restrictive methods of learning and training.  These are so one dimensional – you can’t easily check into a point for further information, it has to be manually located in the index.  Exasperating, now that we’ve had internet and instant access to any subject.  The focused learning tools in e-learning make this much smarter and such good value for money.

For quite a few years now we’ve seen how youngsters are able to grasp the world of online learning very quickly.  This is generally through playing online games and just play and fun.  However children do pick up new trends and absorb information very easily when they enjoy what they’re doing.  With baby computers that would have just allowed them to tap a choice of answer, graduating up to the full blown chance to learn basic computer languages at school, many a young person can thank those early steps as they become fully qualified and absolutely vital members of our community – by way of taking careers as software programmers and computer geeks!  Those evenings sat in front of a screen with hand held controllers, zapping at the screen will have made them ultra quick in thought and reaction and that makes them ideal candidates to progress through e-learning and online training courses to turn this round to a paying career.  Some of our best gaming developers were those girls who made a point of trying, and succeeding to beat the boys at their own game!

I have been following the progress of a very young great niece.  She will be leaving toddler hood this  year after what can only be described as the terrible twos big time . . .  This wee lass attends a very good day nursery every weekday morning and at lunch time her grandmother collects and takes her back to her house.  The nursery  enjoys a very good inspection reputation and is very popular so there is always along waiting list for places.  Rather like the best fee paying schools.  Just being on the list is quite acceptable.   The lass in question has had to adapt to life with her father aroud.  However, this has not affected her speed of learning.  This little child is one of those delights you come across occasionally – she absorbs learning of all sorts.  Songs are memorised after first hearing and her reading skills are progressing nicely – what is more remarkable is the way she tries out all new things offered – she has a baby version of a keyboard and can pick out the letters to log on to her favourite learning channel.  Starting them young is definitely the key!

Those supplying learning platforms are generally very professional and experienced in the field of education supply.  This might be in the world of vocational, career based training outlets, or supplying through government agencies and departments.  At one time the civil service had their own teams of staff training operatives.   I well remember going on the first of several training courses to learn the new case officer roles our department were moving over to.  It was years ago and the training was carried out by fome folk who had not actally done the job in earnest themselves for many years.  From my experience, these in-house trainers were the colleagues  who had a good reapport wtih colleagues and managers and managed to get themselves a reputation for being useful . . . .  They would then be encouraged to apply whenever a training supplier post became available.  There was never any requirement for them to be trained to become the trainers.  Today this is so different all trainers need to have qualifications/diplomas proving their credentials to offer themselves as trainers.

When we go through school there’s a vey good chance wewon’t know quite what we want to do as a career until well after the final exam has been taken and we’re sailing off to university.  Getting the right kind of preparation can therefore be a bit tricky.  You can think about things you may want to achieve and of course, if there are family precedents to look up to, that’s often a great help.  Howver, the better way to form a good backbone of education and learning is to take on board E-learning and we have he most fantastic online learning schemes.  If you decide you want to work in economics and finance, there are the buding blocks for that byway of accountancy and legal finance training courses and degrees that will kick start a really good life long career.   Just trying out one or two online courses will show how the E-learning side of things can really help to make an idea into something more solid.

Watching any youngster getting to grips with the basics of maths and arithmetic can sometimes be quite painful.  If for example you have suffered badly from not being able to keep up with your class in these subjects, it will inevitably give rise to anxiety on your part – and this of course can transfer to the child.  If there is any sort of friction in the homework or the child shows nervousness around any subject, having a word with the teacher of the subject is best as a first start.  If this doesn’t appear to get a grip, then another really good way forward is to sign on for specialist maths and arithmetic coaching courses.  In fact, I think these are a good first step also because they are truly experienced at coaching children and showing the easiest way to learn the art of maths.

To get the very best out of every person in a work force, there is a point to be made for giving them additional training and learning resources to fall back on.  When I was a civil servant, we had mandatory training courses.  For the earlier years these were generally confined to the job in hand.  Then gradually the more generally focused health and safety matters seemed to dominate the skyline.    In the last few years there was much of H&S but also legal speak – such as stamping out fraud.  We had to do regular courses that explicitly outlined how to recognise fraud as individuals and as members of a team.   Today it serves all companies and employees well to take part in online and e-learning courses on all these matters.  No one can be over qualified in their knowledge of how to spot an infringement or hazard looming in their vicinity.  Also some of these amazing courses will bring a new insight to the candidate and perhaps jog them along to look at furthering their current position and trying to aim for the next notch or two up the scale by this time next year.  It just takes a bit of effort and a decent online educational resource!