AEmeritus Relevant Training

Training Session

Relevance

Let's assume I have the answers to those three questions:

• What does the participant know about the topic?
• What do they want to learn?
• Why do they want to learn it?

This is where we apply the CRI principles: The goals of the training (or syllabus) are adjusted to the goals of the trainees and become a contract between the trainer and trainees. Each participant may have different goals.

Now the question is: How to best deliver the training?

• First, what facilities are available?
• Is the training to be delivered on an inhouse network?
• If so, does that network have access to the Internet?
• Is the training to be delivered from manuals? Are the manuals customized, or customizable?
• Do the manuals have to be developed separately?
• How many participants will be in the course?
• Will the course be synchronous or asynchronous? -- or a combination?
• Will there be a fixed time period for each session or course?

The answers to those questions define the preparation for the course, session, or sessions.

Before the Training Session

Delivering a corporate training session is like any other presentation in a business environment. It takes preparation, planning and thought, and effective delivery. DEST (the Department of Education, Science and Training) adds some requirements if the training is to be certified.

Relevance

The most confounding aspect of training in Australia is assessing the skill level ofthe participants. Too often, a training session -- or even a whole certification course -- is contracted without any assessment of prior skills. One of the reasons is simply that training is seen as a day off from work or a reward. A certification course is often seen as a way to avoid the 'work for the dole' program.
In either case, the trainer is put in the unenviable position of overcoming such attitudes.
The question keeps coming up: Is the training relevant?

I prefer to have every participant, whether the training is to be delivered online, in a classroom, or in some form of blended environment to at least return a self assessment. No matter what form the pre-training assessment is -- AEmeritus provides a number of options. -- it should include three areas:

• What does the participant know about the topic?
• What do they want to learn?
• Why do they want to learn it?

The answers don't really matter so long as they're honest.

Free Weekend Workshop

 

** Please Circulate**

 

Open Weekends @ Knowplace presents a free weekend workshop that requires only your participation.  We need your active participation in the online community as it is the only way we can "see" you. 

 

Most of the workshops are asynchronous (not real time) so you can participate when it's convenient.  In some cases, the facilitator will offer synchronous sessions to complement the resources.  If you are unable to participate in a scheduled synchronous event, you are welcome to participate in all the asynchronous activities.    If you are feeling like a duck-out-of-water, that's okay too.  We all started there too. :-)  This weekend is devoted to those who have little or no experience online.

 

**New to Online**

This weekend is for "newbies", people who want a comfortable, safe place for their initial experience to the online environment. Helen Kershaw, our communication tools' expert, will work with the group to answer your questions (there are no stupid ones this is how we learn) You will be led in a discussion about what you need to consider to work online. Ask all your questions here!

** Enrol **

 

You self-enrol at Open Weekends. http://knowplace.ca/moodle_1.4.3/course/view.php?id=69    Anyone who has already registered at Knowplace has a login, and will have access to the course when it opens.  If this is your first time using Moodle, please browse through the Use Knowplace course. http://knowplace.ca/moodle_1.4.3/course/view.php?id=19  Once you have a login, you will be able to access the course once it opens. All our courses open Friday at 9 a.m., PDT and close Sunday @ midnight PDT. The "three-day" weekend provides time for you to review the course materials and/or read and post to the forums later on Sunday.  The facilitator(s) will be checking into the workshops throughout the weekend at times convenient to their time zones.

 

Wondering what Pacific Time equates to in your part of the world? Go to the global clock http://www.timeanddate.com/

 

** Future Topics **

If you have suggestions for topics you would like to learn about and/or present, please contact me, carolec@knowplace.ca

** Why Me? **

We know how irritating it can be to be placed on a mailing list that you don't want to be part of... So... If you want to be removed from the list, email Carole  carolec@knowplace.ca with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.

 

.....................

Carole Cotton, B.A., M.Ed.

Coordinator, Open Weekends @ Knowplace.

Career Portfolio Specialist, Online Educator, eCareer Coach

Yahoo IM - carole_cotton2003

MSN IM -cottoncarole

Skype ID - clcotton

Gtalk ID - clcotton

Home Business in Australia

The percieved promise of the Internet -- access to larger, even global, markets -- has largely failed Home Business in Australia for many reasons. Although Australia has moved onto the Net faster than any other country per capita, many misconceptions still plague its commercial use, especially by home-based business. The misconceptions are not insurmountable, however.

Home Business has always been a significant segment of the business world in Australia. The wide dispersed population has forced many to seek to employ themselves. Its been estimated that 35% of working population are employed in home-based businesses with only one or two workers.
The wide dispersion of population demands small entrepreneurial businesses. A skilled person must reach beyond their local market to put their skills to work, or to find a market for their products.

As the Australian population ages quickly, the number of home-based businesses will grow by necessity. Australia is not alone here. Most of the western world is making changes to absorb the demands of aging Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers have changed the World. Their accomplisments should not be dismissed. Most of the quality of modern life is the result of their achievements.
The retirement age has already been extended from 65 to 70 in the last few years. That will mean more and more people who have skills unable to work a normal work week, but still needing to make a living.
The importance of successful home-based business will grow as a business force, and a social necessity.

More than that, talented and motivated people of all ages need to find a way to express that drive and talent, or the society stagnates. This stagnation takes the form of corruption, addictions to drugs or gambling, and other social ills that are already too evident.
The Brain Drain from Australia has been largely driven by the fact that motivated, talented people could not find a market for themselves and were forced to look elsewhere.

What can AEmeritus Relevant Training offer Home Business? First to sweep aside some of the misconceptions and to face other obstacles with frank determination.

A Journey ..

... of a thousand miles, begins with a single step.

Another way of putting it might be: If you think making a business plan is just filling in the blanks, you're in for a surprise.

Awkward Beginnings I began this journey really about halfway through my online course in Training and Assessment. Accredited Online Training offered a Cert IV course for about half of the least expensive classroom price. It was more attractive to me since I have done a lot of work online as a researcher and web designer.
After finishing all the modules online, AOL wanted me to send the two tapes: one of me training; another of me doing an assessment. Finding a digicam or camcorder and a few mock trainees proved to be problematic. After borrowing a camcorder for three weeks, then a digicam for a couple of weeks, I finally seduced a few friends into a computer lab to produce the training video.
What I produced was a perfect example of how not to train anyone. My friends came in with bags of potato chips, soft drinks, and sandwiches, then spent most of the time kidding around. If I had sent that tape in, they'd blacklist me from the profession!

First Lesson learned: If it's important to your business, get it for yourself.
The second lesson I'd learned long ago: When in doubt, fall back on your strengths.
I contacted a tutor at AOL and asked if I could produce a website to train and assess instead of a video. Since they'd been struggling to establish the credibility of online training, that request was enthusiastically granted, with a proviso: Add an Introduction to the course including the requirements of the Australian ANTA (now a part of DEST.) -- No problem. After all, it just meant putting in more content from the course.
So instead of a pair of training videos, I produced a website that introduced the goals and requirements of my course, a few pages to illustrate a couple of different ways to design and present material, and an assessment page.
Simple, effective and it got me three emails with words like "superb" and "excellent" all over them.

Broadband - Australia

A Little Market Background

The Broadband Planet Wiki contains timely information about internet penetration in Australia.

Just a quick summary of the info:

Government Regulation

Heavy. Copper network owned by Telstra which is 51% government owned

Quick Facts

• Australia has 2 million households connected with broadband-class Internet connection
• 25% of all households in Australia have broadband connections
• There are 40,000 new broadband connections each month
• Of the new connections, 40% are with Telstra, the partly government-owned telco
• ADSL is the most common broadband medium while cable is avaliable in some major cities and sattelite connections in regional areas.

Australia has taken to the Internet faster per capita than any other nation so far. The only hardwired network in the country is controlled by Telstra, a partially-owned government telco. The fourth term Howard government is pushing hard to sell Telstra.

Telstra's reputation for service has not been stellar. Their cable service is often slow from over-subscription, and their ADSL has not been supported well. Their service department acts like it's part of the government -- which it is.

Training as a Business

A Personal Note When I began this project, I had just finished a Cert IV in Training and Assessment as part of my recovery from a severe disability through CRS - Commonwealth Rehabilitation Services. I cannot say enough about my gratitude for the efforts of the staff there.
My right hip had disintegrated and had to be replaced. I had put on some weight and there was a question about the efficacy of a normal hip replacement.  The titanium grows into the bone of the leg and hip, leaving the surrounding muscles to knit and hold it in place. Essentially a resurfacing, the procedure is called a Birmingham hip, after the town in England where it was invented.  In many ways, I was lucky. A more common hip replacement procedure only lasts about 10 years. This procedure gives more flexibility and may last 25 years.
I don't want to speak too much about this procedure, but this has been a very personal journey to recovery, part of which is the process of developing this business.

I began looking for a means to put my new certification to work.
The Moodle Conference in Adelaide While studying for the Cert IV, I did a great deal of background reading into the field of training. Since I had a lot of time on my hands while recovering, I read everything I could find on the Net. I was invited to the Moodle Moot in Adelaide.
I'd planned to leave Australia, at least for a couple of years, and hadn't seen much of the country outside Victoria. A friend said she had never been to Adelaide despite living here 35 years or so. I've always enjoyed professional conferences and seminars, so the trip was on.

It was wonderful.

A New Nation

A New Nation

To an American, Australia is still very much an unformed country after 200 years -- more like a colony or new  nation. Many have quipped that it is a 'banana republic', but that denigrates the achievements and role of this small, English-speaking nation on the world stage.

Constitutionally and in its judiciary, Australia seems locked in uncertainty and confusion. Every other English-speaking democracy, even small New Zealand, offers constitutional guarantees of civil and human rights. The UN annual review of nations only allows that Australia "seems to implement its laws in a fashion" to guarantee civil and human rights.