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”.

Courseware BY nurses FOR nurses

Ireland – 6th October, 2008 – Learn Skills is pleased to announce its latest content partnership with MedSenses, an elite nursing content factory based in Canada, focused on building courseware BY nurses FOR nurses.

MedSenses, having researched maximum learner retention strategies, add custom design elements such as 3-D animations, medical illustrations, case scenarios, and clinical expertise – making all of their courses come alive with color and interactivity. Learn Skills through its partnership with MedSenses is pleased to offer one-stop shopping for any healthcare-related corporation in meeting the emerging need for high quality, relevant, and cost-effective training.

Learn Skills can now offer a variety of titles in the following sectors: Medical-Surgical, Cardiac, Critical Care, Compliance, Pediatrics, Newborn, Neonatal, Emergency, Ground Transport, and Flight Transport, offering a curriculum of over 400 contact hours through our Learn Skills LMS.  Healthcare organizations can now offer a high quality, cost-effective solution for their continuing-education programs – all while offering their nursing staff their annual CE credits!

Whether you are an individual nurse looking to upskill or a group of employees spread across numerous location, we have a solution for you and also you need to is Contact Us about your individual requirements.

UK – R J Tolley 21-Feb-08 – Recently I was reading an interesting article by Ray Tolley, who is a major advocate for an e-portfolio system.  In this article he outlines the main characteristics of an e-portfolio, many of which are evident in the Learn Skills e-portfolio system.

The key characteristics of an e-portfolio are:

1. It is portable: It cannot be located in any one institution or embedded within a proprietary VLE.

2. It is personal: It is ‘owned’ by the user and is customisable to the user’s age, stage and style.

3. It is generic: It is not modelled on any particular curriculum delivery system nor content.

4. It is Web2.0: It should be compliant with all generic formats within the application.

5. It is MIS-free: It is not ‘hard-wired’ to any institution’s MIS infrastructure.

6. It is ‘lite’: It is not a permanent repository of all of a user’s files, rather a ‘transit camp’.

7. It is lifelong: Ownership must be maintainable as a continuity, ‘5-95’.

8. It is lifewide: It is capable of being used by all ages and abilities through a wide range of assistive templates.

9. It is accessible: It must recognise common standards of accessibility in terms of both outputs and inputs.

10. It is credible: Evidence of any Summative Assessment must be linked to a secure repository ie the awarding body or a central MIAP/Minerva archive.

You can read the full article by clicking “The Prime Directives for an e-Portfolio” and also follow this by reading “Who’s hijacking our e-portfolios?” by Ray Trolley also to learn even more about e-Portfolios

Galway, Ireland – 30th August, 2008 – Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance training company is delight to now partner with the English-based company ILX Group, a major player in the UK market with offices in the UK and USA. The ILX Group is an AIM-quoted company delivering multimedia and classroom courses in ITIL, PRINCE, MSP and APM areas.

In particular this partnership is focus on delivering to the Irish market the award winning multimedia training courses developed by ILX Group, with a particular focus on Business Basics for SME managers, which is aimed at improving managers financial awareness and understanding.

ILX Group Best Practice is an Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) and an Accredited Consulting Organisation (ACO) delivering accredited training and consultancy services in the following areas:

• Programme and Project Management (PRINCE2™, MSP™, APM, ISEB)
• IT Service Management (ITIL®)
• Risk Management (M_o_R)
• Business Finance (Finance for Non-Financial Managers)

ILX Group is the first company to present a worldwide multimedia course in ITIL version 3.0. The course can be delivered via CD-ROM, Network, Internet or Intranet, allowing the user flexibility to study at their own time and pace.  Using the interactive e-Learning method costs are significantly reduced and pass rates are increased compared to classroom training. “We’re really glad that ILX Group decided to collaborate with our company to deliver in Ireland their advanced training solutions; the quality of the ILX’s training courses is so high and extensive that the benefits of this courseware will soon be felt right across the Irish market amongst all levels of business leader”, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills.

These courses shall be available both on an individual basis or as part of a bundle purchase for large numbers of users and courses via the Learn Skills LMS.

Galway, Ireland – 28th August 2008 – Learn Skills, a web-based skills and compliance training company is pleased to announce that from September they will be offering InfoSource Learning’s “How To Master” online content training libraries to corporate, academic and government clients.

With this new partnership, Learn Skills’ corporate and government clients will now have access to content training libraries covering areas such as the Microsoft Suite; including Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access, 2000 up to 2007. These libraries feature a unique, content-rich environment of interactive, self-paced learning and testing.  Learners will gain experience, retain information, and increase productivity by training in these simulated software environments.

“This partnership will address many of the key concerns that our clients have concerning Digital Literacy by providing them with high quality, up-to-date online courses increases skills levels in this area, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills.  “With InfoSource Learning as our partner, our online training library will make it incredibly easy for our customers to start training and address key areas for improving ICT skills and performance.”

These courses can be purchased on an individual basis or as part of an overall bundle of courses for larger numbers of employees through the Learn Skills LMS delivery model.  Some of the key courses that can be purchased through the Learn Skills platform include:

• Internet & Computing Core Certification (IC3)
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Microsoft Office 2003
• Microsoft Office 2002 (XP)
• Windows Operating Systems & Internet

Tom Dalton, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at InfoSource Learning stated, “We firmly believe in the value of our unique training and are very excited to have the opportunity to partner with an excellent company such as Learn Skills.”

Galway, Ireland – 31st August, 2008 – Learn Skills the web-based skills and compliance based company has now partnered with AT&F Solutions Ltd, ‘Advanced Training & Fire Solution’, a leading compliance training company based in the UK.

AT&F Solutions Ltd have been providing low cost online training solutions for over 10 Years and has both the specialist knowledge, quality and experience that sets its online training aside from the other solutions that are currently available in the market.  By partnering with AT&F Solutions, Learn Skills can deliver quality, relevant and up-to-date compliance training that is at a reasonable price for all.

At&F have recently launched a dedicated E-Driver Safety Risk Assessment Tracker program that will allow any company the opportunity to record and track their own drivers for a complete audit trail, a must for any company employing car or van drivers.  Allied to this will be the E- Driver Safety Training module for both LGV and company care drivers

Other courses that will be available through the Learn Skills platform for individual purchase or as part of a bundle option for larger numbers of courses include:

• Driver Safety (NEW 2008)
• Driver Risk Assessment Tracker (NEW 2008)
• Fire Safety Training (industry & commerce edition)
• Fire Safety Schools (In association with the WMF Arson Task Force)
• DSE and Office Ergonomics
• DSE Pro (includes call centre workers)
• Manual Handling and Risk Assessment
• Slips Trips Falls
• HSE Induction to working safely (employers and employees)
• Corporate Manslaughter Induction to the new LAW
• Risk Manager and Tracker (complete risk management system)
• Infection Control
• Patient Moving and Handling
• Fire Safety HTM and Fire Code
• DSE Clinical Workers

“The compliance training provided though the partnership between AT&F and Learn Skills will go along way to addressing and documenting Health & Safety training for all organisation.  Quality content and course materials backed with powerful features for both user and administrator can only lend itself to a successful compliance training delivery”, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills.

Galway, Ireland – 3rd September, 2008 - Learn Skills the web-based skills and compliance based company has now partnered with Interaction Training, a leading innovative learning solutions provider from Australia.

Learn Skills will be able to provide a comprehensive range of high quality, interactive course direct from the Learn Skills platform, a total of 89 courses ranging for basic Digital Literacy, ICT skills to Leadership and Management Training.  “The quality of these materials will greatly enhance the learning experience and lead to a more informed and skilled workforce”, said Sean Grifffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills.

Some of the more interesting titles include:

• Word 2007 (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)
• Excel 2007 (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced)
• Goal Centred Time Management
• Stress Management
• Leadership Approaches and Theories
• Motivation Concepts

These courses are available for individual purchase or as part of a bundle options supported by the Learn Skills LMS.

Galway, Ireland – 2nd September, 2008 – Learn Skills, the web-based skills and compliance based company is pleased to announce its lasted partnership with TypingMaster (TypingMaster Finland, Inc.), a leading software developer for typing training and testing both for organizational customers as well as home users since 1992.

Today hundreds of schools and companies worldwide are using more than 100,000 copies of TypeMaster products designed to fulfill their special needs. Full network support, economical licensing and the internet based solutions among other things have made TypingMaster a premium choice for organizational and academic customers.  Unlike traditional typing drill programs, TypingMaster monitors your progress, identifies the areas where you need additional practice, and creates exercises designed to improve these areas. This personal approach dramatically reduces the time it takes to become a proficient touch typist.

With TypingMaster you can put your typing skills into practice after only three to five hours of training. As you learn to type more effectively, you concentrate less on finding the right keys, and concentrate more on the ideas that you need to communicate. Touch typists use their time more productively, and project a more professional image in their written communications.

“Whether you’re a business person who can increase your income by increasing your typing speed and accuracy, a student who wants to improve your grades by eliminating typos and increasing the quality of your writing, or a parent who wants a typing tutor that lets each family member receive personalized coaching, feedback, and statistics, TypingMaster has the tools that you need”, said Sean Griffin, Co-Founder of Learn Skills.

TypingMaster runs under Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003, and can be purchased as a single-user license through the Learn Skills platform.  TypingMaster is fully network-enabled with centralized user management. Multi-computer licenses for businesses and educational institutions are available supported by the Learn Skills LMS for monitoring and tracking user activity.