|
 ADVAL
PLACED IN ADMINISTRATION
AdVal Group Plc has failed to sell its bespoke e-learning business
and has appointed an adminstrator. Although the company did sell
off its generic e-learning business carried out by Maxim (only recently
acquired from KnowledgePool), it has run out of funds. Sep
2006
RISK
MANAGEMENT MEETS IT AT NEW HORIZONS
New Horizons is partnering with ebis (European Business Information
Services Ltd) to provide courses in various aspects of risk assessment,
corporate intelligence and due diligence. Four courses will be available
from November: Detecting, Investigating & Preventing Employee
& Identity Fraud; UK Corporate Information for Investigators
& Business; Money Laundering – Risk Management and Investigation;
and International Corporate Information. The courses are hands-on,
with real-world case studies, and are also available as tailored
on-sites. Sep 2006
XPERTISE
ADDS SUN TO ITS PORTFOLIO
Xpertise and Sun Microsystems have joined forces Sun-accredited
Java™ training courses at Xpertise's Northwest and Midlands
training centres. Xpertise, which has been providing Java training
in the UK for nearly a decade. joins a select number of organisations
authorised to provide Sun's official Java training in the UK. Sep
2006
IT
TRAINING AWARDS 2007: CALL FOR ENTRIES
 The
Institute of IT Training hosts the annual IT
Training Awards to recognise outstanding examples of high standards,
best practice, innovation and excellence in IT training. So if you
are proud of your achievements and would like to win the recognition
you deserve within the IT training profession, submit your entry
and put your team in the spotlight at the IT training industry's
night of the year. There are 13 categories in the IT Training Awards
2007, including two new awards – Training Department of the
Year (Public Sector) and Learning Facilities of the Year. Entry
is free, and the closing date for entries is 31 October 2006. The
awards will be presented at The Dorchester in London, on 1st February
2007. Sep 2006
MICROSOFT
SUES TESTING MATERIALS VENDOR
Microsoft has filed a lawsuit in the US against testing materials
vendor TestKing, alleging that the company is illegally selling
the actual answers to its certification exams. The suit, filed in
Seattle, claims that the "defendants have provided and are
providing, without license or permission from Microsoft, the original
copyrighted exam content from Microsoft Certification Exams."
The lawsuit claims multiple counts of copyright infringement and
asks for a permanent injunction to stop TestKing from continuing
to sell or distribute the materials. It also seeks damages. On its
site, TestKing claims to sell test training materials for a wide
variety of different technology companies' certifications in addition
to Microsoft's. (Reported by certcities.com) Sep
2006
WBT
SYSTEMS ACQUIRED BY HORIZON TECHNOLOGY GROUP
 WBT
Systems, a leading provider of enterprise e-learning solutions,
has announced its acquisition by Horizon Technology Group plc. Horizon
is a technical integrator and distributor of IT products in the
UK and Ireland. The company is listed on the London and Dublin stock
exchanges and is headquartered in Dublin. Horizon says WBT Systems
will continue to operate independently, and will continue to market
and develop its TopClass e-Learning Suite. Sep
2006
E-SKILLS
UK REPORTS SKILLS GAPS
Findings from the latest e-skills UK ICT Inquiry show that the percentage
of firms reporting ICT skills gaps increased in Q1 of 2006, and
the consequent impact of these gaps on UK businesses reached the
highest level recorded in a year. The percentage of firms reporting
a skills gap increased from 12% to 14% but on the impact scale of
0-100, where 0 is ‘no effect’ and 100 is ‘company
closure’, firms reporting gaps in the skills of ICT staff
rated the effects at a worrying 48. The research also found that
on average each ICT position advertised externally will attract
around 26 applications, but just seven applicants will fully match
the requirements set out within the job description: that on average
it takes 42 days to recruit a new ICT professional compared with
32 days for other workers: and that despite skills gaps being more
common, one in five firms said that they would still not train staff
over the coming year. Sep 2006
QCA
ACCREDITATION OPENS UP FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has recognised
the BCS as an awarding body for the BCS Professional Examinations.
This will enable course providers to apply for government funding
if they offer courses leading to BCS exams. Funding (from the LSC)
may be used by course providers, for example, to subsidise ongoing
running costs associated with the courses. BCS was already accredited
by the QCA as an awarding body for the ECDL. The latest move extends
recognition to the level 4 Certificate in IT, level 5 Diploma in
IT and level 6 Professional Graduate Diploma in IT. Sep
2006
ETHICAL
HACKING TRAINING: PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE
 High-quality
training providers worldwide have an opportunity to provide university
accredited IT Security courses by becoming 7Safe Accredited Training
Partners (ATP). Five leading edge, Masters-level courses are now
available under the ATP licence. The courses can be taken separately,
leading to professional qualifications when combined with distance-learning
university assessments, and also contribute Masters-level credits
toward to the world's first Postgraduate Certificate in Penetration
Testing and Information Security. Details
7Safe's courses are already available in Ireland following Ashfield
Computer Training's acceptance as the first Accredited Training
Partner (ATP). Sep 2006
TECHNOLOGY
IN BUSINESS FAST STREAM FOR GRADUATES
The Cabinet Office has launched the first Technology in Business
Fast Stream for the Civil Service. It will form part of the Civil
Service Fast Stream, an accelerated training and development programme
for able graduates, and will provide an entry route for talented
graduates interested in delivering technology-enabled change within
the public sector. Technology in Business Fast Streamers will be
selected for their potential to become future Chief Information
Officers or leaders of large scale, IT-enabled business change.
IT is one of the largest professions in government and its members
are responsible for delivering projects totalling £14 billion
of annual government expenditure. Sep 2006
NEW
BIRMINGHAM CENTRE FOR QA INTERQUAD
 QA
InterQuad has opened new purpose-built premises in central Birmingham,
including nine state-of-the-art training rooms that will offer a
wider range of courses for local businesses and individuals. The
new offices are closer to public transport links and restaurants,
being situated just moments from Birmingham New Street Station.
The company says it has seen a strong increase in the requirement
for training in the last twelve months, as companies begin to see
the benefits of improving the skills of their staff, and the new
centre will allow more people in the area develop the skills and
knowledge they need to succeed. QA InterQuad is holding an open
day at the centre on the 5 October. Sep 2006
CISCO
CCNP CERTIFICATION CHANGES
 Cisco
has announced a comprehensive update of the Cisco Certified Network
Professional (CCNP) certification. Cisco has redesigned and upgraded
the CCNP curriculum to include Advanced Technologies and incorporate
its next generation network platform products. The new courses are
designed to better support end-to-end IP infrastructure and advanced
technologies. Router and Switch Security, QoS and High Availability,
Wireless LANs and VoIP have been integrated into the CCNP curriculum.
Sep 2006
COMPUTEACH
LAUNCHES RECRUITMENT SERVICE
IT training provider Computeach has launched a recruitment service
for businesses seeking qualified IT professionals. Computeach Recruitment
UK will work with organisations to find suitable candidates for
IT roles, selecting students from its pool of graduates to fit specific
business requirements. Hellen Lisle, a former Midlands Businesswoman
of the Year who heads up Computeach Recruitment, explains: “This
new strand of the business signifies a renewed focus from Computeach.
We are working with commercial organisations to ensure that only
the most relevant candidates are short-listed, and showing our commitment
to students past and present in assisting them in changing their
careers.” Each Computeach Recruitment candidate will have
completed a relevant IT qualification via a distance-learning course,
and training in soft skills to equip them to work effectively as
part of team within a commercial organisation. Computeach is currently
working with clients such as Kalamazoo, Pipex, Capita and Messagepad
to provide this service. Sep 2006
KNOWLEDGEPOOL
HELPS BA TO DELIVER TRAINING
 KnowledgePool
is helping British Airways to provide customer service and operations
training as well as commercial, management development and professional
training. KnowledgePool's associate trainers and project managers
are working with BA's trainers to consolidate and deliver existing
training programmes and to design, develop and deliver new programmes
on demand for BA staff. KnowledgePool also coordinates and administers
the training and provides weekly updates to BA's training management
team. Sep 2006
JUDGES
FOR WORLD OF LEARNING AWARDS
 World
of Learning 2006 has named the members of its judging panel for
the World of Learning Awards, which “recognise and reward
organisations and individuals whose achievements have notably advanced
workplace productivity and performance”. The panel of experts
includes representatives from Lloyds TSB, Pricewaterhouse Coopers,
The Training Foundation, The British Learning Association, Effective
Learning Solutions and Conference Centres of Excellence. The awards
will be presented on 14 November at the NEC, Birmingham. Details
Sep 2006
QA
INTERQUAD CANDIDATE REACHES FINAL OF BCS AWARDS
QA InterQuad Principal Technologist, Dave Britt, has been selected
as a medallist for the British Computer Society ‘Trainer of
the Year’ award for 2006. Britt has been selected as one of
four medallists based on his achievements in the past twelve months,
featuring a range of successful bespoke programmes focusing on Microsoft
Windows technology. He is currently working with new Microsoft technologies
to develop the next generation of QA InterQuad courses. As a medallist,
Britt will present to a panel of judges before the final decision
is reached. The awards will be announced at a black-tie dinner in
London in December. Sep 2006
RFID4U
AND UCE INTRODUCE COMPTIA RFID+
 RFID4U,
which claims to be the US’s largest RFID training company,
and UCE Birmingham Technology Innovation Centre have joined forces
to bring the CompTIA RFID+ certification training to the UK market.
RFID4U's curriculum and its RFIDQ practice tests for RFID+ have
been reviewed and approved by CompTIA through its Authorized Quality
Curriculum (CAQC) programme. The first course from the new alliance
is scheduled for November. Sep 2006
BROADSKILL
ADDS LEARNINGGUIDE
BroadSkill is expanding its offering to include LearningGuide's
electronic performance support application. Henry Jodrell, Sales
and Marketing Director at BroadSkill, says: "The market for
electronic performance support systems is growing rapidly as organisations
seek to embed learning and support into the workplace, where it
is needed the most. LearningGuide will be offered through our performance
and learning services business enabling us to integrate learning
and support resources into client projects." Sep
2006
GTSLEARNING
RECEIVES PERFORMANCE AWARD
 gtslearning
has been named as Element K's European Region Award Winner, reflecting
the success of its strategic push into blended and online learning
solutions. gtslearning is an international distributor for Element
K's online learning solutions, and the award recognises gtslearning’s
achievement of the fastest market growth in the EMEA region. More
than 2,000 business skills and IT course titles are currently available
from gtslearning using a hosted, brandable learning management system,
supported by additional blended solutions such as LiveHelp 24x7
support. Sep 2006
QUASAR
MANCHESTER NOW OPEN
Quasar has opened new premises in the heart of Manchester city centre
to complement its existing facilities in London and Watford. The
new centre offers spacious and well equipped training rooms, a luxury
café offering hot and cold food, Costa coffee and plasma
TV. Quasar continues to specialise in end user IT applications training,
and the new centre has been built to satisfy increasing demand in
the Manchester area. Sep 2006
TOMS
FROM TRAINERBASE
 TrainerBase,
the online portal for freelance training consultants and contractors,
has launched an innovative Trainer Opportunity Management System
(TOMS), to structure and automate the communication process during
the first round of contract recruitment. The new system allows advertisers
to post contract notices anonymously and manage the first round
of selection and communications online. Email messages are generated
automatically by the system and sent to both the advertiser and
an applicant when activity takes place. Sep 2006
INTELLEGO
WINS CONTRACT WITH ENDSLEIGH
Intellego, the AIM-listed training and support services business,
has won a contract with Endsleigh Insurance Services. Intellego
will provide Endsleigh with the Team Trainer software simulation
and user documentation tool which automates the development of software
process documentation and the creation of customised, client-specific
e-learning. Sep 2006
RHEMA
PARTNERS WITH MARTIN TRAINING ASSOCIATES
 A
new transatlantic link between two providers of business training
will bring US expert Martin Training Associates' full range of management
workshops to the European corporate management skills market. Rhema
Group will provide Martin Training programmes and products to Martin’s
own clients in Europe, and to Rhema group clients - delivering management
programmes in the areas of Project Management, Risk Assessment,
IT Management, Project Interventions and Project Planning. Rhema's
clients include multinationals BOC Group, Société
Générale and Reed Business Information. Sep
2006
CHANGEFIRST
HELPS ZURICH TO MANAGE CHANGE
 Zurich
Financial Services Group has introduced a change management methodology
to provide a better and more cost effective way of implementing
and managing change within its Group IT function. UK firm Changefirst
has provided the methodology and already trained 53 European and
North American programme managers within Zurich's Group IT function.
Called People-Centred Implementation (PCI), Changefirst's methodology
focuses on the people issues of transformation and can be used for
organisational and strategic initiatives such as cultural change,
restructuring, quality/service improvements and mergers as well
as new hardware/software installations. Sep 2006
NEW
RELEASE OF ENGINEROOM FROM WATSONIA
Watsonia Publishing has announced a new release of EngineRoom, which
it claims is “the very latest technology in task-based courseware
design”. For anyone who creates their own training materials,
EngineRoom offers a fully customisable authoring layer in which
to write their content, and allows the author to concentrate on
the tasks and procedures that readers need to learn. The authoring
layer takes care of the rest – the layout, the structure and
even the placement of visuals and exercises. EngineRoom is designed
to work with any Microsoft Word-based learning content. It can be
use it with customers’ own training materials, or Watsonia’s
extensive content library of IT-based training titles. Existing
customers include The National Trust, Mothercare, Volvo, Ernst &
Young and Thomson Directories, along with many local authorities,
colleges and universities. Sep 2006
SKILLSOFT
DEAL EXTENDED
 Land
Securities, the commercial property owner and manager, has extended
its agreement with SkillSoft to supply e-learning across the business.
The two-year deal, worth over £215K, sees SkillSoft providing
online desktop training to around 2,000 employees and delivering
Land Securities-branded training via its learning portal, SkillPort.
Land Securities has also added business and IT content and will
be using SkillSoft's virtual classroom technology to create bespoke
training modules. The company says it has saved £33,500 in
six months on customer service training for its 99-strong call centre
personnel. Sep 2006
ICT
SKILLS CERTIFICATION IN EUROPE
Cedefop has published a study by CEPIS on current e-skills certification programmes
in 21 European countries. It says there is a great variety of ICT certification
schemes and systems throughout Europe, and that certification and quality assurance
in ICT education and training are extremely important both for employment in
the ICT industry, and as a basis for a sustainable professional career. The study
focuses on investigating existing modes, procedures, methods and institutions
responsible for e-skills certification and on their interests in sharing experience
or increasing cooperation. It supports the current debate on skills frameworks,
quality standards and the increasing attractiveness essential to this labour
market segment. It is intended to support and recommend joint actions to enable
European policy and practice for certification, quality assurance and standardisation. Sep
2006
NEW
EMPLOYER E-LEARNING RESEARCH - HOW TO GET INVOLVED
Over the next 3 months, the Skills for Business Network (SfBN)
work based e-learning (WBEL) project will be conducting a major
study to help understand why UK employers are currently investing
in e-learning and the difference it is making to their business
and staff.
The WBEL Action Plan looks specifically at how e-learning can impact
individual and business productivity. The plan is part of the joint
LSC/DfES Post-16 e-Learning Programme to deliver the DfES e-strategy.
The work is managed by e-skills UK and funded by the LSC. Anyone
who would like to participate in the survey can complete it online. Sep
2006
QUEEN'S
AWARDS FOR ENTERPRISE
Entries are invited for the 2007 Queen's Awards for Enterprise.
Open to any UK business with two or more people, the Queen's Awards
honour outstanding achievement in three categories: International
Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. Winners benefit
from extensive publicity, recognition and use of The Queen's Awards
Emblem. This year, 145 companies – large and small – won
a Queen’s Award. Awards are made by The Queen on the advice
of the Prime Minister and an Advisory Committee, comprising representatives
from Government, industry and trade unions. The deadline for applications
is 31 October 2006, and application forms are available here. Sep
2006
SKILLS
IN ENGLAND
Skills in England 2005 is a new report from the LSC
which seeks to develop an understanding of the current supply
of skills and the demand for skills now and in the future. Although
it reports
“real and significant progress”, the report also makes
it clear that there are many issues and challenges to face. It
goes into some detail about developments over the past twelve months,
and also looks in depth at the challenges ahead. An overall theme
is that skills are crucial to addressing the two main challenges
facing the economy and labour market: intensifying international
competition and addressing social exclusion. The report says that
perhaps the most difficult challenge of all will be to raise the
demand for skills. Unless employers can be persuaded to recognise
the benefits of skills – and invest more heavily in them –
further supply-side intervention is likely to be ineffective. The
report is available here.
(Reported by Skills & Education Network) Sep
2006
CHANGES
IN LEADERSHIP FOR THE DFES E-STRATEGY
The government has announced a change in responsibility for information
technology for children and learners. It says the future focus
of technology work within the DfES will be on strengthening the
department’s internal IT capability, and that responsibility
for delivering the e-strategy and working with policy directorates
to develop technology-informed policy will pass to BECTA. It also
says that BECTA “has always been a key delivery partner for
the e-strategy, and work has been gradually transferring over the
last year, so moving lead responsibility to BECTA for delivering
the outcomes set out in Harnessing Technology is a natural next
step”. (Reported by e-skills UK) Sep
2006
OGC
WARNS ABOUT PROCUREMENT SCAM
The Office of Government Commerce has issued a warning about faxes
which have been sent to a large number of companies, and which
claim to be from a Dan Jacobs, Senior Procurement Officer at the
OGC. The contents of the fax advise the ‘prospective contractor’
that to be eligible for procurement with the OGC, they must submit
an ‘authorization to release financial information’
form. The form requests bank account details, sort codes and other
financial information. The OGC emphasises that this communication
is not from the OGC, and advises companies not to comply with such
requests. The advice to private sector companies who may have fallen
victim to this communication is to report the crime to their local
police. More information is available on the OGC website,
or from the OGC Service Desk on 0845 000 4999. Sep
2006
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