Ireland – 15th May, 2008 – The skills challenge facing the Irish economy was the subject of a major seminar organised jointly by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), and held in Dublin on May 15.

The ‘Learning at Work’ seminar was chaired by NCPP director Lucy Fallon-Byrne and was addressed by Minister for Lifelong Learning Seán Haughey, Leo Casey of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching and Prof Chip Bruce, National College of Ireland.

Four national initiatives, designed to promote and encourage learning at work, were showcased also at the seminar, providing the 100-plus delegates with real-life examples of innovative responses to the future skills challenge.

Among the issues discussed at the seminar were:

• The role of workplace learning in driving and growing the Irish economy;
• The opportunities for, and obstacles to, workplace learning that exist in Ireland today;
• Effective ways of engaging employers and employees to ensure Ireland is equipped for the future skills challenge.

National College of Ireland president Paul Mooney said the message was simple:

“For Ireland Inc. to succeed, the barriers to workplace learning must be identified and systematically removed. To survive and prosper in a tougher global environment, we need to collectively up our game to out-think the competition.

“The highest performing companies of the future are the ones that are becoming engaged in workplace learning initiatives today. The time is now and there is zero room for complacency on this. The future is decided by those who sense change and actually start to do something to respond to this. For everyone else, the time bomb is ticking.”

A new DVD was launched by Minister Haughey. Produced by NCPP, the DVD profiles the practical experiences of five Irish public and private-sector organisations that have recognised and embraced workplace learning as an enabler of change. Their stories illustrate the value of promoting human talent and creativity in the workplace, and make a powerful business case for lifelong learning and workplace training and development.  Upskilling is now a necessity.

Copies of the DVD are available (free of charge) on request from the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.  Simply drop an email to Conor (conor@ncpp.ie) with your contact details, and he’ll post them out to you as soon as possible.

Source: Education MATTERS

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 – 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.