Need a Logo or a Website? Compare 8 Free Bids Today. Over 50,000 Designers Worldwide. DesignQuote.net

DQ News: Virtual lessons from across the pond

The USA has as many domestic flights as the rest of the world put together.  Project meeting with customer?  Flight. Project management training course?  Flight.  Travel budget and carbon footprint?  High.  So it’s no wonder the Americans have been at the forefront of finding project management training alternatives.  But what can we learn – good and bad – from their experience when considering training in the UK?

Project Training Options

The backdrop is good traditional project training such as PRINCE2 is pretty effective: studies show that lecture-based instruction gives an information retention rate of between 5-10%, while interactive and discussion-based activities, such as the average PRINCE2 course, improve it to 40-50%.  Hence the holy grail for Virtual is to keep that, then add the learn-anywhere benefits of eLearning, for the best of both worlds.

Virtual = Efficiency

Since the advent of virtual the big benefit for American companies has been the travel saving – both time and money.  In a much smaller country we are never far from PRINCE2 courses, so the travel saving can be much less.  But if you are posted on customer sites, including overseas, the benefit of doing PRINCE2 training from anywhere is very real.

The time benefit has also been taken up in a different way that is very relevant to us.  With virtual training ‘modules’ typically taking only 3-4 hours it is much easier to schedule PRINCE2 training alongside business-as-usual – no need to draft in someone to cover a week’s absence.

Prevalence of Virtual Learning

So as Virtual learning matures in the US when is it most often used?  As an alternative to PRINCE2 and other popular and specialist classroom project management courses it is proving to be a serious alternative.  Virtual is also increasingly being used for short learning ‘nuggets’ – short sessions that couldn’t be justified as a classroom training session.  As an example, imagine you are a PRINCE2 Practitioner facing a major project change of scope and you want to refresh yourself on best practice first: attending a two hour virtual training session that allows expert tutor led discussion of applying PRINCE2 theory to real-world situations is so much better than just reading the manual.

Conclusion

Amidst the hype some perspective is needed.  The majority of PRINCE2 courses are done face-to-face, something that is unlikely to change much in the future.  Where Virtual is finding its place is to compliment classroom training.  Out-of-hours courses, bite sized learning subscriptions and specialist courses that only run in one location all have a clear case for being better done virtually.

About the Author: This is a guest post from Jamie Simpson on behalf of QA, who are experts in Prince2 training in project management

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

Need a Logo for your new company? Compare 8 Free Bids Today. Over 50,000 Designers Worldwide. DesignQuote.net

4 Tips to Help Differentiate Your Small Business from the Competition

Let’s face it. Notwithstanding the fast pace of change in 21st century technology, products and services aren’t a whole lot different from each other. While competition does drive innovation, when you enter into a saturated market, the only thing that wil

7 Must-Know Tips for Outsourcing Your Business

As an entrepreneur, you are probably more than familiar with having to juggle everything at the same time. Overseeing payroll, human resources, special projects, advertising, etc. – it can easily become costly and overwhelming. In an effort to save

6 Signs Your Small Business is Set Up for Failure

In a day and age when the economy is not being very kind to many companies, how can your small business get its footing, especially when just starting out? As many small business owners know, starting a new company even in the best of financial times can

Growing Young Entrepreneurs

If we want to create a new generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, what do we do? Langley Advance says it is time to give them the opportunity to learn how. The PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs program is helping get kids started. PowerPlay challenges st

Young Entrepreneurs Polishing Business Skills

If you’re a high school student near Ashville, a local community college is offering you the opportunity to hone the necessary skills to become a successful entrepreneur. According to Citizen-Times.com, they are not asking kids to run a simple lemon

Design school equips grads with entrepreneurial toolkits

During tough economic times, the academic challenges of college can pale next to the difficulty of finding a job afterwards. Aiming to help make its ...

The 3 Best Reasons Why the Time is Ripe to Get Your Business Valued

  If you have no immediate interest in selling your business then you might think a business valuation is an unnecessary expense. But there are a whole host of reasons why you should be getting an understanding of the value of your business that don’

Overcoming Management Confidence Issues

A new survey, conducted by CIPD, suggests that 21% of employees fear that they will imminently lose their jobs and that over a third believe their standard of living has dropped in the last six months highlights what a stressful time it currently is for w

How Small Business Owners Can Use Open-Source Code

Open-source code is a big part of the Web 3.0 revolution because it fits one of the key driving factors: collaboration. Open-source code is developed by several people (even thousands) working together to make a usable tool or program. Even when it’s fini