The Learning Practitioners Association: representing all individuals substantially engaged in or actively working towards consultancy, design, development and delivery of training interventions whose recipients are outside statutory education.

The trusted place for trainers, learning developers & training advisers

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Welcome to your TrainerBase update 274.

The unfit profile

If I may I would like to share a disturbing realisation regarding how some members of the Association portray themselves on the TrainerBase web site and how this is adversely affecting the perception of the Association within the wider L&D community.

The Learning Practitioners' Association attended WOLCE last week and we were overwhelmed by how busy we were and the positive feedback we got from a considerable number of purchasers; interested in using our services and you the members.

THAT SAID

On occasions we, as individual exhibitors and the Association, were undermined by the poor state of member profiles. Then on Friday we had 2 requests from purchasers for lists of trainers to undertake a number of significant projects. Carol our business development officer spent a considerable amount of time searching the TrainerBase for a sufficient number of suitable profiles to forward to these 2 purchasers. She got so frustrated with the unfit profiles she was finding that in the end she gave up. This is deeply worrying; we have purchasers wanting trainers and we can't find sufficient decent profiles to forward.

What to do

In the next days and weeks we will be conducting a diagnostic review of all member profiles and scoring them against a set of criteria of acceptability. The Profile Diagnostic is available for members to review their own profile. All members will receive their profile diagnostic indicating whether their profile on the TrainerBase is:

• Acceptable and able to be forwarded

• Possibly acceptable and may be forwarded

• Unlikely to be forwarded or

• Not able to be forwarded

We will provide advice and guidance to those members who need it (on the understanding that the member has read the Member Tips on the .info site) and we will also put in place a paid for profile enhancement service where the team here at the Association can set up members' profiles based on the member's input.

By January 2010, the TrainerBase and the Association web sites will be separate domains. When this has been finalised, any profiles that do not meet the criteria of acceptability will be hidden, until they do.

Would I buy from me

And to get this improvement moving look at any of these following profiles:

• Andi Roberts

• Charlotte Mannion

• Helen Howard

• Andrew Miller

• Joy Wilson

• Andrew Gibbons

• Heather Girling

• Jan Brause

• Marion Parris

• Mike Morrison

Now look at your profile.

Say to yourself: Would I buy from me?

Member tips

As mentioned a set of members tips can be found at www.trainerbase.info/membertips . The following have already been posted:

• Activating your profile, selecting a style and starting editing pages.

• Adding images and links

• Search engine optimisation

• Testimonials, courses and programmes

Please have a look at these so that you are familiar with how to activate and populate your profile. Any help needed let us know and if you would like us to do the work on your behalf, a paid for profile building service will be available shortly.

And in Future articles I will provide tips on:

• Sharing resources (without giving away your stock in trade)
• Who has been looking at your profile (how popular are you)
• Networking (making contacts in a virtual world)
• Applying for opportunities (how not to get yourself eliminated before you start)

We are working hard on behalf of all members to raise the presence of the Association. You can help us with this by ensuring your profile is worth visiting.

Top

Of course there is the usual activity taking place on the site and you should visit regularly to ensure you do not miss out.

Opportunities

A small number of opportunities have been posted on the site in the last week. Have you seen if your next job has been posted?

News stories

We are always keen to receive news stories from members; this is great FREE advertising.

Discussion forums

Valerie Fawcett has asked questions on the Discuss page. Nicki Davey is asking for help in the Members only forum.

New members

New members of the Association include:
Peter Mayes, Stuart Preston,
Peter Bartlett, David White,
Tom Battye, John Ryan, Phil Lion,
David Lumley, Ian Perrett, Peter Moore.

Downloads

Nicki Davey and Christine Bell have recently added some resources to the Downloads section.

Number of FREE downloads on the system: 1,874.

Downloads in the past 28 days: 242

Useful Stuff

Mike Morrison has contributed an article to the Useful stuff section on
How do we attract and retain clients.

Do you have contributions that would be of interest to visitors and raise your profile? Let us know.

User statistics

Current total number of active web site users: 5,983 of which 4,205 are UK based.

Currently signed up for the newsletter: 5,011

Currently signed up for offers and ads: 5,384

Current association members: 475. Is this the economic climate hitting. The number and value of opportunities contracted via the site is holding up, if not improving. The purchaser campaign is generating potential leads. We are increasing the level of benefits. What else is there we can do?

Number of new member types in the past 28 days;

• Basic user (potential purchaser) 11
• Supplier 2
• Trainer 37

Profile views in the past 28 days; 4,638 (boosted by our attendance at WOLCE).

• Traceable: 502 (registered user on TrainerBase)
• Non traceable: 4,136 (unidentifiable visitor, search engine robot)

The top searched for subject in the past 28 days out of a total of 146 different subjects are:

• Leadership, Communication Skills, Health and Safety, Management Development and Project Management.

And what are the top keyword searches being used in the general Search filed on the site: well here they are:

• invoice, tna, time management, coaching, training needs analysis, opportunities, jobs, kolb, resources, trainers, open and closed questions, assertiveness, proposal, sample invoice, open questions, managers guide to tna, export, insurance, evaluation, questioning, train the trainer, pdp, coaching exercises, appraisal, appraisal forms, invoices, first aid, customer service, learning styles, project management, trainer rates, management, leadership, presentation skills, communication.