Training
offers you a quick guide to new products and services being unveiled at the
HRD2000 exhibition.
Key
themes from the Government’s Competitiveness White Paper will be aired for discussion
this week as Europe’s largest training and development conference kicks off at
Olympia as part of HRD 2000 (3-6 April).
The
exhibition, like the conference, will offer the chance to explore the
possibilities of the Internet and assess the concept of lifelong learning.
Witness the impact of the on-line revolution as major names step up the
applications available.
Specialist
software house Intellect (stand 1010) will be showing its interactive Workforce
Online module with the latest version of the Workforce human resource software
Version 8.0.
Intellect
says Workforce Online will provide employees with an easy-to-navigate site with
a logical set of links, menus and prompts. It is designed to provide an
intranet or Internet package which allows employees to apply for internal
vacancies, for example, by integrating the information into an organisation’s
core Workforce for Windows modules.
The
package can also be used as a library source for procedures documents and staff
manuals. Information needs can still be defined by the employer, however, and
it decides what employees can view, which fields are updateable and what
authorisations are required.
Also
promoting online learning is Ellis Hayward (stand 782) which is offering
management learning programmes in a range of areas including customer service
skills, call centre management and
induction training, all of which can be delivered via the Internet or
in-company intranet.
Training
professionals should have plenty of opportunity to update their own skills and
flex their purchasing muscle.
TrainingZONE
(stand 1542) will launch three areas on its site. Managing director Tim Pickles
explains, “TrainingZONE is for people engaged in training and HR. In one place
we offer them their own magazine and the chance to speak to each other.
“At
HRD Week we are launching several new areas of the site. One is the new jobs
area. Trainers can post jobs vacancies at next to no cost. They can search for
vacancies. They can set up an alert which means that they can be specific about
what their ideal job would be and it tells them when something appears that
matches it.”
Other
areas include a resource zone which allows professionals to post and read
research materials.
Trainers
can make the most of the e-commerce marketplace with the launch of
Skillvest.com – an integrated HR service, which uses the Internet to accelerate
and streamline the search, evaluation and purchase of training for business
users.
Launched
from stand 692, Skillvest.com will allow businesses to request information and
proposals or blind tender for training programmes in an open market.
According
to the company’s CEO Jac Peeris, “Skillvest.com offers business a
wide-reaching, time-efficient service which incorporates independent
third-party feedback on both training programmes and training organisers. The
days of HR managers searching through hundreds of brochures and taking pot luck
on their training programmes are now over.”
Essential
reading
The
business benefits of learning to employers will be essential reading for all
training professionals at the Nacett stand (344). This key information will
become available on the body’s web site which is being launched at HRD2000.
The
report Learning Pays and Learning Works-a Review of the Economic Benefits of
Learning draws together current evidence on the value of training and
education. Conducted by Prof Mike Campbell of the Policy Research Institute at
Leeds Metropolitan University, the research looks at the returns companies get
from their investment in people.
Updates
on Nacett’s national and regional Learning Pays campaign which includes
sponsorship and business seminars will be available at www.nacett.org.uk Users
of the site will be able to find text and audio quotes from high-profile Nacett
council members about the benefits of learning which could prove to be useful
ammunition for presentations to the board.
HR
managers are under increasing pressure, according to software giant PWA
Personnel Systems. International director Adrian Hobbs will speak at the exhibition
on the strategic management of human assets – the new competitive battleground,
on 4 April.
He
will tell delegates, “The HR role is changing to suit new business strategies.
Line managers are being enabled to manage employees, while HR departments focus
on aligning people strategy and business strategy, as well as monitoring and
assessing the HR processes and advising the board and managers on people
issues.”
Visitors
who miss the seminar but who want to celebrate with PWA on its recent success
in winning the Institute of IT Training Gold Standard, can catch up with the
company on stand 1102.
Speedier
recruitment
A
speedier recruitment process is promised by PSL as it launches its latest
on-line recruitment initiative jobsift.com on stand 418. The company says it is
an Internet screening tool suitable for situations where high numbers of
applicants have to be reduced rapidly to a shortlist for interviews or
assessment. It aims to sift out applicants based on competencies relevant to
the jobs they are applying for by using an online questionnaire.
The
company claims it can be integrated with an in-house recruitment web site or be
linked to commercial bulletin boards.
Delegates
might want to visit the John Machete stand (1018) as the company has announced
it has become prime European distributor for SkillScape Competence Manager, an
online solution.
The
SCM can be operated via the Internet and on intranets to provide a structure to
manage skills development. Within SCM is a dictionary which provides 8,000
skills definitions.
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“With
SCM, employees can directly assess their skills against these or their own
competency measures, define their skills gaps and through a seamless integrated
link with Personal Registrar, instantly enrol in the courses that are recommended
to fill those gaps,” says product manager Mark Homer.
By
Stephanie Sparrow
