Delivering retail flexibly, meeting local needs and its FREE

Retail is one of the largest industry areas...and one with a poor training culture. As most people know SSI has two offices, one in Perth and one in Mandurah. We applied for Prductivity Places funding to delivery retail (along with IT) in the Mandurah region. As a tourist destination there is significant retail activity in the region and most of it is small and microbusiness.

Therefore we decided that our Retail Certificate III program needed to provide the skills for people to establish their own micro business if required. We have therefore developed a course that is flexible in that there is rolling intakes of small groups who are coached and access online resources. Duriing the course they learn about retail in contexts such direct selling, party plan, ebay, market stalls and online businesses...as well as your traditional retail. It's an exciting development ....and the new participants are particularly excited. It's a very suitable option for mothers wanting a part time income....or retirees trying to preserve their share portfolio until the stock market recovers. The response has been so positive that we are thinking of running the program in the Perth metro area as well. Contact us if you are unemployed...and interested.

Learning Table

When the Learning Table first hit the elearning market we must admit we weren't all that excited. We didn't see how it could be an addition to our work...mind you we mainly work one on one or online.

However one of our recent clients, who we are also doing a Innovation project with, was most impressed when we mentioned it to them.......and more impressed when we demonstrated it to them. Great Gardens provide garden sustainablity workshops all over the state (www.greatgardens.info) and have used the Learning Table to provide audio visuals of products that support the information they provide. Participants can access the the audio visual during the breaks by swiping the tag attached to the product. The workshop staff are stoked as it allows them to prepare for the next session rather than being inundated by questions on the products. SSI have been so impressed with the success of the product...... and with the professionalism of the team at NEC that we have decided to become a WA reseller of the Learning Table. So if anyone is interested...or would like a demo...give us a call on 0421792451 or drop us an email at info@skillstrategies.net.

Find out more about the Learning Table at www.learningtable.net.au.

Revewing the review year

2008 is screaming towards its end and it is a time to look at what has been achieved and consolidate the direction for 2009.

2008 has been a "bringing it all together year" for SSI. The early years (from the 90's on) were focussed on "train the trainer" to support delivery of traineeships. We branched into e-learning to combine with workplace learning and provide more flexibility for learners. As WE developed our skills and learned more we branched into provision of PD and implementing e-learning for other organisations and businesses.

In 2008 the emphasis has been on practicing what we preached. Interestingly the Flexible Learning Framework focussed on IMPLEMENTATION of e-learning and that was just what we had decided to do. It is easy to say how "e-learning can make learning more engaging and more accessible" but for credibility you need to show how it can be done..... and actually have done it!!!

We have therefore gone back to our roots and built up the TAA and traineeship side of the business and used the tools we believe make learning engaging and accessible anywhere anytime.

Surprise, surprise it wasn't as easy as we thought. It was a little like the old story of running out front with the flag and looking behind to find very few are following. Baby steps were required and even MORE flexible approaches. Hopefully our clients learned heaps because we did. We learned a lot about coaching and change management and these will soon be added to the SSI product list.

The impending economic challenges are going to provide opportunities for training organisations. The skills shortages are still in mind which should keep the focus on continued training. However the downturn is going to relieve some pressures and create others. There are signs in the economy already of a "value for money" approach. E-learning provides an opportunity to address this - opportunites that we are going to be ready to grasp.