BP Caspian
Director Alan Douglas and senior trainer Lindsey Ingram are just back from the sticky heat of Baku in Azerbaijan where they’ve been running the latest telephone response handling training session for BP communications staff in the country. It’s the fourth year we’ve been there but this year the training was even more relevant with the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This year there was a special prize for avoiding Pink Elephants of “See You Jimmy” hats flown in specially from Glasgow. The competition was fierce and the runners-up were rewarded with sticks of Edinburgh rock.
RBS Japan
Director Alan Douglas and senior trainer Lindsey Ingram have been working with senior RBS personnel in Japan at the company’s financial centre in the heart of Tokyo. Right next to the bank’s trading room, they ran a session on presentation skills and key messaging on how much the bank has moved on and in particular the rapid success of its operations in Japan. It was a real international event with representatives from Australia, America, Italy, Taiwan and Britain. While they were there, they also ran a series of presentation and media awareness skills for other clients and there were no language issues – most of the people taking part were exiled Scots. Last year Alan and Lindsey spent a week in Azerbaijan working with local BP staff in the capital, Baku and are heading back there again in June.
Online Training
We’ve been showcasing our new online presentation skills programme to several clients including publicly-funded bodies and an international company which operates in 200 countries around the world. They tell us they like what they’ve seen. As budgets are tightened many companies and organisations want to get the very best training for their limited available funds and online can be the answer, with savings in time and travel costs.
On-line training for pharmacists
Smokers within the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area now have a better chance than ever of getting the right help to stop smoking, thanks to a new online training programme. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde commissioned us to develop an on-line training programme for 310 community pharmacies in the area who are involved in delivering the Smokefree services stop smoking programme. Working together, we wrote scripts and developed a training programme which would teach pharmacists and counter staff how to connect with the patients they were dealing with, as well as techniques on how to encourage and motivate them to stop smoking for good. There is a series of scenarios filmed using both actors and health professionals in the pharmacy setting, vox pops with clients who have used the service and the whole programme is backed up with impressive graphics and interactive quizzes. Participants learn about brief intervention techniques, behavioural change theories, motivational interviewing, facts on smoking, preparation to quit, withdrawal symptoms, NRT products, paperwork and how to carry out carbon monoxide testing. It also contains online testing, with full reporting systems, which shows the effectiveness of the training. And because the training is online, it allows for staff to complete this remotely, saving time and money.
Norwich
Like the rest of us, trainers Lindsey Ingram and Lisa Cohen have had to battle with the wintry weather – but at the other end of the country from our Glasgow base. They’ve been to Norwich to run four separate presentation skills sessions for RBS staff in the south-east…and on each occasion were almost snowed in by the bad weather. Lindsey and Lisa are used to snow, but it caught out many of the locals.