There are various reasons why trainers join the Learning
Practitioners' Association and have a profile on the TrainerBase.
The top two are to:
In the current economic climate the business case for buying
products and services needs to be argued in order to maximise budgets
and return on investment. This is no different for your membership of a
club, association or institute.
So what is the Association for? It is there to help you become more
successful in your training endeavours. And what are the benefits from a
membership? Well they are many and varied.
- discount insurance from Towergate
- a legal helpline from LawExpress
- free copies of TJ (worth over £90)
- publication of case studies on your successes
- CPD advice
- web based profiles on a site receiving 45,000+ visits per month
- profile diagnostics on what to do to raise your profile
- member tips on how to raise your profiles to gain access to
around £1 million worth of direct contracts
- contract opportunity notices with an expected award value in
excess of £1 million
- lead generation from profile visitors
- free resource sharing facility offering lead generation
- exhibition attendance (showcasing all members)
- advice and support
- email alerts and updates on happenings
- marketing research data
- surveys into aspects of the learning and development sector
- regional groups
- conference
- workshops
- speaking engagements promoting the Association and it members
- networking with other institutions
- forum group contributions
- social media involvement
- editorials on learning and development
- press releases showcasing the activities and achievements of the
Association and members
- telemarketing to purchasers of training to raise the profile of
the Association and members.
And it doesn't stop there. Some of the above are being reviewed for allocation of additional
resources especially the use of forum group contributions and social
media involvement to generate greater activity.
And there is more.
Other activities and services that we at the Association are considering
adding to the portfolio of benefits include:
- webinars
- teleseminars
- podcasts
- blogs
- trainer interviews
- discounted services
- lobbying/advocacy
- arbitration and
- company/credit search services.
All this for £190+VAT per year for the full membership.
Below is further information about each of the above benefits.
Membership
Membership of the Association is great value especially, but not
exclusively, as a niche marketing channel. A lot of people looking for
training providers visit the TrainerBase.
Membership to the Association is only £100+VAT. To have a profile on the TrainerBase is a further £90+VAT. This means that you can have a fully enhanced
presence on the internet for just £190+VAT for a year. Membership is accepted on a declaration of qualification
or competence and the providing of legitimate personal and business
details. The Association has a quality approved membership which requires accreditation.
This is
the Certified Learning Practitioner (CLP) and is £2,100 for 2 years. More
on the value of this membership later.
To help you decide on which is the most appropriate membership for your
needs and budgets here is the membership comparison:
| |
STD |
ENH |
APP |
Discount
Professional Indemnity Insurance |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Free legal help line |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Read
opportunities |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Pop up profile |
N |
Y |
Y |
Web enabled
profile |
N |
Y |
Y |
Search engine
optimise profile |
N |
Y |
Y |
Display clients |
N |
Y |
Y |
Display open
courses |
N |
Y |
Y |
Display custom
programmes |
N |
Y |
Y |
12 FREE copies
of TJ |
N |
Y |
Y |
Differentiated
(display on site) |
N |
N |
Y |
Included in CLP
(approved) trainer page |
N |
N |
Y |
Recommended to
purchasers |
N |
N |
Y |
Mention in
selected TB marketing materials |
N |
N |
Y |
Invites to join
TB at exhibitions |
N |
N |
Y |
Preferential PI
insurance rates |
N |
N |
Y |
The main, but definitely not the only, reason for becoming a member of
the Learning Practitioners' Association is the opportunity to get more
work. And our own research shows that it is members with a profile on
the TrainerBase that get the work.
ROI
The Association has just short of 500 members and around 150 of those
are winning a share of the £2 million worth of contracts sourced via the
site; that is an average of around £13,000. Some members earn as much as
40% of their income from activities sourced via the TrainerBase web site. This is an
outstanding return on investment even if it takes more than a year to
achieve. Our evidence further suggests that more contract values is won
via direct contract from a purchaser, able to review a profile, than via
the 350+ tenders that are posted on the site each year.
Greater visibility on the net
Only members of the Association can have a profile on the TrainerBase
that can be viewed by potential purchasers. Your profile is
included in any search that a visitor makes looking for your
identified areas of expertise. Visitors to a TrainerBase profile include automated search engine
robots resulting in higher rankings in the search engines. It has been
suggested that the search engine optimisation feature of the enhanced subscription in itself is worth £200+.
In excess of 5,000 visitors look at profiles each month. The Association
also regularly
helps purchasers with searching for trainers. These purchasers of training
and development WANT to see profiles and if your profile is not present
you will not be considered for work on offer.
Professional Indemnity Insurance
As a member of the Association you are eligible to discounted Professional
Indemnity Insurance (up to 40% on retail prices worth up to £200),
comparable with that offered to CIPD members. As an approved member (a
CLP) your PI Insurance is even less. All this is via Toweregate
Professional Risks.
More than just contracts
The Learning Practitioners' Association is more than just a place to find work, it is a trade
association which represents individuals and organisations providing
freelance training and development.
FREE legal help line
The Learning Practitioners' Association is aware that many members are
sole traders or micro business and as such the division between work and
social issues is sometimes blurred. With this in mind the Association
has sourced a FREE legal helpline for members that covers both business
and domestic issues. This service is provided by LawExpress.
TrainerBase as the trade association represents:
-
all individuals substantially engages in or actively
working towards consultancy, design, development, and delivery of
training or learning interventions whose recipients are outside
statutory education.
Our core strategic aims are:
- To become the voice of learning practitioners in the UK.
e.g. supported by member consultation to inform Association
policy on key issues affecting learning practitioners.
- The TrainerBase to be the dominant marketplace in the UK for
learning practitioners across all engagement models.
e.g. supported by increasing membership and increasing the number
of opportunities posted in order to maximise member's business.
- The Standard, and any associated accreditations and
qualifications, to become the routes of choice for excellence in
learning practice within the UK.
i.e. supporting/protecting the sector/profession by raising
standards through adoption of the Standard and CLP.
A growing number of individuals are joining the trade association in order
to belong to 'their' trade body. These individuals benefit from:
-
Networking with other members in both the virtual
and conventional environment.
-
Sharing of resources (no limits on downloads).
-
Advice, guidance and mentoring from other members or from the TrainerBase
team.
The Association is here to help its members and to provide a benefit and
return on investment. Members are encouraged to get in contact with
us for advice, guidance or comments.
Be active
If the case is beginning to sound compelling and you are considering subscribing
to gain new contracts but do not intend to actively raise
your profile on the site then you are likely to be disappointed. Of the
25% of members who get work; nearly all are active. Of the 75% of
members who don't get work; most are inactive. 'Build it and they will
come' is, as the Kevin Costner film portrays; a fantasy.
Being active is
straightforward. If you regularly do the following you will raise your
profile up the
Find a Trainer search rankings and significantly increase
your chances of gaining work:
-
take part is discussion forums (most of the
contributors on the forums are members who have gained work from the
site),
-
upload resources for sharing (you will get the
contact details of visitors downloading your resources so that you
can follow them up) and
-
mention the Association or the TrainerBase on other forums and digests
(make legitimate responses to questions or requests).
If you take out an Enhanced membership you should do the
following to maximise your investment:
-
activate your profile and include information of
interest to potential purchasers of training. You can upload images
to your profile to make it more appealing,
-
post details of any open courses you run,
-
include any and all of the custom programmes you run
for your clients and
-
list a selection of your clients on the site.
When you include these elements you will help create
re-assurance that you can provide the solution a potential purchaser is
looking for.
The TrainerBase web site alone receives in excess of 35,000 visitors to the
site each month and clocks up over 250,000 page views. Being active on
the site will result in you being seen by more visitors.
Approved membership
In these growing competitive times, you as a training provider need to
be ahead of the competition. Belonging to an approved membership scheme
can be the difference between winning and not winning your next
contract. The Learning Practitioners' Association, like many other trade associations has such an
approved members scheme, it is called the Certified Learning
Practitioner (CLP). CLPs have undertaken a rigorous accreditation
programme that "evidences the application of knowledge"; it looks for
evidence that you are a competent and practicing trainer. There is no
requirement to have any qualifications to be a CLP. What the Association
needs to see evidence of is that you meet the
Standard for
Learning Practitioners.
The benefit of CLP is that you can be recommended by the Association to
purchasers of training as competent. You can use the accreditation in
your own marketing as proof that you are competent. And the Association will
provide you with a reference should you need it to win that next piece
of work.
TJ
Members of the Association with a profile on the TrainerBase also receive TJ (Training Journal) free of
charge. This is worth in the region of £100.
Future developments
And as the Association grows in stature, additional services are being undertaken on behalf of members and in particular greater resources will
be channelled into activities including:
The Learning Practitioners' Association currently offers great value to members and this will
continue to grow. In the meantime if there is something that you would
like the Association to undertake that will make the value proposition even
more compelling than it already is please feel free to let us know.
