Testimonials, courses and programmes
Membership to the Learning Practitioners'
Association enables a trainer to have a profile on the TrainerBase web
site. As mentioned in previous articles there are 2 types of profile:
Basic and the Full Enhanced. I have already suggested what the potential
significant advantages to having the Full enhanced profile are and
tapping into these benefits are part of what I will cover in this
article.
In the previous articles I outlined:
In this article I will take populating a Full enhanced
profile a little further
with:
And in future articles will provide tips on:
- Sharing resources (without giving away your stock in trade)
- Who has been looking at your profile (how popular are you)
Testimonials
Many years ago I wrote a paper on 'Human trust in a virtual world' to
support the development and enhancement of the TrainerBase web site. The
key finding for the question 'What helps build trust' is "information,
information and more information". And acknowledging the level of
importance information from a third party can have on our decision
making, the testimonials part of the Full enhanced profile is an
important facility.
All of what you have been doing recently to improve your profile has
been conducted by you in
Edit
Profile . Adding testimonials is slightly different in that we have
based this facility on the ability for someone else to add entries. With
this in mind, to add a testimonial, the person wishing to add (whether
it is a client, colleague or indeed you) needs to go to your profile.
Members who have an Full enhanced membership, whether it has been
activated or not, will have a link to their Testimonials page. The
instructions that follow are for you adding a testimonial based on
feedback from a client.
Click on this link and you will be presented with any testimonials
that have already been added (and approved) and a form.
The form fields are:
- Name: This is the identity of the commissioning officer.
It can be a name (Jo Bloggs) or a job title (HR officer)
- Email: This email can be that of the commissioning
manager (if they have given permission to use their email) or it can
you your own email address.
- Company Name: This is the name of the client
- Telephone: This is the telephone number of the client and
is used for auditing purposes and is not displayed in the
testimonial
- Testimonial: This is what has been written by the client
or colleague.
- Verification Code: This is used to stop automated use of
the form
When you have competed the fields click on the 'Submit' button.
When a testimonial is submitted to us it needs to be approved. We may
request sight of the original testimonial which can be faxed or emailed
through. Once a testimonial has been approved it will appear in the
testimonials page on your profile. Testimonials appear in reverse
chronological order with most recent at the top.
Courses
To some, running open courses; those that are on a defined date,
location and open to anyone, is a lucrative revenue channel. Returning
to
Edit
Profile you can add an unlimited number of open courses for display
on the
Open Courses page on the TrainerBase web site and in your profile.
Click on the Manage your Courses link in section 4, your additions.
Any courses that you have already posted will be listed. Click on the
'Post Course(s) Online Now' below the
list.
Step 1:
Choose the type of course that you want to add. This can be:
- Classroom: in that it takes place in a physical location
at a particular time.
- Computer Based: in that it comes as a file on a media for
loading into a local computer
- Distance Learning: in that the learning is done using
paper based media at the learners own location and does not require
(but may include the use of) a computer
- E-Learning: in that the 'environment' is a virtual one
and remote (takes place in cyberspace).
- Outdoor: it is a physical location at a particular time
but not indoors.
Step 2:
Choosing Computer Based, Distance Learning or E-Learning you will get
a form with the following fields:
- Course Title: This is the course title and should not be
more than 50 characters; be descriptive as possible
- Course Description: You should explain fully what the
course is about in here. Learning objective, target market etc
- Course Duration: Fairly self explanatory; perhaps from
half a day to months or longer
- Course Cost: Again fairly self explanatory; do include
the currency sign in case you course is of interest to foreign
visitors
- Primary Subject: Select the main topic for the course
from the list of 600+ subjects. This will help when a visitor is
searching on the site for courses
- Secondary Subject: This is optional and is used to
identify an additional subjects that might be covered in the course.
Fill in the above fields and click on the Continue button. Your
course will be added to the system.
Choosing Classroom or Outdoor you will get a form with the above form
fields plus the following field:
- Town: This is the town that is nearest to the location of
the course being run. Please do not put in county or other
geographic identifier. To ensure that you course is selected by
geographic region you should only use the towns listed in the
County/Town list.
Below the form is an option 'How many times will this course be run?'
Select either
'Only once on' and enter the time and the date and click on the
'Continue' button. Your course will be added to the system.
Or
Select the 'multiple' times option and put the number of occurrences
of the course in the field and click on the 'Continue' button.
Step 3: (optional)
If you chose to add a number of the same course, you will be
presented with a form with the number of courses you have said you will
run. You can now add the dates and times of these courses and if
necessary change the Town. Or if you have made a mistake you can Omit
one or more entries. Click on the 'Continue' button.
Classroom and Outdoor courses have a date field. When this date is
reached, the course will automatically disappear from the
Open
Courses page on the TrainerBase web site.
Programmes
Unless you are one of the 5% of members that only undertake associate
work, you will run Custom Programmes. These are courses that you deliver
based on the need of a client and are bespoke to that client.
Our own engagement with purchasers indicates that many are always on
the look out for new trainers who can run programmes for their
staff/people. You should have your Programmes listed with as much
information as possible to help these potential clients make their
purchasing decisions. This is your opportunity to write a bid/proposal
that can be seen by hundreds of purchasers a month.
In section 3, click on the 'Manage your
Programmes' link. The resulting page will display any
programmes that you have already added. Below this list, click on the
'>> Add a Programme' link. The resulting
form will have the following fields:
- Programme Title: The programme title should be
descriptive and what a purchaser might use in a search engine. Keep
this to a maximum of 50 characters
- Accreditation: Is you programme accredited by an awarding
body? If it is state this.
- Likely Cost: This is a text field that will give a
potential purchaser and indication of likely cost.
- Programme Description: You should be as descriptive as
possible in this section; include an overview, suggest learning
objective, target market etc. This description is picked up by our
own search facility and is spidered by search engine robots.
- Document: If you have a sample prospectus or further
information as a pdf or word processor document we recommend that
you upload it. Whilst you will not get a record of who has
downloaded the file (because the file is available to anyone) you
will get an indication of the number of times the file has been
downloaded.
Click on the 'Add Programme' button and your programme will be
entered onto the system.
Check out your additions
When you have added information, courses, programmes, testimonials to
the system do check out to see how these are displayed. Testimonials
will not be visible immediately as they require us to approve them but
courses and programmes will appear immediately. Do a search for you
course or programme. If it does not appear, check that it is in your
profile. If it is then you are missing a trick with regards the
descriptions you have used. Ensure you have used as many keywords,
relating to your course or programme, that you think purchasers might
use to search for your offering.
If you run Stress Management courses and programmes, what other
search phrases might a prospective client be using to find a solution to
their 'issue'. How about 'wellbeing', 'well-being', 'workplace
wellness', 'coping', 'health and safety', etc, etc. There is not limit
to what you can put in your description; be descriptive.
In the next article I will go into why you should be adding resources
to your profile and how this can be used for lead generation.
If there is anything else you would like to know about what the
Association is doing to benefit its members please feel free to contact us.
