Started planning your training for 2010 yet?

We have just completed our review of our 2009 year in training and want to share some of the trends we have noticed to help you in planning and forecasting your training and training needs in 2010.

Hot Themes
Leadership and leadership topics continue to be a strong theme into 2010, but we our noticing leadership training is more often being offered at all levels in the organization and there is more of a focus on building future leaders from within. Project management training had another good year last year and again we forecast it to be a big theme for training in 2010 - our clients seem to be moving away from bringing full Project Management training programs in house and instead are focusing on shorter duration, more intensive, applied project management training using real examples from their workplaces.

The economy last year saw a spike in the requests we received for team building and conflict resolution as people were being asked to do more with less and were feeling the fall out themselves from the rough economy. We also saw organizations wanting to invest more in building or rearranging their existing teams rather than taking on Te expense of hiring new team members. We also saw an increase in Customer Service training requests - both of these trends are expected to continue to 2010. Customer Service training is one of the hottest themes we have going into the New Year.

Best Dates
February and October are by far the busiest months for training as both public and private clients fill their calendars. In fact if you are looking to book training dates with us in February 2010, contact us soon! Several of our clients are closing or slowing operations during the Olympics and using this time for staff training.

In 2009, we experienced the usual slower July and August as many organizations run with lower staff numbers in the summer. We also noticed a quieter June to coincide with the nicer weather we had. So, this year, we will be expanding our summer sale (same great quality at lower summer prices!) to include June too - a great chance to get your staff training at a budget conscious price. A limited number of June dates will be opened in May - take advantage now and reserve your June dates by the end of January to ensure you get the dates you want. No money down!

Length of Training
In 2009, we saw an increase in the number of requests for shorter duration training - 1/2 days or intensive 1 day sessions. Clients were (and we predict still will be) looking for high impact training that is engaging and interactive and can produce tangible change - in 1 day. Using our knowledge of brain-based learning and our in-house curriculum design expertise, we have modified many of our curriculums and delivery strategies to better meet this demand.

In 2010, we will also be adding a "Books for Breakfast" program where we will be hosting a monthly morning discussion on the trends in the latest books on business and how this information can be transferred back to participants own workplaces. If you would like a personal invite to our first Books for Breakfast session, send us an email to events@actraining.com and we will send you a voucher for free admission.

The future
The future looks bright for corporate training in 2010 and we are excited to be entering our 20th year in business. We are proud to share our lessons learned and remain optimistic about learning more!

Please feel free to contact us at Advance Corporate Training Ltd. at 604.521.5473 or visit our website at www.actraining.com. We are eager to be of service.

Happy holidays!

Janet Dean
President