What Is The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

The recticular activating system is an area of the brain responsible for regulating the arousal and sleep-awake transitions.  Well that’s really interesting isn’t it?  Not really? Well it can be because the RAS is a key element that enables you to reach your goals.

Imagine you are walking down a busy street in a city. You can hear cars, things bumping and banging people talking, some people shouting.  Your senses are being assailed by all of these things, yet for the most part you just filter it all out.  You pay attention to little of that noise because part of your recognises that it is nothing you need to be aware of.  Yet amongst all this noise and stimuli you suddenly hear the sound of your own name being called.  You turn and to your surprise there stands a friend that you haven’t seen for years.  How did you do it?  How did you manage to pick out your own name from the cacophony of sound all around you?  That was your RAS at work, bringing to your attention the relevant and important information that you need to know.

The RAS Filters Out What We Don’t Need to Know

Our lives are so busy and we are so over stimulated that it is essential for us to filter out a lot of what is going on around us or we would most likely go mad, but there are some crucial things that we need to pay attention to.  Like the sound of our name being called or the number of our flight being called over a public address. Your RAS acts as an executive secretary for your conscious mind, screening and filtering out extraneous information.  The RAS makes sure that only two kinds of information reach your conscious thinking in the moment.  Those are,  any threats to your safety and any information that may be of importance to you.

The RAS Helps You Achieve Your Goals

The natural part of the brain is exactly what you need when you are trying to work towards certain goals, because it’s the RAS that will allow the filters to be lifted so that you can see/hear information that is important in the execution of those goals.  Imagine for example you have been given an appraisal at work. During that appraisal it was mentioned that you could behave more assertively with colleagues.  You take this information to heart and make a mental note that you want to learn more about assertiveness.  A couple of days later while driving the car you hear a report about a new book that has come onto the market about the subject of assertiveness.  A few days later you hear some people talking about that book.  A few more days later and you are walking past a book shop where you see a big poster advertising that book.  You go in and purchase the book.   In simple terms what has happend is that you have given your RAS an instruction that this thing called assertiveness is important information and that you want to learn more about it.  Hey Presto! You filters let the information in, so what has previously been on the outer fringes of your perception is now more obvious to you.

Would You Like To Speed Up Your Goal Setting?

If you really want to speed up your goal setting here are two things you can do that will make a significant difference.

1. Write the goal down.  Have your heard of S.M.A.R.T targets.  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound.  If you write down you goal giving it a date for completion you are giving your brain a very definite target to work towards.
2. Use your imagination.  Visualise it.  See it, feel it, smell it, touch it…..use as many senses as you can.  Feel it as though you have it.  When you imagine it allow yourself to feel it emotionally as though you really do have that goal.  How would it feel if you already had that promotion.  What would driving that new car down a country lane on a nice sunny day really feel like to you.

Using these two simple tools of writing the goal down to concrete the goal in your mind and using your imagination and senses to visualise the goal as a reall thing you are giving yourself two very important boosts to begin making your goals your truth.

Would you like to start writing powerful goals that mean that you can start achieving some of those things you have been promising yourself for some time.  Look no further.  Our Goal Setting course can be done for just £5.99  or you can do the accredited course for £50

Download Free - Assertiveness Training

Assertiveness Training has a lot to do with how you establish personal boundaries for yourself and for others around you. Most people fall into three categories, the first being passive where they let people overcome their personal boundaries, the second being aggressive where they press their opinions and ideas home a little too enthusiastically. The third is assertive where they work to try to create a situation in which everybody feels as though they have got what they need.

Being Assertive Increases Self Confidence

Because is fosters co-operative relationships which are the key to success whether we are talking about partnerships, family or work.  

Why is being assertive a good for your health?

Which ever transactional stand point we choose to adopt has an effect on our physiology.  People who are passive tend to suffer with all sorts of physical complaints from headaches to rashes, just imagine this scenario, a colleague asks you to take on part of their work load because they are getting stressed,  you agree even though you have too much work on yourself at the moment.  It seems like it is the right thing to be seen to be doing, yet secretly you feel put upon, under appreciated.  You begin to harbour feelings of resentment and of being victimised.  It isn’t long before your stress levels begin to rise. Lets not forget though that consistently aggressive people tend to suffer with heart disease or stomach ulcers. One study of 1,305 men with an average age of 62 revealed that the angriest men were three times more likely to develop heart disease than the most placid ones. Aggressive people may think that they are being pro-active or enthusiastic and just showing leadership skills, but the Mayo Clinic points out that aggressive behaviour, in the long run, undermines and de-stablises relationships and causes a loss of trust and respect.  Eventually angry people get a reputation and then other people try to avoid them

How to be Assertive

 Being assertive is about standing up for your self  getting your voice heard and your needs met.  An assertive standpoint is about creating a situation in which all parties feel that they are respected and getting some, if not all, of their needs met.

What Is Assertiveness?

Assertiveness helps you to improve your confidence levels which in turn will improve your self esteem.  Wouldn’t it be great if you had supreme confidence?  How would your life change if your knew you have fabulous interview skills?

Get your own copy of this free book  on Assertive Training

Learners achieved a total of 177,200 NOCN Qualifications in 2009-10, of which 87,200 were NOCN QCF Qualifications according to a report recently published by Ofqual, the qualifications regulator.

There has been growth in the number of all Qualifications awarded but this is particularly significant for the NOCN QCF Qualifications from the previous year when 28,100 NOCN QCF Qualifications were awarded.

Commenting on the figures, Chris Assheton, CEO of OCN West Midlands Region said “It is pleasing that even in these challenging times for funding our centres are still finding ways to enable learners to access and achieve our Qualifications.  The increase in QCF Qualifications reflects the successful and timely move from the NQF over the last 2 years”.

NOCN awarded 11% of all QCF Qualification achievements in 2009-2010, second only to City and Guilds with 17%.

The Ofqual “Annual Qualifications Market Report”, Version 2, August 2011 is available from Ofqual, here.

We Offer NOCN Qualifications Distance Learning

As a centre accredited with NOCN Home Study UK  are pleased to be able to offer our personal development and information technology courses.  You can access all of your learning materials online so that you can study at home.  Our distance learning packages are fully supported by qualified and enthusiastic trainer/assesors who will be happy to keep in touch with you throughout the duration of your home study course.

Take a look at our courses in personal development and information technology

Some years ago I worked for a college that would deliver NVQ’s at a tremendous rate and in extraordinary numbers.  So extraordinary that in fact many of us began to question how it was possible for them to achieve the numbers they did.  At the time the expectation was that each assessor would achieve at least eighty learners NVQ’s against their targets.  Multiply eighty by one hundred and fifty staff and you can see how much money this college was making.  Then the average payout for an NVQ was about a thousand pounds.  Of course no one can argue with the concept that colleges are in business and in competition with one another for that business so I suppose how they conducted their business was up to them.

NVQ Assessors Finding Work Loads Stressful

The real sticking point came when some of us began to add things up. For example, if the guided learning hours for one NVQ was supposed to be ninety and each assessor had eighty learners each, that works out at seven thousand two hundred hours per year.  If you divide 7,200 hours between 37 hours (working week) you get 194 weeks.  Except everyone knows there are not 194 working weeks in a year. In fact in an academic year there are often only 42 weeks in the year since with holidays and statutory holidays the other ten weeks are vacation.  It doesn’t take much working out to see that some of those learners are not going to get the time and care that they need in order to get the full benefit of their qualification.

NVQ – Not Worth The Paper It’s Written On?

Around the time that I began thinking about moving on to pastures greener this particular college was thinking about increasing the number of achievements it wanted from its staff to 100 per year, which is IMHO nigh on impossible.  It was these demands that started people saying that an NVQ is not worth the paper it is written on.  In the community of NVQ learners and providers the joke was that NVQ stood for “not very qualified” or “no value qualification” Of course nowadays the bottom has fallen out of the NVQ market.  Train to Gain funding, which enabled some educational establishments to make a lot of money has withdrawn and in its place the emphasis is now on the Apprenticeship, the dangers though still remain the same, some providers will still try to push the Apprenticeships through at tremendous speed so that they can make their money.  This is why if you as an employer are thinking of taking on an apprentice, or you are a person thinking of entering the apprenticeship scheme you should ask some simple but very important questions to ensure that you get the best service a provider can offer.

NVQ – Ask The Right Questions.

Some establishments will still be tempted to give out certificates with out having the correct checks and balances in place that ensure that the learner has actually learned something, not just been observed once or twice and given a qualification on the strength of those observations alone.  So if you are about to embark on an Apprenticeship learning scheme I would advise that you take some time to ask some pertinent questions of the learning provider so that you can  aim to get the best level of training that you can.  Some of the questions you might like to ask are below.

How Many People Do Assessors Carry As A Case Load?

If you ask this question and the training provider tells you that assessors carry a case load of more than 40 you might want to consider how much quality time each learner is likely to get with the assessor/trainer.  A good rule of measurement for a QCF qualification is 10 Guided learning hours per credit.  A customer service level 2 Qualification carries about 350 GLH, if you add to that the 90 or so hours required of the technical certificate and then the 40 or so hours each for the Key Skills you can begin to see how having a case load of more than 40 or so can become an unmanageable task.  Carrying a case load of 40 learners giving approximately 2 hours per month to meetings and assessment time (when you factor in the setting of assessment plans, the compilation of handouts and resources and the travelling distance to cover)  is a manageable number. This is not to say that the only person guiding the learner has to be the assessor, this can also be done by a staff member sometimes referred to as a mentor.

According to the Data Service Guided Learning Hours are defined as

DEFINITION

1. Guided Learning Hours are defined as all times when a member of staff is present to give specific guidance towards the learning aim being studied on a programme.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

2. Guided Learning Hours include Lectures, Tutorials and
Supervised study, in, for example; Open Learning Centres and learning workshops.

3. It also includes time spent by staff assessing a learner’s achievements, for example in the assessment of competence for National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ’s).

4. It does not include time spent by staff in the day-to-day marking of assignments and homework where the learner is not present, nor does it include hours where supervision is of a general nature and is not specific to the study of Learners.

What Off The Job Training Is Provided?

SASE requirements stipulate that both on the job and off the job training and learning should be accounted for within the qualification.   You should ask the training provider what off the job training will be organised.  Either the establishment that you work for, or the training provider that is doing your Apprenticeship should make provision for you to do some off the job training relevant to your learning aim.  Off the job training can involved distance learning and home study as long as it can be verified, or it can mean going into the training establishment or college for some time to learn new skills or knowledge about a subject.

How Often Will I See My Trainer?

It’s crucial that you see your trainer on a regular basis, or at least you hear from your trainer every couple of weeks.  It has become more popular these days for trainers to work on a freelance self employed basis.  This can put quite a distance between those learning and those training.  However with the emergence of new technologies ways of coping with this distance are becoming more innovative so that some of the study and assessment can be done at home.

Distance Learning Using Technology

These days I tend to do my discussions with my learners using Skype or if they don’t have  Skype I use my mobile phone and record the discussion while we have it.  This way I can keep in regular contact with my learners throughout the programme. It helps to reduce the feeling of distance between those learning and myself and can make the study more interesting.  I find that my younger learners are also quite excited at the idea of using technology to advance their learning especially if it means that they can study a little from home and make faster progress.  It usually works out that I see them face to face once a month, we have a distance learning discussion once a month and I set them one written assignment once a month.  This way they are in contact with me three different times during a month keeping the momentum going.  I also prefer to use an electronic portfolio making the submission of evidence much easier for the learner and much quicker for the assessment and feedback.

Will I Need To Study From Home?

One of the things you should find out before you start the learning programme is “how much time do I need to study”? and “do I need to study from home”?  In other words is this a distance learning programme? In terms of an apprenticeship it should not be a home study course or a distance learning programme.  Your employer should be giving you adequate training as well as allowing your trainer/assessor access to you on a regular basis to discuss and assess your progress.  However your employer may feel that because they are giving you on going training and allowing access by your trainer that it is only fair that you do some of your study at home in your own time, showing a level of personal commitment to your own learning and development.  I think a good figure to work with in terms of how much time your will need to study and write up your assignments whether from home or in the workplace, if you are allowed,  is at least 2 hours per week.

How Long Will The Course Last?

If you are doing a level 2 Apprenticeship then you should allow for up to 12 months to complete your course.  A Level 3 Apprentice has up to 18 months to complete.  You can do it much earlier if you choose but this would depend on how much time you are able to study and whether you are committed to some home study.  It is also not a good idea to expect to submit your last assignment a couple of days before your finish date.  A portfolio has to be verified before it is submitted and a certificate is received. These processes can take a month or two so you should be looking to have gone the distance of your complete learning programme somewhere in the region of ten months for a level 2.

Summary.

In conclusion it is important that you discover how much contact time you will have with your assessor/trainer.  You will need to know how much off the job training you are going to receive and where and when it will be delivered. You need to know how much time you are expected to dedicate to your home study and whether or not your employer is going to allow you to study and complete some of your home work during your working hours.  You should ask if there is any off the job training and when and where this is likely to take place.  Ask your assessor if they are prepared to use technology to do some of the learning and training from a distance to help speed up the process. Find out if your trainer or employer has any books or training materials DVD’s etc; that you can also use to study from home.  The bottom line is that this is your Apprenticeship and with a few carefully targeted questions you can find out if the training on offer is going to give you a qualification that is valid, sufficient and authentic. As how long you have to do your course in and when the final submission is expected.

About Home Study UK

At Home Study UK we can offer a variety of learning opportunities.  Many of the courses we offer are based on the units of an NVQ.  The Information Technology modules are based around the e-skills standards which set the standards for all Awarding Bodies. This means that any unit you do with us is comparable to a unit in the iTQ suite.  The personal development units that we offer are based around the Employability suite of units for the NOCN ‘Progression’ qualification.  Many of these can also be mapped into a unit of an NVQ.   Although our courses are marketed as distance learning our combined experience of assessing and training means that we are appreciative of the importance of maintaining contact with our learning.  At Home Study we are dedicated to making sure that you have a pleasant and rewarding experience whether this is your first or one of many learning programmes you choose to embark on.

Do you remember Patch Adams, he was a Doctor in America that ‘discovered’ or at the time maybe only ‘believed’ that laughter was good for you.  In the North East of England there are actual ClownDoctors who visit childrens hospitals bringing much needed humour to the healing process.  Years ago there used to be a magazine that had jokes pages in it called “Laughter is the best medicine”.  So it has been known for a long time that laughter is good for your physically and emotionally even if mainstream medicine is reluctant to admit it.   Now we have evidence that laughter is actually good for you physically too.  When those electrical impulses power through the brain they set in motion a sequence of events that gives our body a good work out.

Laughter

• improves circulation to the brain the internal organs and the tissues of the body
• reduces blood pressure
• strengthens the immune system
• wards of respiratory complaints
• increases endorphin release into the body thereby helping to ward off pain
• encourages the body to relax.

Have you ever noticed too that a good laugh can sometimes turn into a good cry.

Laughing

• wards off depression
• ncourages muscles to release tensions and relax
• a belly laugh is the equivalent of internal jogging and stimulates the heart to beat faster and therefore helps to protect against heart disease.
• because it exercises the lungs laughing can also help to improve stamina.

Guy who cured himself of disease?

Courtsey Wikipedia

There is a story that has been turned into a film about the editor of the Saturday Review -  Norman Cousins called ‘Anatomy of an illness’ .  Cousins was found to have Ankylosing Spondylitus – a disease of the connective tissues in the body.  He was given only a few months to live when he took the decision, against his Doctor’s advice to move our of the hospital and into a hotel room where he underwent a kind of home crafted therapy of high doses of vitamin C and equally high doses of laughter.  Slowly he regained the use of his limbs.  He did a similar thing after suffering a heart attack in December 1980.   Cousins is obviously a man with extraordinary insight since he sensed that both his mind and his spirit each had a role to play in making his body well again.  A forward thinking man Cousins gave lectures in which he stated that “….very serious illness can be caused by ideas, by emotions, and by attitudes.

Have you ever thought you might take yourself too seriously?

Perhaps we take ourselves a bit too seriously.  As a teenager I remember a fellow worker used to say to me “don’t worry about life, because you will never get out of it alive”.  I always found the humour in this statement quite useful and appropriate at times when things seemed to be getting painfully serious.  Although if you have ever read the Illusions The Reluctant Messiah you will be familiar with this quote “Laughing on the way to your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life-forms, and they’ll call you crazy.”
- Richard Bach, Illusions

Do we laugh less because we are getting older, or do we get older because we laugh less?

It’s reported that children laugh as many as 300 to 400 times per day before they are teenagers and teenagers laugh twice as much as adults do.  Have you ever wondered why that is?  I it because we reach a level of cynicism by the time we are in our 50′s  humour just gets replaced with sarcasm. I would say having a sense of humour requires a certain child like view point on life.  Perhaps it is something we should all try to develop. It certainly appears that those people who can carry on  laughing at them selves and at life into their later years look happier and healthy and they probably are physically healthier too.

How do you create more laughter in your life?

There are a variety of ways to create more opportunities to laugh.  Watching a comedy film or programme can give some people a humour relief from life.  Others like things like laughter groups  or laughter yoga.  Just moving your body around in a good way can result in laughter.  Learning to dance is a wonderfully uplifting activity and bound to create a fair bit of laughter if you get the steps wrong.  If dancing isn’t your thing just taking a brisk walk can raise your spirits and lead to a good laugh.  A pet is often a source of amusement if you have the time and money to get one.

Laughter comes in different sizes?

There is all kinds of laughter, there’s the chortle, the titter, the twitter, the guffaw,  the belly laugh, the bellow the cackle, the tee-hee and the snicker and probably a few that I havn’t mentioned here.  Laughter is the deepest, ;urest and oldest form of communication. It is the manifestation of a thought or feeling.  Laughter acts like a release valve allowing the pressure in the body to manifest itself through physical expression.

Would you like a good laugh now?

Ask yourself this question, when was the last time you had a really good laugh?  You know the kind I mean.  The kind that makes your face and stomach muscles ache and make the tears run down your face.  Where were you, what were you doing, what was being said or done, who were you with?  Spend a few moments relaxing with your eyes closed and imagine as vividly as you can that you are right back there again, having the same experience all over again.  Did you laugh?  Why not let us know by writing a comment.

Endsleigh Insurance

Students are one of the biggest victims to theft crime, mainly due to the fact that opportunists know that the average student carries with them a lot of high tech gadgets. The modern students room in fact contains an assortment of expensive gadgets in the shape of pricey laptops, state of the art mobile phones, iPods, iPads, CD players, sound systems, straighteners, CDs and a lot of other on trend gadgets.

If these were to unfortunately disappear, the average students budget certainly wouldnt cover a replacement of everything. This is why all sensible students should invest in a good insurance policy. Endsleigh know that students require something that will cover all their belongings yet still offers a cover that doesnt cost the earth! This is why they have put their 40 years of experience into an insurance cover that allows students piece of mind, but also wont break the bank!

Getting student insurance with Endsleigh means students only pay solely for the cover they require, there are no added extras to consider or hidden expenses. Students are also insured for walk in theft, which is good news for those that live in shared accommodation as lots of people seem to be going in and out at all times. All students seem to have a laptop these days and without one, writing up essays, designing projects and creating presentations would be near impossible. This is why Endsleigh boast to replace your stolen laptop with a new one within 24 hours of reporting the theft. Students are also entitled to £3000 worth of contents insurance cover, which means they can worry a little less about the safety of all their prized gadgets. They will also receive a replacement loan item for anything that is being repaired, allowing them to get on with the things they enjoy.

Whenever someone makes a complaint about bullying they are always up against a stereo type that can make proving their case rather difficult.  You see for the most part when people think about a bully they think in terms of someone who is hitting other people.  The stereo type of the school yard bully is usually that they are bigger than the other kids and wanting to steal their lunch pack or dinner money and that they are not the sharpest pencil in the box. The truth is that bullies can be far more sophisticated than that.  While I’m not denying that this sort of bully does exist what I am saying is that there is a very different kind of bully in our midst that is much harder to pin point and therefore much more dangerous. This is the bullying phenomena now known as relational aggression.

What we need to do is update our image of the sterotypical bully because research has shown that less than 1% of children in school deploy these kind of physical bullying tactics and if truth be known most of those who try to bully others have themselves been bullied at some time. Whereas relational or covert bullying is on the increase fuelled in part by the technology that is now readily available to even the youngest of children.

What is relational aggression?

Relational aggression is behaviour intended to manipulate.  It is the kind of calculated move that is intended to exercise control over the subject that it is directed towards.  Relational aggression is intended to hurt and isolate the target.  The purpose of this manipulation and control is to prevent the target from developing meaningful relationships with other people, it harms the individual by preventing rapport with others in their peer group.  It is a form of covert bullying designed to damage the social status of the target.  The term relational aggression was first coined by the University of Minnesota researchers Nicki R. Crick and Jennifer K. Grotpeter.

The problems with relational aggression

One of the first problems with relational aggression is to actually spot it happening. Unlike the traditional image of schoolyard bullying this covert style of bullying usually takes place between peer groups and friends (sic)  is most likely to be taking place during times when youngsters are less supervised; during break times or before or after shool. It is also considered by many to be simply ‘normal’ teenage behaviour that is just part of the toughening up process of maturing into adulthood.

Advice for Parents

If you are inclined to think that relational aggression is nothing more than a passing phase that if ignored will go away then don’t be tempted to rationalise this problem so quickly.  Those who are exposed to this form of mental torture suffer greatly.  Who can forget the horrifying picturs of the massacre carried out by Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris at their Colorado high school.  While the world looked on stunned and disbelieving some people began to ask the question. Why? What could possibly have happened to these two seemingly normal young men to make them take the lives of  fourteen of their class mates before turning the guns upon themselves and ending their short and tragic lives.  As the answers began to emerge who but those with the hardest of hearts could not appreciate the emotional turmoil these young men endured while a vile and protracted form of  aggression was wreaked upon them daily under the noses of the authorities that were supposed to protect them.

Spot the signs of relational aggression

If your son or daughter is being bullied in this way then you may put the signs down to usual teenage defiance.  The signs to look for in your child are.

• An increase in hostility or aggression. Yes people who are being messed with emotionally tend to become emotional
• Frequent bouts of depression or low mood. Hard to spot in a teenager I know.
• Signs of low sociability.  Losing interest in close friends; avoiding social contact, isolating themselves from family
• Becoming manipulative with friends or family (usually instigated by abuser)
• A drop in normal habits of performance. Lower grades at school. Getting into trouble with after school job.  Reluctance to do homework or chores.
• Self harming (not easy to detect as it is usually hidden away)
• Poor self esteem or self image

In what forms do these bullying tactics appear?

By their very nature the bullying tactics used by these manipulators are covert and clever.  Make no mistake those who use these behaviours are by no means stupid or clumsy.  In fact they are likely to be people from a good socio/economic background; intelligent and capable in school,  as well as being popular with others in their peer group.  These are not your high school drop outs, more likely these are the kids that are headed for the boardrooms of the future.  These tactics take on many guises but things to watch out for are.

• Spreading malicious gossip
• Soliciting a piece of personal information and then abusing that trust
• Snide remarks about the persons dress sense
• Instructing others to ignore an individual
• Excluding the child from social gatherings
• Name calling
• Ostracising
• Public humiliations such as distributing video clip by phone
• Using social media to spread rumour, gossip or lies
• Physical pushing and shoving

These may at first glance seem fairly harmless activities but the reality is that the effects of relational aggression can be lifelong and devastating.  Those subjected to this form of violence often move from job to job. This is often due to that fact that incidents of workplace bullying mimic those of the child hood bullying experience and are just too much for the individual  to take.  Those who have been bullied can suffer from psychological problems termed PTSD Complex.   Sometimes they will have difficulty in forming long lasting and meaninful relationships.  They are likely to have an increased likelihood of depression and a much increased likelihood of suicide in people who have experienced bullying

How to combat relational aggression

• Listen to what you child is telling you.  Don’t be too quick to dismiss their story as teenage angst or school kid stuff.
• Investigate further.  Discreetly try to find out if any of your childs friends are also experiencing bullying in school. Make sure that you don’t sound like you are accusing them of being part of it, even if you suspect they are.  It is the ring leader you are looking for.
• Make the school aware that something is going on but ask them to keep their eye on it and only intervene if it becomes overtly obvious.
• Reassure your child that they are a worthwhile person.  Help them to develop their confidence and belief in themselves.
• Encourage them to join other groups where they can develop independant relationships.

Emjoy reading Bullied By the Boss. If you are experiencing work place bullying hopefully this blog will help brighten your day.  also don’t forget to check out our Free Workplace Bullying course

For example, for some people the idea of personal development might mean that they become more friendly, easier to approach, less aggressive.  On the other hand someone else might believe that developing themselves personally could mean that they become more assertive, less amenable, not spend their lives cleaning up other peoples messes.

The Opportunities For Personal Development Are Endless.

When one person thinks of personal development they may think about doing a new course that will help them to improve on their practical skills.  Someone else might believe that it means having a detox or cleansing ritual in which they rid themselves of clutter or the past.  Yet still more people might think that selling up and travelling the world is necessary for them to work on their personal development.  What’s certain about personal development is that many people want to do it and those who do, do it, feel good about themselves for having done it.

What do you get from Personal Development?

For the most part people get into the mood to develop themselves because they consider there is something missing from them or their lives.  For many people the idea of personal development is centred around a concept of self discovery, a concept that is as old as mankind himself but which was brought back in to the consciousness of main stream society by proponents of psychoanalysis namely Freud and Jung.

We each of us in our way believe that it is things outside of us that make us happy; for example many of us strive for a better job or a better house or street to live in.  We acquire cars that are newer and better; we aspire to have or be more than we are at this moment in time. In order to move from where we are towards where we want to be we have to change things, improve things, learn new things.  This movement or change inevitably requires us to make demands upon ourselves, to do things which previously we did not think we were able to do. To develop our confidence and self belief we have to gain mastery over some new skill or situation, or put an end to an old situation.  This is the concept of personal or self development.

Why do people feel better for personal development?

Because usually learning something new or trying a different approach involves a certain amount of risk taking.  There is always the thought of failure that stops some people from trying something new.  I can’t help remembering Einstein’s thoughts on this subject. “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.  Put into today’s vernacular “if you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got”. So what’s a good reason for taking a risk?  Simple!  Because the feeling of exhilaration we get from having taken a risk and survived is breathtaking. I’m not talking about betting all your money on a horse race or packing your bags and travelling around the world on the off chance that people will take you in and treat you charitably.  I’m talking about the risk to take a maths test or try to lose some weight or do some public speaking, none of which are life threatening things. Believe me, that feeling of discovering that you were not stupid after all or that you could make people laugh or that you were not addicted to something you thought you were, these are wonderful feelings. Feelings which if you want to you can begin to experience right now.

Beat Procrastination

The challenge is not just in achieving the skill or the knowledge of a new learning programme but in some cases making the decision on which programme to begin with.  If that is the case with yourself then I will tell you that there is no such thing as a wrong decision.  It may seem trite but the truth is “there is no failure, there is only feedback”.  In cases like these any change is going to affect things.  Don’t personal development guru’s having a saying. “If you want to see a change, make a change”. There is the honest truth. If you don’t know what to do, do anything. Anything that changes your routine even if it is simple as getting you to walk down a different street will make a change because of the phenomena of cause and effect.  Everything you do affects every thing that you do. Once these things begin to change you can then begin to consider some goals to set. There is a phenomena in goal setting known as the reticular activating system which alerts your brain to things that help you to develop the goal. You can learn much more about the phenomena if you purchase my course Goal Setting.

Are you ready for a challenge?

The question is not which skill will you develop in order to bring the good times your way but WHEN will you start to enter into a period of personal development to move yourself closer to you goals.  Whether or not you chose to do any of the courses that are available here or whether you attend a college course you have already acknowledged that some changes need to be made or you probably wouldn’t be reading this.  What will it be?  Will you develop your time management skills or your interpersonal skills?  Will you undertake to learn a particular applications within the Microsoft Office Suite, Excel, Word, Power Point?  Will you conquer your phobia of blood or public speaking? The point is,  there is no time like the present. Procrastinating and putting things off only serves to make you feel tired and fed up.  “If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it.” ~Olin Miller – So why not start now.  The ways in which you could develop yourself is large.  There is a list of courses you can choose from here on this site.  We even recommend some personal development books for you to read.  You can even access our online coaching sessions to help you set some goals and make decisions that will help you move on with your life.  Whether or not you choose one of our personal development courses or do a college course, Begin it now and act as if you cannot fail – Dorothea Brand ……and if none of these suite you why not bookmark us or use your RSS Feed to keep yourself informed of new course.  I feel I am in the mood to write some level three courses in Personal Development starting right now.

Jayne Williams – Biography

Cert Ed – Cognitive Behavioural Therapist, Hypnotherapist, Coach, Teacher.

Jayne Williams runs several businesses all interlinked with health and wellness.  Her busy therapy practice in leafy Shropshire keeps her alert alongside her teaching and writing work.  She delivers courses in personal development and confidence building while helping clients with a wide range of issues from phobic responses to job enhancement.

How is your employment status at the moment?  Have you lost your job? Are you about to? Or are you hanging in there by the skin of your teeth.  Do you ever dream about getting your perfect job?  Whatever your answer to these questions one of the things that will raise your profile in the workplace is showing that you are working on developing your personal skills. Take a look at the image below to see exactly what employers are looking for now!

Get a Good Fit With the Employer

It’s clear that employers are looking for self motivated people who are willing to learn.   Whether improving your interpersonal skills or your IT skills just by doing any course you will be proving to your employer that you want your job and that you are prepared to improve yourself in order to keep your job. Personal Development is always worth the money you spend on it.  But if you do our courses they are accredited to the national standard, which means that not only are you taking a personal interest in developing your self, but you are also taking away a qualification that will map into other qualifications in the Curriculum Framework.

What employers look for

Personal Development

It’s clear that employers are looking for self motivated people who are willing to learn.   Whether improving your interpersonal skills or your IT skills just by doing any course you will be proving to your employer that you want your job and that you are prepared to improve yourself in order to keep your job. Personal Development is always worth the money you spend on it.  But if you do our courses they are accredited to the national standard, which means that not only are you developing your self, but you are also taking away a qualification that will map into other qualifications in the Curriculum Framework.

Whether you are looking for a job, wanting a promotion or just need to prove that you are worth keeping in your present job then nothing flags up self motivated better than being able to tell prospective employers that you have taken the initiative to learn new skills and become more self aware. How much better it would sound if you could tell your employer you were actually willing to invest in yourself by paying for the course yourself.

Courses at reasonable costs

Wouldn’t it be great if you could do all that without it costing you the earth.  What better route can there be to self improvement than by doing a course online?  A course that is delivered on line, is tutored online, and is assessed online. Well here you have it! In this one place, on this website you can access courses for your personal development and IT that will rocket your chances of increased and improved employment.  The big advantage of having all your learning materials online and being able to communicate with your tutor online is that you can do our courses from the comfort of your own home and in your own time.

Our Personal Development courses start from just £5.99 If it is just basic IT Skills that will get you started in the world of Information Technology our courses start at £15.  On top of all of that we also offer IT Skills in all the Microsoft Office Packages starting from as little as £40.

• Word Processing
• Excel Spreadsheets
• Access Database
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Outlook Email

It is never too late to begin a programme of personal development no matter what age you are.  The world of Information Technology is always developing which means that we all need to brush up on our computer skills. In addition to that the workplace is becoming more and more competitive which means that those people with the winning edge will be those who can demonstrate that they have the attitudes and behaviours of team working. You will need to have excellent interpersonal skills to deal with the demands of every day work.  Start now!