Best companies realize that only through effectively and continuously developing and training their employees can they acquire the core competencies needed for competitive advantage and flexibility. In addition, these companies are realizing the benefits of self-development by encouraging a work habit of reflection and learning. In these companies, learning is built around action rather than theory. Instead of learning about strategic planning or marketing, participants develop a strategic plan or a marketing proposal for their own department.

The most effective training and development programs today have the following features incorporated:

1. Strategy driven: All training and development programs cascade down from the overall strategic goals. No programs are developed and implemented unless they produce results that are identified as critical to the strategy or business initiatives. There should be explicit alignment between programs, learning objectives, and business objectives.

2. Positive cost/benefit ratio: Training today is not only strategically linked, but is also subject to the same measurements as every other business activity. It must show a return on the investment, either in the long term or the short term. Best companies now realize that many training and development initiatives take years to fully achieve their goals. These timeframes, however, are identified up front, where possible, and the programs evaluated at that point.

3. Supported by key strategies, systems, structures, policies, and practices: Organizations that receive a true return on their learning investments ensure that learning is aligned with and directly supported by key areas such as organizational structures, lines of authority, decision making, values, planning, budgeting, career development, information sharing, compensation, performance management, rewards and recognition, staffing, recruiting, and succession planning. These direct links help to both set boundaries and reinforce desired results.

4. Driven through many channels: Leading organizations investigate and utilize multiple modalities such as the classroom, workplace, blended learning, eLearning, technology support tools, and co-workers to ensure that people get the right skills at the right time, in the right way, and at the right cost to succeed. Modalities are selected to match specific learning styles, business issues, budgets, and cultures.

5. Maximize employee ability and potential through shared accountability: Best companies are tapping the ability and potential of their employees through self-directed training and development. Employees are encouraged to identify their own needs, create individual learning plans, and to seek learning opportunities. Depending upon the kind of culture an organization is trying to create, the responsibility falls on the individual, his/her boss, his/her peers, and the organization. Training strategies are aimed at knowledge retention and transfer to the workplace, enabling employees to be more effective and to acquire more skills.

6. Work-related training: Knowledge and skills that are acquired through training and development programs are relevant and useful, both to the organization and to the individual’s work requirements. Employees only participate in programs that will add to their current and future work effectiveness and that will contribute to organizational success.

7. Learning by doing: Best companies are training their employees by having them perform “real” tasks and projects in a training environment and on-the-job. Rather than teaching theory and expecting employees to apply it to their own work, these companies are enabling employees to learn in their own way, and often at their own pace, through assignments that closely resemble their own work.

8. Transferability of knowledge and skills back to the job: One of the most important elements of best practice training [http://www.lsaglobal.com/about/Training-Best-Practices.asp] and development is that it is easily transferred back to the workplace. This is achieved through the timing of the training, the quality of the content, and the quality and appropriateness of the delivery method. Another crucial element to this transferability is the maintenance of the new skill or knowledge once training has been completed. Skills and knowledge that are not used constantly will quickly atrophy.

9. Linked to other people-related programs and departments: Best companies do not train their employees in a vacuum. In many instances, training is now conducted by line managers, who also perform evaluations, set performance objectives, and draft compensation and promotion systems for the same employees. Even where the training is designed and delivered by a specific function or department, the programs respond not only to organizational needs, but also to individual needs as identified through appraisals, counseling meetings, assessments, and career development plans.
10. Continuous learning process: To drive lasting change in behaviors and habits, best companies ensure that learning occurs before, during, and after scheduled learning events. The process of doing, reflecting, learning, and doing again never ceases.

About LSA Global

Since 1995, LSA has helped organizations create and maintain distinct competitive advantages through human capital. We work with leading organizations to drive success through their people and the strategies, structures, systems, and processes that attract, inspire, develop, and retain top talent. Our solutions focus on the areas of:

- Sales Revenue Growth

- Leadership and Management Performance

- Project Management Performance

- Human Resource Performance

- Strategy Execution and Transformation

- Customer Service, Satisfaction, and Loyalty

We believe our clients’ success in the marketplace is realized through increased revenue, decreased costs, and higher productivity.

We are fiercely devoted to the success of our clients and proud that over 85% of our business comes from repeat business with satisfied clients and that we have a 97%+ customer satisfaction rating. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tris_Brown

Classroom Instruction: It is the cornerstone of all business training and development – it is very effective and conducive to almost any topic. By allowing learners, or “human capital” (the newest buzz word for people) to interact with the instructor, students are enabled to ask questions and receive immediate answers from the instructor. Likewise, the instructor can facilitate group activities or discussions to get creative juices flowing. Learners have the advantage of being in an environment that allows peer-to-peer counsel, providing the opportunity for people to draw on each other’s experience. Overall, classroom instruction is clearly an effective way to train and educate your management, staff, investors and even your customers.

However, there are drawbacks. Classroom training is typically expensive, thereby impacting your operating expense dramatically. Even more difficult is trying to quantify the costs of the classroom training in relation to the benefits gained. In fact, it is so difficult to track, that many companies do not even attempt to monitor the expense or control the costs. It is important to remember that there is a lot more associated with in- person training than just the salary of your training staff. There are costs involved in procuring/producing training materials, costs of developing and maintaining a training facility, as well as travel and hotel expenses of employees who come from out of town for training. But perhaps the biggest and hardest to measure cost is that of reduction in productivity while your employees are seated in the classroom.

Internet or On-line Training: Internet training is gaining momentum. It is running a close second behind classroom training. As the business world continues to evolve and integrate more technology and fast pace business applications, the value of the online training solution becomes more and more apparent. On-line products can deliver training without the traditional associated expenses of classroom instruction. It can allow associates to complete training on their own time and you lose less in productivity. On-line training is a more effective distribution method for certain types of training and it opens up a global marketplace and outlet for training materials, which your company has already produced. On-line training is certainly the future and will continue to become more interactive and allow for more self-paced learning applications. It is a great option, allowing you to reach a larger audience for less!

Manuals & Reference Guides: This is good old self-study, a tried and true method that will likely be around forever. We will never lose the need to document all the various processes and methods utilized in our businesses and we will always need a clearing- house for these materials. Examples of this genre of training range from “New Hire” pamphlets to “Employee Handbooks” and desk reference manuals. These guides are an important part of initial and continuing training and should be maintained in a readily accessible, well organized form such as a physical library or an online catalog/database.

Some company libraries will include training aids contained in nontraditional media such as video and web-casts. While these are very effective ways to train on certain systems or processes, they are also typically the more expensive ways of distributing information to learners. Most companies do not have a media engineer or video production expert on staff, but don’t worry and don’t rush out such persons, as there are alternatives. Today, authoring tools are making it easy for company management or trainers to produce high quality multimedia training aids. Anyone who is competent with powerpoint can produce a visually impressive presentation without having to be a media professional and without having to learn to write complicated programming code. These authoring tools also allow your business unit leaders to manage and produce their own internal training without having to get IT involved in the entire training project.

Training management: This can be a large and daunting task depending upon the size of your organization. How do you track the progress of learners? How many different ways is ongoing education being managed in your organization within different business units? Is one type of training being produced, provided, tracked and maintained one way, and other training in a completely different manner?

My advice to you is: Invest in a Learning Management System (LMS)! These systems allow you to track and manage all of the blended training mentioned above with the click of a mouse. It is a must have for any company using numerous delivery methods to facilitate training.

A LMS can be installed on your own servers or hosted remotely. Installed systems on your servers allow your IT department to manage problems, but hosted systems allow you to basically rent space on the vendor’s server without the IT hassles. Both installed and hosted systems allow you to manage the content, users, and information. The major difference between the two systems is who is responsible for performing the maintenance. The costs vary between the two methods and you must decide which solution works best for your business.

I bet you’re thinking an LMS sounds wonderful, but very expensive? Well quite the opposite is true depending on how you look at your ROI for training management. Remember, to compare the LMS to traditional methods. Remember we have already established that classroom training is expensive and it is difficult to place figures on the costs. To really determine how much your training program is costing and benefiting you, an extensive audit would be needed (and this involves even more expense). For the sake of blending it all together, we will review and analyze two expense scenarios – one demonstrating a non-effective training program and the other exhibiting an effective blended training program:

Training Program with Opportunity Areas:

Company ABC: Insurance Company

Training needs: Sales training, Claims training, Leadership training, Customer Service training.

Current training program deliver methods:

Classroom training / Training Emails.

Current training management system:

Paper / Claims has a database

Current training staff:

Sales has 1 trainer per 60 remote offices (avg 2 agents) / Claims has 1 trainer per 189 adjusters

Customer Service has 1 trainer per 550 reps / Leadership training is facilitated by 2 trainers for 300 employees.

Manuals and libraries:

Each department has their own method / Some departments have 4 or 5 different places to access manuals / Each sales location has 1 manual / HR department has an online information site to access some employee benefits information as well as some sales agent information

-VS-

Effective Blended Training Program:

Company DEF: Security Company:

Training needs: Safety training, Policies training, Leadership training, Investigations training.

Current training program deliver methods:

Classroom training (initial 4 week program) / On the job training (shadowing 1 week) / Online internal training to facilitate enhanced company procedures / Step by step guides and manuals (centrally posted and accessible from anywhere on secure network) / Online training program through vendors for investigation techniques, continuing education and enhanced corporate training (including HR) / Testing path and progression program (online interactive testing) / Online and classroom leadership training along with succession plan evaluations / Classroom Leadership training (quarterly – by vendor service) / Training Emails.

Current training management system:

Hosted through a secure network. Each district training manager monitors, updates and manages the employees in their region. Track pass/fail rates and quality of the training they develop through an interactive easy to use authoring tool. Back up everything on paper quarterly to submit to HR department on compliance.

Current training staff:

Corporate Security has 1 trainer per 50 employees / Community Security has 1 trainer per 50 employees / Industrial Security has 1 trainer per site / Home office has 2 instructional designers for course development / One trainer travels and does worksite / job duty analysis / One trainer develops courses through an authoring tool and posts to a hosted LMS. Both of these trainers manage access to all online training and assist the training manager with other duties.

Manuals and libraries:

Each department has their own access to all digital manuals posted online and all manuals are posted on this one site. Home office has a physical library room with all training, reference and legal information organized in a catalog system. Each location has an emergency manual as well as company contacts and procedures

As you can see, a well-developed, blended training program makes a great deal of sense and can have a very large impact on your company’s productivity and success in today’s business environment. A key factor in a successful training program is an LMS, which gives you greater flexibility and real-time management of your training needs.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_M_Hull

In the effort to meet No Child Left Behind mandates as well as to increase performance through corporate training and development, how to make students or participants learn continues to vex highly trained educators and professional facilitators. From my 25 plus years of experience in business and education, I have come to accept and believe in these 10 Universal Laws of Learning.

Universal Learning Law #1 -

Learning is an innate desire within ALL human beings. To ignore this first law of learning is what makes any student disengage themselves from the learning environment.

Universal Learning Law #2 -

Learning is multi-dimensional for ALL human beings. We have numerous senses from which to learn.

Universal Learning Law #3 -

Learning is an ongoing process for ALL human beings. Learning should never be an event, but a continuum.

Universal Learning Law #4-

Learning is a separate behavior from performance. Learning is the acquisition of knowledge. Performance is the application of knowledge.

Universal Learning Law #5 -

Learning needs to be relevant to each individual based upon his or her existing experiences or schema. Bordeom is a symptom of this law.

Universal Learning Law #6 -

Learning is a bridge between new information and the students’ or participants’ existing schema. The goal is to build the strongest and most flexible bridge possible.

Universal Learning Law #7 -

Each learning objective requires a one to one correspondence to each testing statement to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. Do not play “gotcha” with your students.

Universal Learning Law #8 -

Learning is delivered in short sessions to allow time for interaction between students or participants.

Universal Learning Law #9 -

Learning must avoid the “Osmosis Factor” where a presumption exists that the students or participants will acquire certain knowledge and skills without direct instruction.

Universal Learning Law #10 -

The brain will only absorb what the butt will endure.

Possibly, these 10 Universal Laws of Learning will help you improve your own professional development, your school or your organization.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leanne_Hoagland-Smith

Have you ever stopped to consider how you know what you know? In reality, you think, say, and do what you do because of what you have learned. Obviously, there have been some good lessons, some not-so-good ones, and even some lessons you seem to keep re-learning.

So what is going on when you learn? There are many words and metaphors for the idea of learning. We can talk about knowledge, ideas, information, wisdom, intelligence, IQ, street smarts, on-the-job training,
real-life experience, formal/informal learning, high school and college, and let’s not forget about the school of hard knocks. To me, knowledge is like a seed that you plant. If you value the learning process, you will plant your ideas and ask your questions with positive attention and conscious intention. You will enjoy watching your tiny seed grow into a big tree that continues to grow and branch out for an entire lifetime. You will get excited when you see new sprouts and connections burst forth.

I love learning, always have, always will. So much so, that my company name and logo is “Get Smart!” with a man and a woman reading a book under the tree of knowledge & wisdom. I am always surprised to learn that others don’t have the same desire to “get smart” as I do!
I believe that it is easier for people to stay in the comfort zone of “I already know everything I need to get by” rather than to develop the beginner’s mind of “I don’t know much about this but I am willing to learn.” You can easily look at someone’s lifestyle and see the person who has adopted the “lifelong learning” mind-set—they are more fulfilled, successful, and alive.

The truth is all human beings have an innate desire to learn and grow and stretch their minds, bodies, and souls, it’s just some people choose to make it more of a priority than others. Marie Evans said that,
“Learning is the jewel casting brilliance into the future.” Something newly learned is a beautiful and bright (albeit invisible) thing to behold and truly does change the course of our lives. What follows are the six stages of learning. Think of something you are now learning and find out which stage you are in.

Stage 1

Awareness

In the first stage, you take notice of the concept/idea because it raises your interest. You probably received the information from reading or hearing about it.
For example, when you first heard about the internet, you probably had a vague notion of what it might be, but had no direct experience with it.

Stage 2

Comparison

In the second stage, you often seek to compare it with something else you know something about. This helps you to categorize and place it logically. When you learned of the internet, you probably compared it with other forms of technology or communications as a means of filtration and organization.

Stage 3

Exploration

In the third stage, you begin to play around with the concept/idea. You try it on for size in your mind to
see if and where it fits. When you first went online to explore this thing called the internet, you began by “playing” with it, not taking it too seriously, in an effort to make the learning more enjoyable.

Stage 4

Application

In the fourth stage, you want to see how it applies to your own life. You start to do things with the information, such as write, talk, take a class, or somehow experience it. Now when you go on the internet, you are navigating to find useful information for your life.

Stage 5

Integration or Rejection

In the fifth stage, you either integrate or reject the original concept/idea. If you find the new knowledge useful, you will integrate it into your every day life. Again, if you found the internet valuable, you will be motivated to use it and integrate it. If not, you will decide to stop the learning process.

Stage 6

Creation

In the last stage, you have now developed additional insights about the original idea, and have a need to add, delete, or create something new based on your own storehouse of knowledge. For instance, you are now an internet afficienado, and decide to develop a software that allows people to make commissions from other people’s products or enables them to share their daily “blog.”

The term “”knowledge-based economy” is popular right now, and in today’s constantly changing world, a key to success is no doubt the ability to learn. Because those who keep learning, keep earning and keep living happy and interesting lives. Mark Twain once said,”There is no security in life, only opportunity.”
That being true now more than ever, the only real security we can give ourselves is a reserve of knowledge, experience, abilities, and a willingness to be a student of life, a person open to the awe of the world and who desires to learn something new every day.

Note the distinction about learning and learned. The learned person feels he has completed the course. The learning person knows that she is still in process. There is also a distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is about thinking, studying, and regurgitating someone else’s thoughts. Wisdom is about observing, reflecting, and absorbing your own thoughts and ideas. True wisdom is applying what you have learned and learning through every life experience.
A Chinese proverb makes this very clear about learning, “To obtain knowledge, add things every day. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” The smart student knows when to let old ideas and information go, to consciously delete them in order to make room for the current ideas.
Just think about how internet dial-up is fast becoming a thing of the past and is being replaced with DSL. That is because someone thought of a better, faster way of doing the same thing. New ideas come and go as quickly as night and day. It will be the people who can take their creative ideas and go for it, who will succeed in our over-informed world. Know this. Knowledge will make you smart, but experience will make you wise. Remember—it is only through learning and growing that you can become wise—and it is a journey that you must take for yourself—it is not something that can be taught by someone else.

Michelle L. Casto holds a Ph.D and is known as the Soul Diva Coach, Speaker, and Author of the Get Smart! Learningbook Series. She knows that there is a light inside of every human being waiting to be activated and it is her mission to learn, so she can share what she has learned with others on the spiritual journey. Her coaching practice is Brightlight Coaching, she helps people come up with bright ideas for their life and empowers them to freely shine their bright light to the world. Visit http://www.smartlifechanges.com to receive your free special report, You Can Transform Your Life Now. Contact her for a complimentary coaching session: michelle@brightlightcoach.com or Visit virtually:

She has authored 3 books and a dozen workbooks on life empowerment topics. Her coaching practice is Brightlight Coaching, she helps people come up with bright ideas for their life and empowers them to freely shine their bright light to the world.Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michelle_L._Casto

Introduction

One of the techniques available whereby the variety of abilities in a group can be enhanced and constantly been widened is through the process of paired learning. However, not only does this method gives recognition to the fact that one learner has the right to be better than the other, the poorer learner also benefits and develops quicker as the method requires the active involvement of each learner. Further, as more information becomes accessible to learners within institutions of higher learning and without the aid of these institutions, it is required of professional educators in higher education to work more indirectly as a manager of effective learning rather than focusing on the traditional roles of teaching and instruction. This is done in the realization that the overall quality of learning can be improved if learners have the opportunity to clarify, question, apply, and consolidate new knowledge.

The ability to discriminate between students, involve them in and let them contribute to the learning process, and allow them to source from both internal and external learning information, though necessary preconditions for learning success, does not necessarily guarantees success. A more important matter to consider in paired learning is how to make the stated concepts matter to all students and educators involved in the process and to utilize the process in an innovative manner in order to enrich the learning experience.

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to provide a general functional definition of pared-learning and to propose an implementation process that could be followed by institutions of higher learning.

Definition

In general paired-learning refers to the design of a coherent, equal status inter-disciplinary learning setting in which a one-to-one learning setting is created to foster collaborative learning under the guidance of a facilitator, without necessarily employing extra resources, and whereby the facilitator as well as the learners can intellectually, socially and emotionally learn from experiences shared through a process of academic engagement in order to enhance learners understanding of a subject or discipline. A form of tutoring is created whereby interaction and engagement is promoted.

In essence, therefore, paired learning is embedded in a social constructed interdisciplinary, inter-learning unit learning environment whereby a learner engage someone else in knowledge production, creation, improvement and innovation to accomplish more that what he or she was able to accomplish on his or her own. Following this learning approach, the learning structure approach of individual A is blend with the learning structure approach of individual B.

The process

In this section the process of establishing a paired learning environment will be briefly discussed.

1. Create a one-to-one learning setting

In its most ideal form two students should form a study team and should enroll for two or more similar courses at the university. This ensures that the learners are studying the same material. Through the creation of a one-to-one learning setting each student gets an opportunity to actively engage in the construction of knowledge in ways that require of them to learn together as a group. In this regard it is important to get learners to move away from “habit-learning” in which they are seeking the right answers to an approach in which they are urged to seek and develop generalized concepts and models that apply to concrete experiences and to master the ability of intelligent adaptability.

This however cannot be accomplished unless each member of the team does his or her part in the learning process. What is required is that each learner shares his or her experiences as it relates to the discussion or assignment against expectations, communicate with and learn from his learning companion, compare and interpret ideas, draw inferences and propose possible solutions to each other.

2. Paired students have to meet at set intervals under the guidance of a helper

The paired learners should remain together as an established learning community for at least a minimum period of time during the academic year and before re-allocation occurs. The paired learners should meet at regular set intervals; say two or three times a week for around two hours at a time.

These gatherings should happen under the guidance of a helper (teacher or senior student) that may lead the discussions occurring during the learning gatherings. The helper serves as a facilitator and counselor in order to ensure that the learning team remains focus in terms of the study material or assignment. The helper is amongst others responsible for moderating the discussions of the team learners and ensuring that each member of the team assumes their share in the learning process.

3. Discussions at gathering center around a central theme

Discussions and assignments need to be organized and co-coordinated around a central theme which will link the courses or different learning units and which will allow the learners opportunity to understand a specific theme in more depth and within a coherent interdisciplinary and/or inter-learning unit experience. Normally, the pair-groups are given a good deal of freedom in choice of activity, but the general theme of activity should be well defined. Giving the learners freedom in terms of how they would prefer to conduct the proposed activity creates a learning environment that builds on the strengths of individual learners as well as their innovativeness.

The theme “Transportation and destination development” may for example require that learners, source on information from logistics and tourism to pursue knowledge and arrive at a proper synthesis. Better results can be achieved if the theme for discussion is rather well defined, especially at the beginning of the programme, in order to ensure that learners are not overwhelmed by the complexity of the assignment or the information available on the subject matter. One may consider providing the paired-teams with baseline information materials to overcome initial concerns that sufficient material won’t be available.

4. Learning collaboration and coordination with a focus on learning development

Collaboration between educators involved in linked courses is essential to ensure that assignments and activities complement one another. Further, as the focus is on learning development, more that on specific learning outcomes, additional time demands will be placed on those involved, and therefore the introduction of “release-time” or recognition for lecturing-load should be given to those involved. It is further important to have at least one or two advisory committee meetings before the academic year commences in order to construct the assignments and to reach consensus on critical learning issues like ensuring that learners that learners discovers a body of knowledge that in itself is connected and that they are able to share this connectedness with one another.

5. Aim of the paired learning discussions and assignments

The principle aim of paired-learning is normally to discover novelties and secondary to verify what is already known. This gives recognition to the fact that learning is partially innate and partially learned from the social environment. Important to realize is that through pared-learning the learner is able to discover his or her own opinion and voice and will become more and more involved in their own learning. The output created is a diversity institution of higher learning within a traditional disciplined designed structure.

6. Monitor occurrence of learning development

Governance of the learning process, from the perspective of the institution of higher learning is essential to be sure that learning development did indeed occur in an efficient manner. Monitoring and evaluation of the learning process therefore depend on collecting information that could provide answers on:

• The initial intention with a particular assignment or discussion;

• Process dynamics during the execution of the assignment or discussion;

• Outcomes achieved;

• Learning that took place amongst learners, helpers and the educators;

• Comments made by all stakeholders involved in the process; and

• Performance results of learners.

Conclusion

Changing one’s own learning behaviour is difficult and often one tends to follow old habit-related approaches. . Through well-designed pared-learning an individual may gain new and enriched knowledge covering interdisciplinary domains that would not have been possible through individual learning methodologies. It creates an opportunity to discover novelty whilst validating current knowledge. Above all it gives an individual learner a voice to express him or her self and to learn according to his or her individual needs and aspirations. However, the success of the approach depends largely on the proper planning and execution by educators.

If you want to shorten your learning curve, become a reflective learner. Reflective learners are better at learning because they regularly look for opportunities to improve the learning process. They are also likely to use their new knowledge more effectively and purposefully. What distinguishes reflective learners? Here are few characteristics you want to cultivate to become a reflective learner:

- Motivation. When you are motivated, you see learning challenges as opportunities to perfect your learning skills.

- Curiosity. Inquisitiveness drives your mind to experience, explore and ask questions. It works up your learning appetite.

- Focus. Focus makes you persevere and stick to the subject matter until you get the results. When you are focused, you are more discerning and selective when it comes to information, and that helps to deepen your knowledge.

- Self-awareness. You should know what kind of learner you are and what learning strategies work best for you.

- Confidence. Don’t be afraid to fail. You want to be open to new ideas and approaches even if they involve risk. You should also welcome criticism because it helps you grow.

- Info-savviness. You need information processing and learning skills to be able to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and integrate new information.

One step you can take right now to become a reflective learner is to create your personal learning journal. A learning journal is a record of your personal learning experience. Here are a few suggestions on how you may want to approach it:

1. Identify the content of your learning. What is it that you want to know? Look at your current projects and goals and identify a learning component in them. For example, you want more clients. What do you need to learn to get more clients? Do you want to know how to market effectively on the internet? How to network? How to contact your strategic partners? You get the idea. Identifying a learning component in each task will force you to look at the efficiency of what you are already doing. Ask yourself what you can learn to become better at this task. Engage your curiosity. Record your ideas in your learning journal.

2. Write down the reasons why you want to learn those things. How does your learning fit into the larger context of your personal development, career objectives, and social life? You are more likely to focus on and achieve your goal if you have a reminder of why it is important.

3. Determine how you are going to accomplish your learning objectives. What experiences do you need to have? How do you develop the skills you need? Who can be your teacher / role model / mentor? Use your info-savviness as you create your own learning curriculum filled with activities that can boost your professional and personal development.

4. Measure you progress. How do you know that you have reached your goal? What are your milestones? Be confident enough to ask for feedback. Record your successes and challenges.

5. Reflect on your learning process. Practice self-awareness as you write down your observations of what works and what doesn’t work for you. How could you learn more effectively? Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:

- What confused you most?

- What is the best way to resolve your confusion?

- What key ideas and information did you learn?

- What surprised, dismayed, delighted you most in you learning experience?

- How does your learning relate to the larger context of your life and work goals?

- Have you learned any practical skills, ideas, tools, techniques that you can easily apply to real-life situations?

- Have you learned anything new about yourself, your interests, feelings, values?

- What helped your learning?

- What interfered with your learning?

- What should you do more of? What should you do less of?

- What is one thing (skill, habit, activity) you want to focus on next?

6. Search for ways to use and apply your new knowledge and skills. Stay confident in your abilities as you brainstorm new ways to use your knowledge. How can you learn more by doing?

7. Do freewriting. Have a section where you can record random comments and observations, clip images that appeal to you, write down quotations, ask yourself questions and just let your thoughts flow onto the paper without reservations. This will fuel your passion for life-long learning and self-improvement.

Knowing more than one language in today’s world is not so unusual. With cultural barriers coming down, and many people living in and visiting non-native countries, it makes sense to have at least a basic knowledge of one or more languages other than your native tongue. It has never been easier than it is today to learn a foreign language. Taking a foreign language course online is a convenient and even speedy way to learn another tongue for work, for travel, or for your own personal enrichment.

When you decide that you want to learn a foreign language online, you have several options available to you. You can enroll in an online college or University language program, and earn your degree in the foreign language of your choosing. If time is a factor, you can choose from many accelerated language programs offered online. If you choose to receive a degree in a foreign language, you will come away not only with a college education, but you will more than likely come away being fluent in the language you studied, both written and conversationally. This has many advantages for you career-wise. An accelerated course will probably give you a good basic foundation of a foreign language, which will be helpful in business-related travels.

The advantages of learning a foreign language for your career are numerous. Being fluent in a language like French, Spanish, or German will allow you to communicate with your peers and associates abroad, eliminating the need for a translator. Also, if your job demands that you be relocated abroad, learning the native tongue of the country to which you are transferring will ease your transition there. You will find the cultural differences far less stressful if you are able to understand what people around you are saying! In addition, learning a foreign language opens up whole new career paths for you. If you become fluent in one or more languages, you have the opportunity to be certified as a foreign language translator.

This challenging career opportunity requires you to be fluent in one or more language, and to be knowledgeable in another industry, such as law, healthcare professions, or business. Working as a translator, you would be bridging the gap between English and non-English speaking associates by converting documents of all types so that each party is able to understand them. In this position, you can work full-time for a larger firm, or you can strike out on your own as a freelance translator, and make your own work schedule and workload.

If you have plans to travel extensively to one or more countries, consider taking accelerated foreign language courses online. By learning the basics of a foreign language, you show cultural sensitivity by learning to communicate with locals in their native tongue. You won’t look like a typical tourist by carrying around a book, and you will be able to fully immerse yourself in the culture of the country you are visiting. Your travels will be more enjoyable and enriching. Leaving your comfort zone and learning another language is an ideal way to educate and improve yourself.

There are many advantages to learning a foreign language online. Whether you decide to enroll in a degree program or simply take a few accelerated courses, you will find that doing so online is very convenient. Often, courses are completed at your own pace, with no set class times. All work is submitted online, and you will find many opportunities to interact with instructors and peers. Additionally, if you are learning a foreign language for your job, many employers are willing to pay the tuition and fees for courses taken in relation to work.

So, whether you are being transferred to a new job abroad and you need to learn the native tongue or you are making plans to travel to another country in the future and want to be able to ask where the bathroom is in their language, learning a foreign language online is convenient and easy. Taking the time to learn a foreign language can ease the transition for you in a new position abroad, help you immerse yourself into an interesting new culture, and even provide you with new and interesting career opportunities.