I found this fascinating quote today:

Despite the recession, companies are spending millions on ‘pointless and ineffective’ training systems and elearning courses. Charles Jennings says it’s about time learning managers pulled their heads out of the sand.

trainingzone.co.uk, How not to train – read this before you waste more money |TrainingZone, Jul 2009

You should read the whole article.

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The 2009 Learning and Development survey provides data on current and future learning and development issues and trends. This year we have explored the areas of employee skills, talent management, coaching and technology as well as economic influences and training spend.

CIPD – Learning and development: summary of key survey findings.

So, it appears that social networking use might make your grades suffer!
I wonder how they compare to students who spend that same amount of time watching TV?

This little snippet stuns me:

According to the research, 79 per cent of Facebook-using students believed the time they spent on the site had no impact on their work.

now that is dumb!

Facebook students underachieve in exams – Telegraph.

12 Step Plan to getting engaged with social media.

A nice, simple and straightforward step plan for getting your head around using Social Media for learning from Jane Hart.

Pop into any bookstore and in the business section you’ll find at least fifty current books promising ‘instant success’ or the ‘4 steps to achieving your dreams’ or the ‘easy guide to getting everything in life you ever wanted’. A bright, cheerful picture adorns the front cover, often the author, who tells you that this book contains the secret that you have been seeking.

Distilled from many years of real life experience, I thought it time to let you know that there is no short-cut to your success. Sorry. There are a whole lot of myths and legends but as Seth Golden points out in Permission Marketing, “There’s no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Great firm’s don’t spring up overnight. They’ve been built the same way – bit by bit, step by step, little by little.
Is there a road to success?

There are many – and you may find that one of these great delusions promises so much more than someone else.

Many people start their journey along the ‘opportunity-leverage-productivity’ route. Parents seek and strive for their children to get into the best schools, gain excellent grades and hence be assured of a place at the best universities to gain a degree which will enable you to leverage your qualifications into a decent position and a fulfilling career. All you have to do is work hard, work harder and work some more – and you will succeed.

I believed it all too – then the company went bust, I was out of work and, at the time, no-one was hiring.

Attend a few events and be inspired with the latest ’secret of success’ seminar. Now all that is needed is the luck to meet exactly the right person at exactly the right time and get that deserved break…

It’s easy to let yourself drop back to ‘impossible’ and start to criticize anyone and everyone who appears to be succeeding in the very space you should be, because you really are far more deserving than they are…

I just haven’t met the right people yet. So sign-up for another networking group, exchange business cards, remember the adage ‘givers gain’, meet lots of new people. One of them, surely is the right person and I will be there at the right time. All I need is to be recognised for the brilliant, hard-working individual that I am and I will have my reward…