Monday, March 03, 2008

Vocational training for self employment

One of my friends used to always say "It is better to own a small coffee shop, than work as a waiter in a 5-star hotel". In short he meant that it is always better to be one's own boss and give employment to few people rather than work under someone. Well to a certain it makes sense, when you are your own boss you can decide how much to work, how long to work and how much to earn. But when you are employed you are bound to the organisations rules and regulations, timings and will earn a specific sum month after month.

But my friend and millions of other entrepreneurs who have realised their dream of not working of someone and being on their own have realised the importance of getting trained in their line of activity. The training and learning is not a one time affair but continuous and repetitive. And once your business does well and you start employing more people, you will have to plan for different levels of training depeding on the staff you employ.

Supposing you are into a home maintenance and repairing business. You need to employ numerous tradesmen, masons, plumbers, electricians, technicians, flooring and roofing staff etc. Each of their training needs are different. How do you face up to the challenge of training and ensure that you retain and upskill all your staff? One simple and quick way is to hire an agency like Avand and outsource all your staff training needs. Avand is one enterprise with training agents across the UK and offers a slew of courses such as Plumbing Training, Electrical, sales, management, electricals, etc.

Personally speaking I have attended several training programmes to develop my skills. I have attended philatelic workshops, training programmes in gardening, mechanical maintenance etc. What I like the most about training programmes is their hands-on nature and interactivity. Most of the programmes take one away from the boredom of the classroom into the laboratory and workshops where real time projects keep trainees occupied. This kind of training is interesting to every participant and trainers also.

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