Tuesday 23 December 2008

Christmas Shopping-nightmare on the high street or a breeze online?

Claudia fell through her front door and dropped all her bags on the floor, immediately feeling the relief in her aching shoulders and hands. Her shoes are kicked off and she curses herself for the hundredth time that day for wearing heels to go Christmas shopping. A glance at her watch tells her that shes already late for meeting her sister Sarah for lunch and groans at the thought of going back out in the traffic.

5 minutes later the shopping bags are still taking up room in the middle of the hallway, Claudia has managed a change of clothes but a quick look in the mirror reveals her hair is in need of a brush and her cheeks are red from the after effects of tackling the high street, but as shes already late there's no time to sort herself out and she hurries out of the door.

When Claudia finally reaches the restaurant her sister is sat looking relaxed drinking a coffee and watching with mild amusement at the madness of the Christmas shopping going on around her.

Claudia apologises for being late and launches into a story about getting elbowed in the chest in a clothes shop, having trolleys rammed into her ankles in the supermarket and being hit on the head by an unidentified flying object in a toy store!

Sarah says that she too has done all her Christmas shopping that day. Claudia looks at her with disbelief and asks how she can look so relaxed whereas she looks and feels as though she’s been dragged through a hedge backwards! Sarah smiles and says simply ‘I did all my shopping online, no queues, no crowds or traffic jams, just me in the comfort of my own home, plus you can get fantastic bargains online, I read an article last week that said a YouGov survey estimated that 71% of Britain's will shop online this Christmas’

After lunch Claudia begins to think about what her sister said, and her own small business selling handmade cards and gifts, which were currently being sold in various tanning salons and hairdressers in her village. Her mind again flashes back to the chaos and misery she experienced on the high street and thought about the other shoppers she saw huffing and puffing their way through the shops. If so many people were deciding that online shopping was a better alternative then there was a whole world of opportunity for her to sell her products to.

Excited by this prospect she picks up the phone to discuss it with Sarah, who agrees it’s a fantastic idea. ‘The only problem Ive got is that I just don’t know where on earth to start!’ Claudia moans. ‘Ah’ says Sarah, ‘that’s where I can help, I know of someone who delivers a training course designed specifically to help people like you….’

See what happens next month after Claudia has attended the course and started to put into practice the things that shes learnt

Friday 19 December 2008

December 2008 New e-Learning Courses just added

Clear Learning have just added 8 new courses to their e-Learning repertoire. Though most of the courses are aimed at small business skills, there are some new Microsoft courses as well.
The new courses are as follows:

  • Emailing your Way to the Top
  • Lotus Notes 8.5
  • Innovation in the Workplace
  • Problem Solving through Productive Thinking
  • Time Management for Maximum Productivity
  • Windows Server 2008 Active Directory MCTS 70-640
  • Windows Server 2008 Applications MCTS 70-643
  • Windows Server 2008 Networking MCTS 70-642

Please visit the Clear Learning website for further information.

Friday 5 December 2008

Accessible LEARNing


Clear Learning is launching a new way to purchase online courses.  We now have packages available through selected retailers throughout the United Kingdom.

Our LEARN series is made up of five unique packages, that encorporate both business and personal training courses.

The packages available are:

  • Microsoft Technical – includes Microsoft courses such as MCSA, MCSD, and MCSE.
  • Business Skills – including Business Ethics, Customer Service, Fundamentals of Business Management, Negotiating, and Stress Management.
  • ECDL – The European Computer Driving Licence has 7 modules, including: IT Concepts, Word Processing, Spreadsheets and Databases.
  • Desktop Computing – this features Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Word, along with Lotus Notes and Quickbooks.
  • Web Development – with DreamWeaver, Flash, Java, Photoshop, PHP, and XML.

We want our courses to be accessible to everyone, including the High Street shopper and LEARN is the perfect way to do this.  Visit Clear Learning for more info.