Short Course Changes
As many of you will know, we've made a number of changes to our Short Courses over the last year or two. We've been responding to new needs by offering new (and shorter) workshops and responding to evidence that Short Course participants who are not supported after a workshop are unlikely to apply new skills at work and consequently the organisation sees no improvement in results.
With this in mind, we've been using our Kirkpatrick tools and methods, Workplace Application Tool, and post-programme reflection to improve application and results, and consequently value.
An underlying long-term trend of declining demand for Short Courses was present before our changes and is currently still with us.This is in line with the wider trend towards custom solutions, which is our primary business line. Short Course registrations are also being made later than previously – many in the two weeks prior to scheduled delivery dates.
For our clients, declining Short Courses demand and later registrations has meant uncertainty about whether or not a particular workshop will proceed as scheduled. We won't run workshops that have insufficient participants as this does not provide a good learning experience.
For us it has meant increased costs for promotion and administration and increased risk of reputational damage as the rate of cancellations and postponements has increased.
Our new way forward is to:
- recommend and provide custom solutions as the option that delivers best value for clients
- reduce the number of occurrences of individual Short Courses to aggregate more participants into fewer events
- review registration numbers 14 days before each scheduled occurrence and decide whether to run, postpone or cancel, and communicate that to registrants.
What does this mean for you?
- Talk to us about suitability of custom solutions for you.
- Plan ahead and complete your Short Course registrations early – Early Bird prices apply for registrations more than six weeks before scheduled delivery.
- Remain alert to the possibility of changes, especially when booking travel.
Above all, our commitment is to provide you with learning solutions and OD services that change workplace practices for the better and improve organisation results. Talk to us about making that real for your context.