Tag Archives: Training and Development

Sad endings, Mary Poppins and shiny things

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Whether it’s dropping off the keys to my rented damp-ridden, avocado-bathroom-suite-complete-with-kitchen-cupboard-over-the-bathtub flat in Bracknell, leaving my Citroen Saxo with neon yellow and grey interior at the scrap yard because it had a tendency to be a bit of a death trap, or driving away from the boarding kennels as my cat gave me his best Puss in Boots wide-eyed pity face and I trundled off for a three-day conference in Belfast, I hate goodbyes.

So, with only a few short weeks of this KTP left, it’s probably no surprise that I have decided to break a Wisley tradition and not have a leaving do (let’s face it, we all knew it was never really up for debate). I’m going to do a Mary Poppins instead and steal away with my talking umbrella. But, besides wasting time stressing that whisperings in the corridors are preparations to ambush me with tea, cake and the horrifying words “speech, speech”, these remaining weeks have been very busy for the KTP team.

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Back to school

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As much as it may be cool to say I hated school, didn’t do my homework and never did any revision, it would be a lie. Keen as I may have been though, I wasn’t crazy, so on my last school day I appreciated the fact that I would never again have homework to do or exams to revise for.

Until last week, that is.

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P is for Publishing

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In an earlier post, I mentioned the KTP Training and Development budget which encourages Associates to develop their skills and knowledge to help them now as well as post-KTP. With June 2012 marking two years of our three-year KTP project, I decided to direct more attention to my training and development and, last Sunday, in search of new skills, I headed North.

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Newfound interests

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“Can you tell what it is yet?”

I am, at this very moment, shouting this Rolf Harris catchphrase at the computer screen whilst wielding a wobble board fashioned from an identification key to millipedes.

Those less eagle-eyed among you could be forgiven for mistaking the picture on the left for the iconic image of E.T. and Elliot whizzing across the night sky on a bicycle – all lit up by the glow from  a full moon. It isn’t, and my mention of the key to millipedes was a clue.  In fact, taken through the microscope, this is a picture of a male millipede’s external reproductive organs (known as ‘gonopods’) – important when identifying some species of millipede.

I can honestly say that when I started my KTP eighteen months ago, I didn’t think a millipede’s gonopods would prove so exciting but there we are.  KTP projects, I’ve realised, are great at providing you with lots of new skills. Skills that you may have expected, and others that come as a nice surprise.  Developing project ideas, costing projects, initiating them, managing them, communicating with stakeholders and pitching ideas are all skills that develop through training provided by KTPs, mentoring received from the KTP project team (which includes senior managers and academics from your company and knowledge base) and on-the-job learning. But there will be other skills that Associates pick up which are likely to be more project-specific.

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