where hospitality people meet

Student Training - Should there be more?

Recently i attended a Learn Purple course in London, which i had received at an event. I found when choosing the course that there were a wide range of areas that would be touched upon. Being a final year student i decided the most appealing course for myself would be ‘How to be a great first manager’, which turned out to be extremely beneficial. Learning about the way i and others could talk to employees to get the most out of them. Not only this but how to approach challenges which can arise in a first managerial position. It has certainly made me think about the way i approach both employees and tasks.

When talking to other students, i found that there were few who had been on courses like this. If i found this course beneficial why aren’t more students participating. Of course Universities do play a part in preparing students for industry, but do you think courses like this could enhance the quality of the future managers who have and will be graduating.

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Permalink Reply by Ben McEwen on September 29, 2009 at 1:45pm: Hi Jo

Great article and glad you enjoyed learnpurple! We use them for all of our training, and I understand you were lucky enough to have MJ! She is an absolute legend and has a very hands on approach to training. I guess the main reason students don't get the kind of access to courses like that is cost. To go on a course like that is not cheap, and also the time element; courses like that work best in smaller groups so imagine how many times it would have to run to get a year group through it! However at Brookes you are very lucky because learnpurple do contribute to the career planning module in the final year - so watch out! In the meantime keep an eye on the learnpurple website - lots of great training related blogs and articles from the purple people!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Joanne Brosnan on September 29, 2009 at 2:06pm: Hi Ben,

She was fantastic and an inspiration, certainly worth the journey.
As for cost can you put a price on your ability to be a great manager and to be as effective as you can when you leave University?
I'm looking forward to the career planning module and hope to get a lot out of it ready for next year!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jose Ruiz on September 29, 2009 at 6:28pm: I think that there is a lot of high quality training available to students and Learn Purple has a great reputation for their courses. I am not surprised to hear that you found it beneficial, Joanne.

Even though I am increasingly sounding more and more like my father, I would say: get as much training as you can while you are a student. I can guarantee you that you will soon see the benefits.

And share those courses you attend with the rest of the hotcatUK community, we are always on the look out for great training opportunities both for ourselves and our teams.

Thanks for sharing your experience.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ben McEwen on September 30, 2009 at 6:57am: Hi Jo

Interesting question about putting a price on being a great manager - unfortunately there is! However Jose is absolutely right, whilst you are a student you need to be a sponge and absorb as much training and experience as you can. Going back to the issue of cost the great news is that there is a lot of free training out there to be had aswell, especially for hospitality and tourism - Springboard UK and The National Skills Academy for Hospitality are doing great work at the moment to get free training opportunities out there - keep us informed!; ▶ Reply to This