A range of practical training and people development workshops has gone online from a base in Grange-over-Sands, sharing 25 years of corporate training experience on a new platform.
Beth Pipe, aka The Nosey Hiker and Cumbrian Rambler, may be better known in Cumbria for her books, outdoors blog and Lake District Radio shows but her “day job” would normally involve delivering training courses in large businesses and organisations across the UK.
“That work came to a juddering halt in March as the implications of the COVID-19 outbreak became clear,” says Beth, “and that meant that I had little or no income for the foreseeable future. After the initial panic and dismay, I had to look at what I could do (rather than what I couldn’t) and putting my courses online in smaller chunks made sense.”
The result is OnLive Learning, which is aimed at both individuals and organisations looking to continue their training and development while people are working from home or self-isolating.
“I’ve invested in the professional software, which means that I can make the sessions as interactive and practical as possible without having participants all in the same room and I’ve had help from a few of my contacts and clients in testing the systems and fine tuning the approach,” says Beth. “OnLive Learning is set up for both PayPal payments and invoicing to businesses and I can even tailor the courses for an online version of in-house training.”
“The sessions are just 30 minutes or an hour at most,” she continues, “and I’m covering things like delegation and managing remote teams as well as 1-2-1 coaching and time management. Initially, I was running sessions at 9.30am but the feedback has shown that a lot of people would prefer to take part in something like this in the middle of their working day rather than the start so I’ve shifted more to 12 noon UK time. That’s one big advantage of the online approach – I can adapt and develop things as I learn from my clients.”
Information about the full range of OnLive Learning courses is, as you’d expect, online at https://cumbrianrambler.co.uk and it is very easy to book, pay and take part as there’s no subscription or software needed.
“It’s a case of so far, so good,” says Beth. “Feedback on the first few courses has been really encouraging, I have a couple of my corporate clients interested in buying into the idea for their staff and I am hoping that word will spread to others in the weeks ahead. I must admit, having a husband with a lot of IT skills has also been a lifesaver in setting this up so, as ever, thanks go to Steve behind the scenes too!”
