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The British Library has recently reviewed its role in the provision of short courses. Courses that the Library currently provides are described and future plans discussed. It will concentrate on two types of course a) user education and b) disseminating its special library/information knowledge and experience to others in the library/information field. Little is known about the need for user education amongst different classes and level of user. The Library will therefore develop initially a programme of courses which extends its experience and aims to discover the needs of a range of different users.

BUSINESS SCHOOL GRAFFITI is a highly personal and revealing account of the first ten years (1965–1975) at Britain’s University Business Schools. The progress achieved is documented in a whimsical fashion that makes it highly readable. Gordon Wills has been on the inside throughout the decade and has played a leading role in two of the major Schools. Rather than presuming to present anything as pompous as a complete history of what has happened, he recalls his reactions to problems, issues and events as they confronted him and his colleagues. Lord Franks lit a fuse which set a score of Universities and even more Polytechnics alight. There was to be a bold attempt to produce the management talent that the pundits of the mid‐sixties so clearly felt was needed. Buildings, books, teachers who could teach it all, and students to listen and learn were all required for the boom to happen. The decade saw great progress, but also a rapid decline in the relevancy ethic. It saw a rapid withering of interest by many businessmen more accustomed to and certainly desirous of quick results. University Vice Chancellors, theologians and engineers all had to learn to live with the new and often wealthier if less scholarly faculty members who arrived on campus. The Research Councils had to decide how much cake to allow the Business Schools to eat. Most importantly, the author describes the process of search he went through as an individual in evolving a definition of his own subject and how it can best be forwarded in a University environment. It was a process that carried him from Technical College student in Slough to a position as one of the authorities on his subject today.

Evaluates a short course entitled: “The implementation of managerial techniques in primary and secondary schools”, which was addressed to the headmasters of the primary and secondary schools in Patras, Greece. The course was designed utilizing the principles of total quality and the evaluation is focused on the degree of achievement of the objectives through the analysis of quality factors such as participation, methodology, content, subject knowledge and teaching ability of the course deliverers. The evaluation is based on questionnaires that were completed by the participants at different stages of the duration of the short course. Proposes a list of parameters that have to be considered in designing short courses for adults who already have a long professional experience.

The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) commissioned a management training needs analysis of the 6,000 members in 1988. The objectives were to determine the specific management subjects required for further education and training of experienced graduate engineers and their preferred methods of learning. The survey commenced with pilot study interviews with professional engineers leading to a questionnaire sent to a representative sample of IPENZ members throughout New Zealand. The results showed strong agreement about the managerial content of most professional engineering work. They also indicated a large majority who recognised the need for further education in business management subjects. The analysis indicated the most preferred management subjects from a comprehensive list ranked by professional engineers: personal and interpersonal management skills; general management and decision making; individual, group and organisational behaviour; finance and accounting; personnel management; project management. The least required management subjects chosen from the list were quantitative methods and information systems. These management subject preferences are not satisfied by the majority of short management training courses presently offered to professional engineers.

IT is possible to look upon continuing education from a number of different perspectives. Some regard it as a method of personal self‐development, and what evidence already exists suggests that there is much truth in this. Some librarians would emphasise the need for staff to prepare themselves for new posts, or new responsibilities in their present posts; others will simply think of continuing education as a means whereby gaps in professional knowledge can be bridged. One of the many silly remarks in the Library Association discussion document, the Draft code of professional ethics, stated: “The librarian has … a continuing obligation in the interests of the client to keep abreast of developments and applications in all branches of professional practice in which qualifications and experience entitle him or her to engage”. The response of one department of library studies at least to the Green Paper pointed out the sheer impossibility of this—of doing a good job of work, eating, sleeping, looking after a family, and undertaking those high‐sounding social roles outlined in the foreword to the Green Paper, and keeping abreast of developments and applications in all branches of professional practice. All you can reasonably hope for is to keep abreast of what directly concerns you—and there may be a good deal of self‐development involved in that—and hope that one day there will be an opportunity to catch up or to extend your personal horizons.

The study explored whether an asynchronous short online course in mental health well-being and resilience for healthcare workers (HCWs) showed improved self-reported results among participants during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A descriptive cross-sectional study evaluated the course outcomes using the 10-item Connor and Davison's Resilience Scale, the World Health Organization's WHO-five well-being index and self-developed questions. Data were collected via online questionnaires before and after course completion.

A total of 1 301 HCWs participated. The highest proportion of participants was from South Africa (SA) (93.7%) and females (78.7%). Analysed mean pre- and post-training scores showed increased scores in all five domains: knowledge, confidence in course outcomes, behaviour, resilience and well-being. Confidence in the course outcomes was the only common significant construct for both well-being and resilience. Mindfulness activities (β = 0.12, 95%CI [0.032, 0.213], p = 0.008) and self-care behaviours (β = 0.14, 95%CI [0.035, 0.241], p = 0.009) were significant predictors of participants' well-being. Coping mechanisms for stress (β = 0.12, 95%CI [0.036, 0.21], p = 0.006) and connecting with a social support network (β = 0.085, 95%CI [0.0007, 0.17], p = 0.048) were significant predictors of participants' resilience. Those working in the private sector, those working in clinical settings and those who were female showed significant associations with well-being and resilience.

The results are self-reported data which may be susceptible to social desirability and acquiescent effects. There are no guarantees that positive effects observed during this study are sustained over time. The study sample was selective in that it excluded those who did not consent for the use of their data and those who did not complete the course.

The research is noteworthy as literature shows that female HCWs tend to have worse mental health outcomes than males in the same field. Online learning can enable HCWs to conveniently access mental health education, accommodate their work commitments and explore topics that are potentially stigmatising.

Following a brief introduction to the history of online and online training, this article surveys current training from the point of view of the trainers, the trainees and the media. The final section deals in depth with computer‐assisted instruction for online searching with examples drawn from a number of available packages. Some of the techniques, such as self‐testing and search simulations, as well as the advantages of this method of instruction are discussed.

The aim of the research presented here was to detect, in line with the European Union’s “Education and Training 2020” work program, the training needs of teachers and trainers working in the vocational education and training (VET) system in the Italian Region of Veneto to design courses, experiences and other training programs tailored to meet the needs emerged.

Four focus groups were including VET teachers and trainers were created, two before the construction and two after the online administration of an ad hoc questionnaire asking teachers and trainers to rate 67 competencies (43 for teachers, 24 for trainers) on the two dimensions of self-assessment (explicitly defined as the current level of mastery) and importance (explicitly defined as the expected level of mastery). Eight hundred twelve teachers and 166 trainers filled in the questionnaire which also asked them to give suggestions about the courses, experiences and other training programs to be designed.

In questionnaires, teachers and trainers declare they are competent enough to do what they do (self-assessment always obtains higher ratings than importance, except in one competence for teachers), even if in focus groups they say they want to be trained. Accordingly, they express a clear preference for short or very short courses, tailored on their specific needs and for training experiences and programs which are alternative to classroom training.

The research is a preliminary action to a European Social Fund project named “Training for trainers”, whose main aim is to give birth to courses, experiences and other training programs, specifically dedicated to VET teachers and trainers, to allow them to develop or refresh the competencies they feel they need for work. Besides, it allowed testing of the benefit of using mixed methods for a competence-based analysis of needs.

Data will be used to design courses, experiences and other training programs that really meet the needs of VET teachers and trainers in Veneto to tackle those aspects they consider really important for work in a lifelong learning perspective.

Much has been written on the subject of training evaluation but most has concentrated on whether trainees like the training and how much they have learnt rather than on the application of training results. Whatever is learned on a training course, however much and however useful it is, the problem still exists of transferring the learning from the course back to the workplace. Having observed the euphoric mood which overtakes trainees on the last afternoon of any course, and having read the highly favourable comments on the course appraisal sheets, it all seemed to me too good to be true. I decided, therefore, to find out whether learning was being effectively transferred to the workplace (if at all) and to what extent, in the belief that the end of a course should not mark the end of the training process but rather its beginning. According to Brethower and Rummler there are four potential levels of training evaluation:

English language teacher preparation has a relatively short history in Scotland's universities. This chapter outlines some of the contributions made by Scottish institutions and academics to English language teaching globally, including during the very early stages of English becoming a global language. Commercial influences on English language teacher education are outlined as an explanation for why programmes diverged from Initial Teacher Education (ITE) provision from the 1960s, including pressure from short-course teacher education and rising precarity of English language teachers. This chapter concludes with some encouraging work from foreign language teaching and Gaelic-Medium instruction, showing how English language teacher education may be able to rebuild connections to ITE to engage with the contemporary linguistic diversity in Scotland's classrooms.