There is an art to being a great trainer or teacher; something our Train the Trainer facilitators know very well!  

If you look at the quotes below by some of the world's most respected scholars you can begin to understand what makes a great teacher or trainer so special. Note the reoccuring themes: 

• People learn by doing
• Great teachers can empathise with their audience
• It's not what you teach but how you teach it
• You cannot make people learn, you must help them discover
• Learners should be encouraged to feel emotion (you can make them laugh, surprise them, pull them in with a story)
• The teacher and learner is a two way relationship; engagement is key

So let's take a look at what some of the greatest ever minds have to say about teaching.

This week Adobe announced that they've now surpassed 1 million subscribers to Creative Cloud - the subscription-based package that replaced Creative Suite.

That's great news as our newest course - InDesign Interactive PDF Training - includes some great new interactive features only available on InDesign CS6 and InDesign CC.

In this post I'm going to cover one of the best new features of InDesign - Interactive Forms - as they are not included in our standard 2-day Interactive PDF course. If you would like a tailored course to include interactive forms then please call us on 01273 622272.

As well as some quick tutorials for adding different types of forms and buttons, I'm also going to run through some quick tips and considerations.

If you're more of an InDesign beginner then why not download our free InDesign Paragraph Styles eBook? It's great way to get to grips with one of the basic features of InDesign.

Six Sigma was initially developed within the manufacturing industry as a means minimise deficits. Today it is used in all sorts of industries (and there's a high demand for it as a qualification), from healthcare to sales. Our various Six Sigma Courses have been attended by firefighters, insurers and civil servants, just to name a few!

One particular tenet though, 5S, seems rooted in Six Sigma's manufacturing history. How can 5S, an idea coined orginally coined to improve the factory floor, be applied outside of manufacturing?

We asked some experts for their views and received some fantastic feedback. Thanks to all who responded and here's what they had to say.

InDesign is powerful, interactive and multimedia design software that can be used to create stunning documents for print and screen.

With such rich and potentially complex content comes the need for a means to share files easily and effectively. This is where packaging comes in.

On our Brighton-based InDesign Courses, you'll get to grips with the basics of InDesign, and we have a great eBook for you to download all about using Paragraph Styles in InDesign but here's a quick guide to using them on the latest Creative Cloud version of InDesign.

ITIL® is widely recognised as a best practice IT service process. Its implementation can be seen throughout some of the biggest companies and organisations in the world.

On our ITIL Foundation Course in Brighton, UK you'll find out about why ITIL is so effective as service strategy in organisations of all sizes, not just corporations but institutions as well.

ITIL has been implemented in Universities with much success. 

In fact, we've carried out ITIL training for quite a few higher education institutions here at Silicon Beach. In this post then, I'm going to run through an example of a University we have trained implementing ITIL and then go on to explain how other Unis throughout the UK have benefitted from ITIL.

In no small part due to Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric, Six Sigma is now considered a staple of good business practice with over half of all Fortune 500 companies employing the methodology

This was not always the case.

Although developed and used in manufacturing by firms like Motorola in the 1980s, it took for Jack Welch and General Electric’s adoption of the principles to really spark US and global interest in Six Sigma.

For that reason, Jack Welch has played a pivotal role in its development and building reputation.

So why exactly did his use of Six Sigma make all the difference?

On our range of Six Sigma Training Courses, you’ll learn about the modern day uses and how it can benefit your business.

Managers who know themselves well and who are aware of their emotions are in a better position to understand and empathise when managing others. This is something emphasised on many of our Management Training Courses.

So an important step to being an effective manager is self-awareness. This means, amongst other things, knowing:

• Your strengths
• Your areas for development
• Your positive and negative qualities
• Your prejudices
• Your feelings
• What effect you have on others

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Having to close a project earlier than anticipated can be a big disappointment and source of concern for Project Managers.

On the other hand, premature closure should be considered as a learning opportunity and even a chance to salvage useful products other than those planned.

With this in mind, the PRINCE2 methodology is focused on controlling every aspect of a project, including its closure, and gleaning as much use out of work done as possible.

Closing a project early can become the best course of action in a number of situations, e.g.

• If an unforeseen dependency comes into play
• If the budget for time or cost goes too far beyond agreed tolerance
• If the budget has to be reconsidered due to reasons beyond the project itself (e.g. programme or corporate budget cuts)